This week’s game is a family affair

These teams know each other too well to like each other

Since Cam Newton and Russell Wilson took over their respective teams a year apart from each other, they have played seven times. That includes twice in the playoffs. Wilson leads the series 5-2. This game might as well have been scheduled for Thanksgiving since the Seahawks and the Panthers are cousins who only see each other about once a year.

The younger cousin, in this case, holds a historical edge but that doesn’t mean the teams are that different. Both are led by defensive minded head coaches who struggle to run the ball as successfully as they would like. Both are captained by mobile quarterbacks who left college with equal measures of talent and doubt. Neither quarterback won a national championship for NC State. This list is virtually endless.

The teams don’t just look alike, they play alike and the play like each other’s closer relatives. Bobby Wagner is a poor man’s Luke Kuechly, Eric Reid used to be the Seahawks’ neighbor, and both teams are limping into the wild card race this season off of a middling 2-2 stretch over their past four games. Their defenses both lit up the league with turnovers to start the season and have struggled to generate more in recent weeks. The Seahawks got swept this year by their outrageously productive division rival, the Los Angeles Rams. The Panthers haven’t technically played the Saints yet, but they aren’t kidding anybody who isn’t kidding themselves. Another endless list.

The only real difference is that Wilson gets more credit for his work from the national media (though they still reduce a lot of his offensive success to option football, just like with Cam). I think that is just because he fits in the same box as Drew Brees, so to speak. The family resemblance is striking. Brees and Wilson both have higher than expected ceilings, compared to their draft profiles, and a Super Bowl victory under their belts. That can leave the older cousin here feeling a little chippy.

There is blood between these teams, and national slights besides, but does that matter? Absolutely. The Panthers have looked disinterested in playing successful football for two weeks now. They still have what can only be described as an outside shot at the play offs in spite of their current position as the 5th seed in the NFC. They need to win every game remaining on their schedule that isn’t the Saints to keep that spot and they are going to have to fight some good teams to do it. That starts with the Seahawks. If they can’t get it up for a team that has bloodied their nose more than once in recent memory then they are lost in more ways than one.

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