CHARLOTTE, N.C. – This is K.J. Wright's ninth NFL season. In his 125 games prior to Sunday's contest against the Carolina Panthers, the Seahawks linebacker had posted three career interceptions.

Then Wright had two in a 10-minute span in Week 15, helping Seattle claim its 11th win of the season in a 30-24 victory at Bank of America Stadium. Wright picked off Kyle Allen late in the third quarter on a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage by Poona Ford. On Allen's very next pass attempt, Wright intercepted him once again as the benefactor of Jarran Reed's quarterback pressure.

Wright revealed postgame that he knew his big game was coming.

"It was just my day," the linebacker said. "It was really crazy. I had a dream that I had two picks. Y'all may not believe me, but I really had a dream that I had two picks."

While the takeaways were impressive, Wright's return skills left plenty to be desired. On his second pick, instead of running up the left sideline, he tried to cut it back across the middle of the field. Wright tried to hurdle a player to no avail and ultimately lost a yard on the return.

"My hands are good. My return skills are a little suspect," Wright said self-deprecatingly.

Bobby Wagner jumped at the opportunity to pile on.

"If he would have went to the left, he probably would have had a touchdown," Wagner said. "Instead he tried to jump over somebody. That didn't work out so well."

Wright's gaffe aside, Sunday was a huge day for Seattle's linebackers in a game where the Seahawks needed their two defensive leaders to step up. Wagner grabbed his first interception of the season and rookie Cody Barton recorded a career-high 10 tackles.

Those three helped keep Seattle's defense afloat despite entering the game without four starters: Mychal Kendricks (hamstring), Shaquill Griffin (hamstring), Ziggy Ansah (neck) and Jadeveon Clowney (illness/core).

"We had to put it on our shoulders today, so we made it happen," Wright said. "We've had years where we've had a lot of injuries but having six down was really tough. I'm hoping we can nurse those guys back to health."

The Seahawks then lost Quandre Diggs to an ankle injury at the beginning of the third quarter and had a scare with Wagner midway through the fourth. Wagner's right leg got caught underneath him as he bent back awkwardly while getting blocked. He stayed down for a few moments before walking off under his own power.

"Definitely don't want to see that," Wright said. "Thankfully he was able to walk off. He said it's not that bad."

Wagner told reporters the same thing postgame – that he's "fine."

Losing Wagner would have been catastrophic. Carolina scored two quick touchdowns once Wagner exited and made the game far closer than it should have been. The Seahawks were scrambling to get lined up correctly in a whirlwind of personnel rotations that led to communication miscues.

Every Seahawks fan watching the game had that feeling of "here we go again" as they braced themselves for yet another heart attack. The offense closed things out once Carolina cut the lead to just six.

Seattle is now just the second team in NFL history to win 10 one-score games (defined as eight points or less) in a single season (1978 Oilers). The stat is double-edged. The Seahawks are undoubtedly impressive late in games, but they also let bad teams hang around far too long.

"We've got to finish way better than that," Wright said. "It was way too close. If the offense didn't get the first down, we would have had to go back out there. We've got to finish much better so we can feel really good about our win."

Up next for Seattle is a Week 16 home game against the Arizona Cardinals. That matchup, especially given the mounting injuries on defense, is likely to be just as turbulent as what you watched on Sunday. Buckle up.

Carolina Dreamin: K.J. Wrights dream predicted his two-interception game vs. Panthers originally appeared on NBC Sports Northwest