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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.