{"id":30633,"date":"2016-01-13T09:04:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T17:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/panthers-harper-on-seahawks-we-are-the-better-team\/"},"modified":"2016-01-13T09:04:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T17:04:59","slug":"panthers-harper-on-seahawks-we-are-the-better-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/panthers-harper-on-seahawks-we-are-the-better-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers Harper on Seahawks: ‘We are the better team’"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014<\/strong> The Carolina Panthers no longer appear apprehensive about playing the two-time defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n

In fact, they\u2019re pretty confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the better team,\u201d Panthers safety Roman Harper said matter-of-factly Monday.<\/p>\n

Now Harper wants his teammates to prove it again Sunday when the two teams meet in Charlotte in the NFC divisional playoffs. The winner advances to play the Green Bay-Arizona winner for the NFC championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to go out and show confidence in who we are and the things that we have done all year \u2014 and don\u2019t shy away from the pressure,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n

The Panthers (15-1) took a big step forward when they went to Seattle and defeated the Seahawks 27-23 in Week 6, a victory that served as a springboard to their 14-0 start.<\/p>\n

But it was more than just that.<\/p>\n

That victory was about clearing a major obstacle for the Panthers. Before that they had lost four times in three seasons to the Seahawks, including 31-17 in the divisional playoffs last January in Seattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells you it can be done,\u201d Panthers coach Ron Rivera said of his team\u2019s confidence-building win in October.<\/p>\n

The Panthers and Seahawks appeared to be on a collision course for the playoffs the final two months of the season. Several players said after that win they expected to see the Seahawks again in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Harper even called it \u201cfate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Panthers fans groaned on social media Sunday when Minnesota\u2019s Blair Walsh missed a chip shot field goal that would have eliminated the Seahawks from the playoffs \u2014 and possibly given the Panthers a potentially easier road to the NFC title game by playing Green Bay rather than Seattle.<\/p>\n

But Carolina All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman, who is no stranger to overcoming big obstacles in his career, said that\u2019s not the approach the Panthers are taking this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you want anything in life that is easier?\u201d Norman said. \u201cShoot man, if you don\u2019t go for it head-on, then how can you say you\u2019re the best at anything? That\u2019s the way we are in our society \u2014 we want things the easy way and we want stuff to be given to us. We don\u2019t want to work for it. We want it handed to us. I don\u2019t think that is the way it should be done. … Challenge yourself to be the best. And if you want to be the best, then go beat the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper said the Panthers are better prepared for the Seahawks in this year\u2019s playoffs than they were last January when they reached the postseason with a 7-8-1 record.<\/p>\n

Carolina finished first in points scored on offense this season and led the league in takeaways.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you I don\u2019t think we were ready for it,\u201d Harper said of last year\u2019s playoff defeat. \u201cWe were excited to be there and have a ticket to the dance. (This year) we have a better looking date because we\u2019re 15-1 and at home. This year we are looking forward to them having to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers have not lost at home since Nov. 16, 2014 \u2014 a string of 11 straight games. That\u2019s the longest home winning streak in the NFL.<\/p>\n

They will have to win two more games to get to where they ultimately want to go \u2014 the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team is built for this,\u201d Harper said of a Panthers team that has eight All-Pros, including six on the first team. \u201cThis team is built for this playoff run and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing who we are going to rise up to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 The Carolina Panthers no longer appear apprehensive about playing the two-time defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks. In fact, they\u2019re pretty confident. \u201cWe are the better team,\u201d Panthers safety Roman Harper said matter-of-factly Monday. Now Harper wants his teammates to prove it again Sunday when the two teams meet in Charlotte in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":30634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30633"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}