Week 3 Recap

When the clock struck zero in Bank of American it was to the tune of cheers. For the first time in over a year the Carolina Panthers won a home game, and in the process breaking the longest active losing streak in the NFL. You have to go all the way back to Week 10 of last year to find the last Panthers victory home or away. The win could not have come in a timely manner for head coach Matt Rhule who finds his job security being the hot topic of the week leading up to the game. In the early hours of Sunday morning, it was reported by Ian Rapport that sources were saying that Tepper had no imminent plays to terminate Matt Rhule. These were unconfirmed statements but does show how tense the situation has become. The win over the New Orleans Saints was not pretty and was not the type of win that will smother the outcry for a coaching change in Carolina, but it was a win. The victory came in due in large part to Panthers’ defense Sunday. Coming into the game the Carolina defense was the only defense in the NFL without a turnover, and that was changed after Sunday. The Panthers forced three turnovers, two interceptions, and a strip-fumble by Frankie Luvu that was returned for forty-four yards by Marquis Haynes Sr for a touchdown. The first quarter defensive score would mark a trend for the game, a lack of offensive scoring. The Panthers’ defense scored the exact same number of touchdowns as the Panthers offense and the Saints offense. In the postgame press conference after the loss to the Giants coach Rhule preached that the team needed to involve more of the wide receiver corps. This was the main positive note in the Panthers matchup with the Saints, as the offense struggled to consistently move the ball. Baker Mayfield and the panthers’ passing attack has ranked in the bottom-fourth of the league in passing yards. If you were to exclude Baker Mayfield’s three longest passes this season it is likely we would the Panthers’ quarterback in dead last in passing yardage. This would be less concerning if the Panthers could provide any evidence of a team identity on offense. In Bank of America stadium offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo remembered that he had this stud running back on the offense named McCaffrey. For the first time this season fan saw an attempt by this team to show some level of dedication to the run game. In back-to-back weeks McCaffrey has eclipsed the century mark in the rushing department, and the feat has become a footnote amongst the poor production by the rest of the offense. Against the Saints Baker Mayfield was unable to complete over fifty percent of his passes going twelve for twenty-five. The lone passing touchdown on the day would belong to Baker and new Panthers’ wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr former Jaguars player took a short pass sixty-seven yards to the house. Shenault Jr would add a second catch on the day for twenty-three yards totaling a nice round ninety yards on the day. A concerning takeaway from the Panthers game was the inability of Baker Mayfield to get the ball in the hands of the team’s best play makers DJ Moore and CMC. Both were targeted in the pass game, but on more than one play it was a bad pass more than a bad play by the receiver leading to the misconnect. The pair of players totaled three catches between the two of them. The outlook of the Panthers’ passing game is a disturbing one. On the defensive side of the ball the Panthers only recorded one sack, but in a game with three forced turnovers the defense clearly effected this game. The inefficiencies on the offensive side of the ball will continue to keep a smoldering heat under the seat of Matt Rhule. From a yardage standpoint the Panthers lost this battle, the Saints piled up over four hundred yards of offense, but ultimately neutralized by the Panthers defense. The Panthers were unable to collect over three hundred yards of offense. This is a trend that Panthers fans have seen before from a Matt Rhule lead team. On the back of a great performance by the defense coupled with an offense that can barely tread water. It is performances like what we saw Sunday that have offered the illusion that improvements were being made with this Panthers team. Or is this the identity of the Panthers?

A Win in the Cards

A win against the Saints may have provided a stay of execution for Matt Rhule. In Week 4 the Panthers will face off with the Arizona Cardinals and Superman isn’t walking through the door to save the day. Sunday the Panthers will face off against Kyler Murry, and for those that don’t remember Murry was sidelined with injury and absent from the spectacular return of Cam Newton to the Panthers in the 2021 season. The mobility of Kyler Murry will play great dividend in the game against the Panthers. This season we have seen the Panthers struggle at times to generate a pash rush on the quarterback, and this defense has not faced a quarterback with Murry’s skills. This does not refer strictly to generating sacks. Are they getting pressure on the quarterback? Are they collapsing the pocket? Is containment on Kyler Murry being maintained? These will be key factors as the Cardinals will go into Bank of America stadium. While there has been a lot of noise surrounding the Cardinals and their organization this year, with a mirror imagine of the Panthers’ record at 1-2, the Cardinals come in averaging over four more points a game, and almost eighty more yards of offense than the Panthers. Under Matt Rhule victories have only come in the form of low scoring outputs by the opposing teams, Phil Snow and the defense has struggled at stopping the run, and this is precisely the area we might see Carolina hurt the Panthers the most in. Through the first two weeks of the season, we saw the Panthers run defense be just as porous as it has been in previous seasons. The Saints are not known to have a run first mentality as well as Swiss army knife Taysom Hill was out due to injury. When tested in the run game the Panthers have not shown that they can stand up to the test. Containing Kyler Murry will be the greatest test for the front-seven of the Panthers defense so far this season. If there is any prayer to keeping this a low scoring affair, containing Kyler Murry would be at the top of that list. The Panthers have had multiple plays go for fifty yards or more this season, this Carolina offense does have big-play capability, but can they overcome what is the bewildered and inconsistent machine of the Panthers’ offense. Coaching has been a headline dominating topic in Carolina for a number of weeks and this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. The lone bright spot for the Panthers’ offense over the past two weeks has been the rushing performances of Christian McCaffrey. In neither game was the offense able to maintain any rhythm that could be perceived as successful. The Panthers have been painful to watch offensively, and against the Cardinals we could see the Panthers become a one-trick pony with CMC in the backfield. Questions surrounded this team at the wide receiver position, after bringing in former Browns and teammate of Baker Mayfield in Rashad Higgins, flashes and drops from Shi Smith and Robbie Anderson, Laviska has two catches with the Panthers, and sadly many of the questions that existed still remain. The lack of accuracy by Baker Mayfield has been a growing theme with open wide receivers. The Panthers are not built as a team that can construct large offensive drives to put up point, and if they fall behind early to the Cardinals that is exactly what they will have to do. The third-down efficiency of the Panthers has only eroded since week 1 and currently average under thirty percent in conversion rate on the season. The excitement of Carolina’s first win of the season will be put to the test as they look to improve to a 2-2 record. Last year many fans thought that the Cardinals game would create a spark within this team. This year the Cardinals game could generate a spark in the owner depending on the outcome of the game.