Defensive backs Tre Boston and Bené Benwikere helped the Panthers make a late-season rally into the playoffs. Saturday night, they found themselves on the wrong end of plays that helped knock Carolina out of the postseason.

Both rookies were beaten for first-half touchdowns after Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson got the ball out ahead of a pair of Panthers’ third-down blitzes.

“They caught us in pressure on both of those, and the young guys lost sight of the ball,” coach Ron Rivera said. “Tre kind of looked down inside. I think Tre might have been expecting a slant and he didn’t expect the ball to be thrown up like it was.”

“I think Bené got crossed up a little bit. I thought that Bené was a half a step away, he just never saw the ball.”

Boston admitted his mistake happened after he was caught looking in the backfield to see if Wilson had thrown the ball. When Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin put a double move on Boston, the safety was too late to react.

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“[Wilson] just lobbed it up there. Nothing spectacular. Just a good throw, good catch. I could have played it a little better,” Boston admitted.

The Panthers countered the Seahawks’ opening score with a touchdown of their own, but Seattle went ahead for good on its next drive.

After he was crossed up, Benwikere closed back in to put decent coverage on Jermaine Kearse, but Wilson had just enough room to drop in a lob to his receiver. Even though it appeared Kearse pushed off to gain additional separation, Benwikere wasn’t ready to use that as an excuse.

“I could feel his arm, but at the same time, I don’t know if he really pushed off like that,” Benwikere said. “I was trying to track the ball, so as I’m trying to track the ball, I’m not worried about what he’s doing. The quarterback was able to float it just a little bit past where I could get my hands on, it and he made a great catch.”

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While Boston and Benwikere could have done better on the respective touchdowns, both plays also featured perfect passes from Wilson. Ultimately, it wasn’t the best ending for the pair of rookies, but at least their previous five weeks of solid work proved they can play.

“We had a lot of young guys playing for us out there. We’ve got to learn from this,” defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said. “The good teams build on this, and that’s what we’ve got to do. The teams that show up every year and get back to this spot and win these games and get to that next level.”

“We’ve got to build on that for the future and use this experience as a learning tool for us as we move forward.”

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