CHARLOTTE — It all comes down to these final two weeks. The Carolina Panthers (8-7) are looking at an opportunity to make their first playoff berth since 2017, including with a chance to clinch on Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks (12-3) come to the Queen City. The Seahawks are looking to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff picture.

This will be the third time this season the Panthers will face the current top team in the NFC. In the two previous games, against the Packers in Week 9 and the Rams in Week 13, it was Carolina who came away with the close wins. If they do so again on Sunday, it will mark the first time since 2014 that a team notched three wins against top conference teams from Week 9 or later.

"I love these opportunities because it calls upon your best and it requires us to play our best football knowing we're playing an excellent opponent in the Seahawks and the football that they've been playing now for a while," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said Friday, while contemplating what it took to notch those huge wins. "So it calls upon that focus, it calls upon all of us playing together and doing right, and making sure that all of our basics, all of the calls, all the alignment, the information we're gathering before the snap, you know, it just heightens it.

"While I would love to—I try to frame every game that way so that our players can understand every game is a championship opportunity and some games you don't have to oversell. This is a great team coming in here and the guys respect that. They respect this opportunity, and that's the way we've attacked the work this week."

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Sunday's matchup, from the Sam Darnold deep passing game facing off against Jaycee Horn, to Bryce Young and Tetairoa McMillan continuing their connection, and more.

Panthers Passing vs Seahawks Secondary

One of the better matchups on Sunday will be Bryce Young and the Panthers receivers against a tenacious Seahawks secondary. Young and the receiving corps, led by Tetairoa McMillan and Jalen Coker, have been in sync lately, with Young averaging a 66.82 completion percentage over the last five games. He's also thrown 10 touchdowns to two interceptions in that span; McMillan has caught five of those 10 touchdowns as he strengthens his offensive rookie of the year campaign.

Young has attempted a deep pass (20-plus air yards) on only 7.9 percent of his attempts this season, the sixth-lowest rate among qualified quarterbacks.

Despite not throwing deep much, Young has been effective when doing so, posting a 45.5 percent completion percentage (fifth-highest) and 13.7 yards per attempt (seventh-most) on such throws.

His favorite target on deep passes has been the rookie McMillan, who has hauled in seven of his 18 deep targets from Young for 197 yards and four touchdowns this season.

The group will have one of its toughest tests this season. The Seahawks have fared well when tested deep this season, allowing a 31.5 percent completion percentage (ninth-lowest) and 8.9 yards per attempt (fourth-fewest). This is a Seattle secondary that includes Devon Witherspoon, with his 64 tackles, six passes defended, and a 69.6 completion percentage allowed while forcing a tight window on 26.1 percent of throws sent his way.

Panthers corner Mike Jackson was with Seattle when Witherspoon was drafted, and knew from the outset what the corner could become.

"Spoon is legit top 5," Jackson told reporters this week. "Like I told him, 'Bro, you're gonna be here for a long time.' I tried to give him everything I learned because Spoon is one of them dudes, that he's a real football player."

Josh Jobe has allowed the fifth-lowest completion percentage (47.6 percent) and the sixth-fewest yards per target (5.4) among cornerbacks with at least 25 targets in coverage this season.

Seahawks safety Coby Bryant left Seattle's Week 16 game against the Rams with a knee injury, and ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported he will miss time, effectively sidelining him for Sunday's game. Bryant did not practice this week and has been ruled out.

That still leaves a rookie safety, Nick Emmanwori, patrolling the secondary, though, and he's made teams pay there all season. Emmanwori, a South Carolina product, is third on the team with 71 tackles, and is tied with Riq Woolen and Jobe for a team high 11 passes defensed.

"He's an intelligent guy," Canales bragged of Emmanwori this week. "We had him here for a visit and got to spend some time with him.

"He's a guy that I knew would find a way to adjust to the game pretty quickly, but I got to give their coaching staff a lot of credit for being able to use him the way that they're using him, the versatility of roles that he plays, that takes a lot of work and that's a big responsibility for a young player…and they've done a great job of just continuing to grow that throughout the season."

The challenge and opportunity versus Sam Darnold

Some of the veteran Panthers' defenders spent a lot of time facing Sam Darnold during his two years in Carolina. Jaycee Horn was in his rookie and second year when Darnold was a Panther, but even years later, the corner isn't surprised by how the Seahawks quarterback has been playing lately.

"Sam always had some of the best accuracy and all the intangibles that made him a first-round pick," said Horn this week. "I think maybe, I don't know what it is, maybe the coaching he got over the past few years or him just seeing the game different has helped him play better, but yeah, he's a good guy, good quarterback."

Darnold established himself as a more than capable starting QB last year with Minnesota, and has built on that this season with the Seahawks. He is sixth in the league with 3,703 yards and has thrown 25 touchdowns.

"He makes the right decisions, puts the ball in the areas where it needs to be, and he has a great supporting cast around him," scouted outside linebacker D.J. Wonnum.

"So that also helps elevate the quarterback's play, but I just feel like he does all the right things, and just, it's showing up on the field."

Darnold is particularly lethal when throwing deep. According to Next Gen Stats, he has recorded a 54.8 percent completion percentage on deep passes (20-plus air yards) this season, the second-highest among qualified quarterbacks.

When throwing deep, Darnold has averaged 20.3 yards per attempt, the most by a qualified quarterback this season and the fifth-most in the Next Gen era (since 2016). He has also thrown for eight touchdowns (tied third-most) on throws over 20 air yards with only one interception.

The deep ball will be one of the more interesting matchups in this game because the Panthers have allowed a 32.4 percent completion percentage (tenth-lowest) against deep passes this season and 12.7 yards per attempt, just above the league average (12.1).

When tested deep, the group has allowed just two touchdowns (tied for the fewest) while recording a league-high seven interceptions. Horn has been targeted six times on deep passes this season, intercepting five of those and allowing the lone completion to go for a 62-yard touchdown. Horn's five deep interceptions are the most in the NFL; only three other players have more than two.

Darnold has already thrown 13 interceptions this season, including a league-high six interceptions against disguised coverage. He's also turned the ball over on 6.9 percent of his pressured dropbacks this season, the second-highest rate among qualified quarterbacks. He's thrown five interceptions (tied fourth—most) and lost four fumbles on strip sacks (second-most) when under pressure this season.

Jackson is tied for first in the league with 17 passes defensed this season, and has allowed the 13th-lowest completion percentage among cornerbacks with at least 25 targets this season.

The JSN problem

The list of adjectives to describe Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the Panthers locker room this week was long and effusive.

"He's got everything," said Horn of JSN. "He got great hands, great ball skills, good after the catch, so all of those things."

The third-year receiver is leading all pass-catchers in the NFL with 1,637 receiving yards. He's done it on 104 receptions (143 targets). He is second in the league, converting 71 passing first downs, and has hauled in 10 touchdowns.

"Smooth, can run all the routes and all to set people up," said Jackson. "He's a true number one receiver, like, he's one of them guys that he's going to find a way to get the ball. I think last game he had no catches in the first half but still finished flirting with 100 (he finished with 96 yards) . . . so, he's just a gamer."

The Panthers have used zone coverage at the highest rate in the NFL this season (84.6 percent), and deployed Cover 3 on 46.1 percent of their coverage dropbacks, the third-highest rate in the league. When playing Cover 3, the Panthers have allowed a 66.2 percent completion rate and 7.6 yards per attempt, aligning closely with league averages (67.3 percent, 7.6 yards per attempt).

But the Seahawks primarily use Smith-Njigba out wide, which he has done on a career-high 81.3 percent of his snaps this season (after lining up in the slot for over 73 percent of his snaps last season), and he has been targeted on 34.2 percent of those routes, the second-highest rate in the league. This means he'll likely be covered by Horn or Jackson, as opposed to another DB or a linebacker.

The Legion of Zoom

For one brief moment, when news broke that the Saints were trading Rashid Shaheed before the deadline earlier this season, it seemed as if the Panthers would receive the gift of not having to face the speedster this year. Then it was announced he was being traded to the Seahawks, and Carolina knew they would have to contend with the receiver and return guy who is an expert at giving defenses fits.

"Just shots down field, reverses, special teams," listed Jackson of all the ways Seattle will deploy Shaheed. "He's one of them, dudes that, you just get the ball in his hand, and you see when he gets the ball in his hand what he can do, so we just got to be ready."

On special teams, particularly, Shaheed has been a menace this season. He has a kickoff return for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown, the latter against the Rams in Week 15. He requires the utmost attention from the punting unit, something of which they are well aware this week.

"He's elite, obviously," said punter Sam Martin, who will be responsible for keeping the ball away from where Shaheed will want it on the field. "He's a top talent at the position. All these punt returners are elite athletes and elite returners. You kind of have to respect them all the same.

"Shaheed is one of the best, and he proves it every game. So, I have to hit good punts, look good, good hang time. Give the guys time to get down there, and we just got to keep leverage and attack the ball. You got to keep them in front of you and keep your leverage on it, and it starts with me and my punts."

The Dolphins/Bucs game

This one is a bit more literal, as many fans will likely actually be watching the Buccaneers face off against the Dolphins on Sunday afternoon. The two Florida teams face off in the same time slot as the Panthers-Seahawks game, so it's going to take a double-screen set-up, maybe a picture-in-a-picture, quick fingers on the remote, or—if you're in the stadium—one eye on your phone.

Because if the Panthers pull off their third win against a top seed this season on the same day the Bucs take their seventh loss in eight games, then the NFC South will be decided Sunday.

Canales was very clear that he and his team will not be scoreboard watching during Sunday's game, telling reporters, "We can't approach it that way. We have to make sure, especially for us — I appreciate the question — but as we're trying to create consistency in our product of what we do on the field, game in and game out, that's what we're after, and that's what's out there for us to find our best football.

"I'm trying to win this down. I'm trying to win this series right here, and we all have to be locked in there. We can't afford to do that in the place that we're in, collectively as a team. We have to continue to find consistent football."

Bryce Young admits this is his first time in such a situation, so the act of scoreboard watching is a bit foreign. But he echoed his coach's sentiment that this is a team that has to find its own consistency before it can worry about others.

"We have a ton of respect for the Seahawks, for our opponent," said Young. "We don't have that luxury, can't look over our shoulders, we can't worry about what if. We have our hands full, making sure that we're the best we can be throughout the week and obviously on Sunday, being locked in as much as possible."

That doesn't mean that the rest of us can't cut our attention here and there to a certain score in South Florida.