RENTON, Wash. — And so the road to a repeat begins for the Seattle Seahawks.

Only, the Seahawks say that one of the keys to reaching this position — holders of the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs — is that they decided to stop thinking about repeating last year’s success, instead focusing simply on winning this year’s Super Bowl.

“It’s a new year to try to prove ourselves,” quarterback Russell Wilson said.

That it is about themselves also is a theme of the week in Seattle, where the Seahawks are as much as an 11-point favorite against the Panthers. Carolina sneaked into the playoffs with a 7-8-1 record to win the NFC South and then beat the Arizona Cardinals in the wild-card round, 27-16.

That has many around the NFL viewing the Seahawks as already having nearly punched their ticket to the NFC title game next week.

However, the Seahawks may be warier than most about the Panthers based on three tough games played against Carolina the past three seasons.

The teams met each of the past three years in Carolina, and each game had a similar feel, with Seattle winning defensive struggles that went down to the final minutes: 16-12 in 2012, 12-7 in 2013 and 13-9 earlier this season.

“A really rough, rugged football game, and we were very fortunate to get the win,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said of the most recent meeting.

That game came on Oct. 26, when each team was in the midst of a midseason swoon. Seattle had lost two in a row for the first time since 2012, while the Panthers were in the middle of what became a seven-game winless streak.

Both teams righted their ships late in the year, and they entered the playoffs as two of the hottest teams in the NFL — Seattle on a six-game winning streak, and Carolina on a five-game run counting the wild-card victory.

While Seattle credits better health and some team meetings held after a loss to Kansas City for getting the team back on track, the Panthers made some substantial personnel changes on the offensive line and in the secondary that produced marked results.

“They have done a similar turnaround that we feel like we did at midyear,” Carroll said. “We know that there is a lot of value in that and the motivation that comes from playing like that and performing like that.”

Seattle comes in riding a historic defensive streak, having allowed just 39 points in the past six games — the fewest in a six-game, season-ending stretch since the 1976 Steelers.

The offense also rediscovered its identity down the stretch to finish with the most rushing yards for any team in the NFL since 2006.

That running-game-and-defense formula is one that the Seahawks think can again work well in the playoffs.

–This is the ninth all-time meeting between the teams. The Seahawks lead the series 6-2. The teams played seven times in the regular season and once in the playoffs. Seattle beat Carolina 34-14 in the 2006 NFC Championship Game at CenturyLink Field. The Seahawks won all four games they played against the Panthers since Pete Carroll became coach in 2010. That includes wins in each of the last three seasons in Charlotte, capped by a 13-9 victory there on Oct 26.