You act like Carolina doesn't have any talent. We lost 4 consecutive games last season by a TOTAL of 12 points. Hell, we were a Cam skipped pass into the ground from beating the Chickens last season. The talent differential between the Hawks and Panthers isn't some vast gulf.
No, I'm acting like:
A) The Seahawks are a team built from scratch over the past three years.
B) Only one of which was with the current starting QB, who spent the first half getting up to NFL speed.
C) 4 of the 5 road losses last year occurred during that first half.
D) One of those was not the Panthers.
Whether we perform or not this Sunday doesn't really follow the trends you cited, and like I said, it'll have more to do with our offensive line getting its act together in time.
But, yes, I am saying that it's our game to lose. Those close games strike me as more Ron Rivera's inability to put games away rather than some string of bad luck.