On Deck: Seahawks at Panthers

On Deck will be here all season to provide you with everything you need to know (and a few things you don't) about every postseason game during the 2015 season.

The Teams: The red-hot Seahawks barely scraped by the Vikings last week, thanks to an unlikely field goal miss, and the Panthers enter the playoffs coming off a first-round bye and the league's best regular-season record at 15-1.

Past Meetings: The teams have met 10 times, and the Seahawks have won seven of them, including a 31-17 win in the Divisional Round last season. The Panthers beat Seattle 27-23 earlier this season in Seattle. Now, the Panthers get them at home.

Who's Hot: The Seahawks scored all 10 of their points in the fourth quarter and held off a late rally to beat the Vikings 10-9 in frigid conditions on Sunday. Christine Michael rushed for 70 yards as he remained the starter after Marshawn Lynch decided he couldn't go, and Doug Baldwin continued his touchdown-catching ways with a fourth-quarter touchdown to get the Seahawks on the board.

Cam Newton was fantastic in the Panthers' Week 17 win over Tampa Bay to secure homefield throughout the playoffs. He was 21-for-26 for 293 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions while also rushing for two short touchdowns to cap his likely MVP season.

Who's Not: It's hard to quantify given the insane weather conditions last week, but Russell Wilson's streak of being the best quarterback in football ended as he completed just 50 percent of his passes for 142 yards, a touchdown and a pick. Don't expect it to continue, though.

The one chink in the Panthers' armor seems to be their running game. They can't rely on Newton to do it all because if he goes down their goose is cooked. With Jonathan Stewart out, it's meant a lot of Mike Tolbert and rookie Cameron Artis-Payne.

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