How loud is the crowd at Seattle? It’s so loud that it’s hard for teams who play there to simulate the noise when practicing to play there.
The Panthers tried to do it on Tuesday. But according to a member of the Panthers who played for the Seahawks, it still wasn’t loud enough.
“The noise, it’s very hard to duplicate,” defensive tackle Colin Cole said, via David Newton of ESPN.com. “It’s not something that is duplicable unless we have a dome and you’re pumping noise in throughout the entire dome.
“The crowd noise we have is an opportunity to give guys a taste of what’s going to come. But I’ve been there when they’ve been on 10 and you can’t hear the person next to you talk”
So how was the effort to simulate the noise?
“It was good,” Newton said. “It wasn’t quite there.”
The Panthers haven’t played at Seattle since a disastrous 2-14 season in 2010. Each of the last three years, the Seahawks and Panthers have engaged in close, low-scoring games at Charlotte. In 2012, Seattle won, 16-12. In 2013, the Seahawks prevailed by five points, 12-7. This season, Seattle won another close one, 13-9.
While the sluggish showing from the Seahawks came in the second game after the Percy Harvin trade and the ensuing questions and leaks about internal dysfunction and drama, the Panthers were in the middle of a two-month winless streak. So both teams are now better than they were on October 26.
Still, the Panthers will have to be a lot better if they hope to keep it close in Seattle.
