Can the Seahawks "Kelly Jennings" the Panthers?

Help me Braylon Edwards, you're NOT my only hope!

I've got a buddy who graduated from the University of Miami.  Every Sunday whenever an ex-Hurricane does something noteworthy we'll glance over at each other and simultaneously (there goes that word again) yell "From the U!"  Doesn't matter who the guy is, how insignificant of a player he is, or how much he's sucked before hand, this is our tradition.  I'm sure there's thousands of ex-Canes doin the same thing out there all thanks to Michael Irvin.  However, there's one man who NEVER got a "from the U!" (more like F U!) from me during his time with the Seattle Seahawks and in fact I'm quite sure my friend would rather forget that his glorious (can you feel the sarcasm?) alma matter produced this guy either..  of course I'm talking about Kelly Jennings!  

Teach me how to Jennings, teach me teach me... nevermind

Jennings was actually a pretty decent cover corner and always surprised me with his ability to step up and tackle in the running game, but he'll always be remembered by the 12th Man for his horrible inability to locate the ball in the air and make a play on it.  Geez, it's frustrating just thinking about it years later!  I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking why am I administering this sick sense of cruel and unusual punishment, but don't worry there's a point.  When I look ahead to this Sunday's game against the Panthers I see a few notable mismatches that the Seahawks should be able to exploit on offense and on the defensive side of the ball.  The run game should be able to  bludgeon the Panthers weak run defense to death and if that happens they should be able to control the game and limit the amount of opportunities for one Cameron Jerrell Newton, no doubt an electrifying player unlike any quarterback the league has seen before.  No disrespect to Newton and the Panthers, whom I deeply respect as a team ever since my father bought me that Tim Biakabatuka jersey over a decade ago, but this is a contest where if the Seahawks play their game they should be able to win.  Which brings me back to our favorite anti-hero, Kelly Jennings.

I still have nightmares of Larry Fitzgerald, Marques Colston, and Vincent Jackson (to name a few) high-pointing the ball and leaping to make the insane catch over a defenseless Jennings who more often than not had his back turned to the play and hadn't even jumped to contend the pass.  You really couldn't blame the guy for opposing offensive coordinators being smart and repeatedly targeting him with their taller receivers.  The only reason why I thought of Jennings in the first place is because while I was scanning the Panthers roster I noticed that all the Panthers DB's/LB's are fairly short in comparison to the Seahawks TE's/WR's.  With Chris Gamble (6'1") out the size advantage the Seahawks will possess on offense becomes even more noticeable.  Here's a look at the Panthers DB's and LB's and their respective measurables.

CB Captain Munnerlyn (5'8"/190 lbs)
CB Josh Norman (6'0"/195 lbs)

CB Josh Thomas (5'11"/190 lbs)

S D.J. Campbell (6'0"/200 lbs)

S Charles Godfrey (5'11"/210 lbs)

S Colin Jones (6'0"/205 lbs)

S Sherrod Martin (6'1"/200 lbs)

S Haruki Nakamura (5'10"/205 lbs)

LB James Anderson (6'2"/235 lbs)
LB Jon Beason (6'0"/235 lbs)

LB Thomas Davis (6'1"/235 lbs)

LB Luke Kuechly (6'3"/235 lbs)

LB Kenny Onatolu (6'2"/235 lbs)

LB Jason Phillips (6'1"/240 lbs)

LB Jordan Senn (5'11"/225 lbs)

The Panthers also have old friend CB Ron Parker (6'0"/205 lbs) on their practice squad and it is possible that they could call him up for this game with Gamble hurting and a limited number of healthy pure Corners.  What's also interesting and kind of creepy, to me at least, is that 5 of the 7 Panthers LB's weigh 235 pounds, according to their team website.  Something tells me somebody got lazy, but I digress.  Anyway, that's a fairly undersized secondary.  Then compare that to some of the Seahawks WR's and TE's and you'll see an excellent opportunity for the Seahawks to right years of Kelly Jennings' wrongs...

WR Sidney Rice (6'4"/202 lbs)
WR Braylon Edwards (6'3"/214 lbs)

TE Zach Miller (6'5"/255 lbs)

TE Evan Moore (6'6"/250 lbs)

TE Anthony McCoy (6'5"/259 lbs)

You see that Rookie Luke Kuechly, the highly touted MLB from Boston College,  and ex-CFLer Kenny Onatolu, the Panthers version of Brandon Browner in a way, are the only guys with the size to match up with their larger counterparts.  It should be noted that both players are known for their stellar pass coverage skills, however the Seahawks should be trying to run a lot of 3 TE sets to ensure that one of the TE's is always matched up with a much smaller defender.  When I watched the Giants play the Panthers two weeks ago, it was easy to notice the dominance of Ramses Barden and Martellus Bennett, especially in the red zone.  Both players stand in at 6'6" and both absolutely shredded the Panthers secondary, boxing out smaller defenders and plucking balls out of the air at will.  Interestingly enough, the Giants utilized bruiser running back Andre Brown to perfection to set up the pass.  The Seahawks of course, have their own bruiser(s) in Marshawn "Money" Lynch and Robert "Hold my" Turbin.  The blueprint for success against this Panthers defense is out there and it's one the Seahawks should follow.  The Giants used their size advantages to simply overpower the Panthers and forced Cam Newton to play from behind all night in what was one of Newton's worst performances in the NFL.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Evan Moore, who is practically the same size as Giants TE Martellus Bennett, scores his first touchdown with the Seahawks and has a breakout performance.

Let's see if Darrell Bevell, Russell Wilson, and co. can finally put it together, take advantage of the obvious size and experience mismatches and dominate an opposing defense.  We saw it happen in the 2nd half of the game against the Cowboys, hopefully this week the Seahawks can put it together for 4 dominating quarters.  I still think this will ultimately be a close game.  I need the Seahawks to prove to me they can execute their offensive gameplan and win on the road this season before I start predicting blowouts and such, but if all goes right this game does have the recipe for a Seahawks blowout victory. If they follow Tom Cable's creed "You run to win, but you throw to score" this week, their redzone bugaboos should be solved and the running game and defense should be able to take this team to 3-2 and heading home to face New England.

What do you think 12's?