Pounding Panthers Chronicle: Week 7
Week 6 Recap:
This past Sunday in Bank of America Stadium we witness a game that was a cauldron of different emotions. Sam Darnold would go out and throw an interception on the first play of the game for the Carolina Panthers. The Vikings were able to covert the immaculate field passion into a field goal to take the early lead. The defense came out showing its teeth in the beginning, relinquishing only 17 yards on the Vikings opening drive, and then it was the Panthers’ turn to get involved in the turnover department. It would be first-year Panthers CB A.J. Bouye with a strip tackle on second year wide receiver Justin Jefferson. The fumble was scooped up by another new face to the organization but one that is making a home here in Carolina. Hasson Reddick recovered the fumble before motoring 22 yards and gave his team’s offense the ball setup inside the redzone. This led to a two yard run by Chuba Hubbard for a touchdown preceded by a sixteen yard pass to fellow running back Shi Smith. It was a remarkable recovery by this team after the first play interception. The defense came out strong in the first quarter even with the before mentioned miscue, allowing only 12 points.
The gripping story on the day would have to be the number of drops that occurred by Panthers’ wide receivers. There were eight drops by Panthers wide receivers on the day. This contributed to the Panthers 2-13 performance on 3rd downs. The blows don’t stop there as rookie Terrance Marshall Jr and punt returner Alex Erickson leave with concussions. Dysfunctional would be the theme of the Panthers offense this past Sunday, capitalized by a bone head play at the quarterback position. Upon exiting out of a first half timeout the offense addressed the line, and after evaluating the defense Darnold felt the best option was to call another timeout. For those of you that don’t know, that is a no-no. A delay of game penalty was called, and it was yet another example of the dysfunction in the locker room. For a large portion of the game the offense lacked energy and still have not found an identity since the Christian McCaffrey injury. This becomes even more concerning given the announcement of CMC being placed on the Injury Reserve list early Saturday.
The optimist within people would like to use the fact that overtime was forced as a pedestal to stand on, but this offers no more lift than a pair of high-heels. The 97-yard drive to usher the game into overtime is vastly outweighed by the total yards allowed the Vikings offense. Kirk Cousins and company tallied the 3rd most offensive yards against the Panthers in the team’s history. There has been a downward trend for the Panthers defense since the loss of Shaq Thompson. There have been a number of players on the defense that have powered through this rough recent 3-game skid; Donte Jackson had yet another standout game in the secondary. The pair of Panthers that combined for the forced fumble and fumble recovery was two of the few veterans on this team. Even a great defense can be worn down over the course of a game and that’s what we saw take place Sunday. No great epiphany is needed to know there had to be a few hearts sink when the Vikings won the overtime coin flip. The defense was gassed when the overtime period started and was unable to generate a stop to give the Panthers’ offense a chance to win. The Vikings pushed downfield and capped off the drive with a punch into the endzone.
Where’s the Coaching?
Could it be that the swagger and shine of Matt Rhule is beginning to fade? The man that revitalized multiple college programs in his time with the schools stand before us as an NFL head coach with nearly twice as many losses as wins. It has been a bumpy ride for Matt Rhule in his time with the Panthers. It would be inaccurate to judge the Panthers head coach solely by his record, but the lists of concerns is growing. The news of Christian McCaffrey being put on IR was as surprising as it was odd. How is it that this organization can’t properly diagnose or treat its players? The correlations between how the CMC injury this year and the one last year border on tragic. It took this staff three full weeks to determine that McCaffrey would be sidelined for at least another three weeks. Just prior to the week 3 injury to McCaffrey there was a lot of media attention surrounding the RB’s extensive post-game routine, with the luxury of foresight it begs the question; could this be a radical attempt at self-preservation? It is no secret what the gameplan is when McCaffrey is on the field and healthy. The offense goes through CMC more so as if this was a basketball game and less a professional football game in the NFL. The data is out there showing the career span of an NFL running back. Combine that with the natural physical toll that football exerts on the human body it and the recipe gives you a very short career. Another question that still remains unanswered is when we might see Stephon Gilmore take the field for the Panthers as he has yet to be activated.
Joe Brady and the Panthers offense are tied with their special teams unit for number of scoring plays in the third quarter. That’s right; the Panthers offense has manage to score once in the third quarter all season. An eye popping stat is that the Panthers have been outscored by their opponents 63-80 in the second half of games. Specifically in the third quarter the Panthers have been outscored on offense 7-43 with is truly ridiculous. There is no excuse for this. The inability to make adjustments in game was merely the surface of this issue, and now we see that this trend stretches throughout the entire season. There is no road to success in life that does not involve a turn or two. Apparently Joe Brady doesn’t think that this applies to calling plays in the NFL. If the Panthers were dropping 30 points in the first half and coasting to victory every Sunday I would be less concerned about the before mentioned statistics, but that is not the case. The offense has seen its fair share of struggles trying to move the ball in the second half even when CMC was healthy.
It would seem that the mini-Texas tour by the Panthers caused Defensive Coordinator Phil Snow to melt. Since going 3-0 and presenting what at the time felt like a potential historic defense has now fizzled back down to reality. From a total yards perspective the game Sunday might have been the worst performance by an NFL Phil Snow defense. Injuries have hit the Panthers across the board but a key loss to the defense is that of Shaq Thompson. The veteran seventh-year player has been seen both in and out of a walking boot this past week but is already a mid-week scratch from this Sunday’s game. I fear there is the distinct possibility Thompson may find himself on IR.
It is the responsibility of this coaching staff the players on the 53-man roster in winning situations for the entire game, and for every game. The inconsistencies and semi-frequent blunders by the coaching staff will only create a wedge within this young roster. If players are struggling to buy into the culture of Matt Rhule and his staff than this could mean further turmoil is on the horizon.
The “Tepper”-ture
From the moment David Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers it was clear that he wanted his stamp and brand on the organization. This was to be expected given what was taking place, first thing to go, mediocrity, or so we thought? The culture that existed in the Carolina locker room was heralded around the league as one of the best. This culture stemmed from the head coach like a river branching off, David Tepper inherited this culture, and proceeded to systematically pick it apart. First to go was the coaching staff, and this move might have been the most deserving one. The phrase “Missed Opportunities” had been uttered one too many times. The next to go were the figure head personalities in the locker room, the players that guys went to if they had a grief, and they were the players that drew in ears when they spoke. It is theorized that Tepper saw these aging players as a threat and not worth their value to the team. What came to follow is what you would see with any rebuild, a flood of young players riding waves of potential rostered for the new coaching regime, but as we have seen Tepper needed to have his fingerprints on the roster. The steady shuffle at the quarterback position has shown that ownership has been unhappy with whomever it was playing the position. This lead to the acquisition of Sam Darnold this past offseason, after it was clear the Watson situation in Houston wouldn’t be improving, and missing out on trading for Mathew Stafford. David Tepper wanted to implement his own culture onto the Panthers organization. To this date in Tepper’s time as owner his greatest accomplishment in Bank of America stadium was bringing a MLS expansion team to the city of Charlotte. There is a rather large dose of humility in that David Tepper’s most notable accomplishment as Panthers owner is becoming owner of the other “Football” team in Charlotte.