The Carolina Panthers have struggled to find an identity in 2018. Their defense Youth Bruce Irvin Jersey , once the calling card of the franchise, has been porous. Their run game, while statistically productive, hasn¡¯t been able to sustain drives. Christian McCaffrey saw 11 touches yesterday ¡ª a far cry from the 25-30 that coaches wanted for him at the start of the season. Instead, their only consistent source of success in the moments where they absolutely needed it has been Cam Newton running a hurry-up offense.They didn¡¯t start the game against the Eagles with Cam completely unleashed, but they put the ball in his hands more in the first half than I remember seeing in a long time. They might just be learning how this team can win games. That display of trust paid dividends in the second half when the offense started to click, coincidentally, when they put the Eagles¡¯ defense on their heels and kept pressing.Obviously, the trust in Newton didn¡¯t translate into points immediately. I think the blame for his drive-killing completion percentage in the first half falls neatly between him, his receivers Stitched Bruce Irvin Jersey , and the weird weather on the day. It wasn¡¯t good, but the team didn¡¯t run away from Cam and that ended up being everything for them.The second half drives showed the Panthers what this team can look like once the team gets rolling. This offense has the skill to become every bit as potent as the vaunted 2015 team if the coaching staff continues to trust Cam Newton early in games. Cam and Ryan Kalil all but asked for another chance in their post game press conferences.This team has come out misfiring on all cylinders in 2018 and has still put together a respectable record. They already knew how to put themselves in a hole. Now they know they don¡¯t have to. Week 7 might seem a bit late in the season to be nailing those lessons down, but at 4-2 the Panthers can afford to be slow learners.They are not a team that can thrive by playing a slow, deliberate, ball-control offense. They can¡¯t err on the side of punting in close-call situations. They are a team that wins when Cam Newton is winning. They are team that has the speed to both bend and break defenses. That is great, because their defense is prone to both bending and breaking themselves. Getting that on track is the subject of a different, and much less optimistic, column.That disparity between offense and defense is why the Panthers can win any game just as well as they can lose them. They don¡¯t operate with a huge margin of error, yet they always seem to find a way to keep a game close. That talent is the key to their greatest hopes for this season.They have the players to compete. I don¡¯t know if they are in the same league as the Patriots, the Chiefs Youth Graham Gano Jersey , the Rams, or the Saints, but they can stand with anybody else in the league. Whether or not they will depends entirely on them learning the right lessons from these last three weeks.As it stands, the Panthers put together another terrifying win. They did it against the reigning Super Bowl Champions. They did against one of the best young quarterbacks in the league. Carson Wentz can¡¯t seem to drop the ball on third down without it turning into a conversion for the Eagles. In the face of this new football royalty, the Panthers defense held when it counted, their offense stood up when they had to, and now everybody in the Carolinas can celebrate good king Wentz¡¯s loss before the holiday season even begins. CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ¡ª Panthers coach Ron Rivera wants his players to get away from football, just for a little while.A day after a humiliating 52-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Carolina¡¯s eighth-year coach said it may just be what the Panthers need.¡°Sometimes the best medicine is to forget about it and then come back ready to roll Stitched Graham Gano Jersey ,¡± Rivera said Friday, adding that they should focus on something other than football.That advice doesn¡¯t apply to Rivera and his coaching staff.Rivera said coaches will spend the next few days pouring over game film, looking for solutions and making adjustments, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines where the Panthers were overwhelmed by the Steelers in the road loss. The coach wouldn¡¯t say if he¡¯s considering any changes to the starting lineup.Quarterback Cam Newton was sacked five times and threw a crucial pick-six out of desperation to avoid taking a safety in the end zone, while the defense never was able to stop Ben Roethlisberger, who turned in a perfect QB rating (158.3) after throwing for 328 yards and five touchdowns. The 52 points allowed tied the most in franchise history.The Panthers (6-3) are still in good shape in the NFC playoff picture, but Rivera expressed concern knowing the NFL is a copycat league and upcoming opponents will look to simulate what the Steelers did against them.¡°It is a beg, borrow and steal league,¡± Rivera said. ¡°Guys are going to look at this tape and see what (the Steelers) did and have answers. We as coaches, as I said Youth Wes Horton Jersey , are not done evaluating tape and going through it and trying to correct things.¡±Pittsburgh¡¯s defense brought more pass rushers than the Panthers were able to block, often resulting in 5-foot-11, 210-pound running back Christian McCaffrey desperately trying to pick up linemen who outweighed him by almost 100 pounds. That didn¡¯t go well.Rivera said the Steelers defense threw some new looks at Carolina¡¯s revamped offensive line and the guys up front didn¡¯t recognize or adjust to them.¡°Sometimes you see things for the first time, things that they do a little differently, with a little twist to them, it makes things difficult,¡± Rivera said. ¡°We have to be able to handle those things. We have to stick to our rules, our base fundamentals.¡±Meanwhile, Carolina¡¯s defense failed to generate much of any pressure on Roethlisberger. There were times he danced around in the pocket untouched for nearly 10 seconds.Rivera said that has to change.He plans to continue to rotate defensive linemen in and out of the lineup ¡°until we find something that clicks on the pass rush side.¡±Carolina¡¯s stadium was noticeably quiet and somber on a dark, gray afternoon.After what he called a ¡°very humbling experience to be beat the way we were Stitched Wes Horton Jersey ,¡± Rivera still gave players four days off ¡ª as previously planned before the game ¡ª beginning Friday. They¡¯ll return to practice Tuesday to begin preparations for the Nov. 18 game at Detroit.For some, that wasn¡¯t by choice.Tight end Greg Olsen said after the game Thursday night that he wishes the Panthers had a four-day week this week and he could get back on the field to wash this loss out of their mouths instead of waiting 10 days for the next game.¡°We just got thoroughly beaten in a game that we were looking forward to, a game that we thought we could really measure ourselves against one of the better teams in the league,¡± Olsen said. ¡°We got that answer. We got a lot of work to do.¡±NOTES: Rivera said he plans to ask the league for a clarification on why safety Eric Reid was ejected Thursday night after hitting a sliding Roethlisberger on a downfield scramble. Rivera said he agreed Reid should have been penalized, but felt he shouldn¡¯t have been kicked out of the game.