Fans react to Panthers-Seahawks matchup

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman (25) points up during a post game news conference after an NFL wild-card football game against the Minnesota Vikings, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Minneapolis. Seattle, which won a game for the ages in Minnesota on Sunday on a missed 27-yard field goal, is riding house money.

The Panthers are focused on their opponents, the Seattle Seahawks, for Sunday’s playoff game and the fans say they are too – showing their Panther pride this week leading up to the big game.

That includes a two-TD performance in a Week 13 win over the Raiders in which Maclin caught a remarkable nine-of-10 targets.

Russell Wilson #3 of the Seattle Seahawks scrambles from the Carolina Panthers defense in the 3rd quarter during the game at Bank of America Stadium on October 26, 2014 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But both teams enter Sunday’s game in different standing than their meeting a year ago, and Panthers safety Roman Harper has no trepidation about facing the two-time defending NFC champs, per Steve Reed of the Associated Press.

In fact, they’re pretty confident. We were excited to be there.

Green Bay will fly out to much warmer climes, heading to Arizona to face the Cardinals. We were excited to have a ticket to the dance past year.

Rookie linebacker Shaq Thompson, Carolina’s first-round draft pick, played a crucial defensive role in the Panthers’ victory earlier this season. Before that they had lost four times in three seasons to the Seahawks, including 31-17 in the divisional playoffs last January in Seattle. But Panthers head coach Rivera said that game was a crucial step in his team’s emergence as an National Football League power and he’s not alone in that assessment.

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images Tom Brady will lead Patriots into divisional playoff battle against surging Chiefs where a victory could set up another AFC title game against Peyton Manning. Not because they played poorly, but because the Vikings put themselves in a spot to win and should have.

Harper even called it “fate”.

The Vikings overtook the Packers in the North, but Green Bay reached the playoffs once again, and the Redskins capitalized on a bad division and a good quarterback decision to return to the postseason party. We want things the easy way and stuff to be given to us. We’ve seen this team go from 500,000 Twitter followers to 1 million in the span of six months. That’s the way we are in our society – we want things the easy way and we want stuff to be given to us.

So if Carolina is the better team, they’d better be ready to prove it on Sunday. And I don’t think that’s the way it should be done. Challenge yourself to be the best. The Panthers’ come-from-behind win at CenturyLink Field snapped their five-game skid in the series and provided the biggest confidence booster of a historic season. Carolina finished sixth in scoring defense and total defense, first in interceptions, first in turnovers and fourth in rushing defense.