The Carolina Panthers have good news: they don’t have to wait long to put the Tampa Bay embarrassment behind them.
Oh yes, it was an embarrassment, but Carolina can’t dwell on the past, they have a monster mash to attend in Green Bay this Thursday Night. It should be a graveyard smash - both the Panthers and Packers are coming off of tough division losses.
In order to ensure Carolina’s division hopes aren’t gone in a flash, the team will have to pull off another improbable upset at Lambeau Field. Last season, a hobbled Bryce Young was able to lean on the defense and the run game in order to lead the team to a win.
Well, the defense and run game didn’t really show up against Tampa Bay. For Carolina’s sake, hopefully they take last week as fuel and prepare to the fullest extent for Thursday.
Other than the team showing up to play, let’s take a look at this week’s keys to victory.
Keys to Victory
1) Lock in
I hate to belabor the point, but the Panthers have to improve in their preparation for games. Luckily, this team has done a better job at being ready for primetime affairs over the past few years. However, the team needs to be equipped to handle whatever Green Bay throws at them.
Part of being prepared is starting fast. Fast starts were a hot-button topic in training camp and the preseason, with even owner David Tepper speaking to the media about starting the season quicker and better than in previous years.
Fast starts also apply to individual games. Tampa Bay won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball in the first half, a bit of a rarity in today’s NFL. Clearly it worked, because they were able to dictate the tempo and steal half the first quarter away on one drive.
On Carolina’s first drive, the team failed to get into scoring range. It took until well into the second quarter before the Panthers put points on the board, and those points came from a deep pass at midfield.
Finding early success on offense, as well as not getting walked down on the opening drive are paramount for the Panthers bouncing back on a short week.
2) Pressure Jordan Love
Another area of improvement the Panthers need to attack is in pressuring the opposing quarterbacks, and converting those pressures into sacks. According to ESPN, the Panthers are tied for the 7th-fewest sacks forced this season (11).
Carolina has played one fewer game than most teams, but the league-leading Cincinnati Bengals have also played in six games, and have 21 sacks.
Like the Panthers, Green Bay’s offensive line has had it’s struggles early this season. They too have suffered season-ending injuries, and have had to rely on reserve linemen to protect Jordan Love.
In the win last season, Carolina was able to force Love into making bad decisions with pressure. Not only did he throw an ill-advised interception into triple coverage, but also nearly had one of the most embarrassing throws in NFL history.
Turk Wharton had one of his best games as a Carolina Panther last year in Lambeau. With Jaelan Phillips still projected to miss this game, Wharton and the rest of the defensive front need to be able to find pressures against the Packers OL.
3) Find the deep passing game
Perhaps the most disappointing part of the Tampa Bay defeat was the Panthers inability to get the deep pass game going. Aside from the 50-yard touchdown strike to Darren Waller in the second quarter, Bryce Young only had two other completions of more than 10 yards.
Through most of the season, the deep passing game has been a staple of the Carolina offense. Young is among the top of the league in deep pass (20+ yards) attempts and completions.
This level of stretching the field helped both the run and quick pass games thrive as well in Carolina’s wins.
Yes, Todd Bowles and the Tampa defense were able to cause trouble for the Panthers - Young was pressured on an average time of 2.42 seconds - but the team still leaned away from one of their strengths for the majority of this game.
Carolina’s offensive line is battered, Damien Lewis may not play this week. Nevertheless, Canales and Idzik need to come up with ways to buy Young time in the pocket to develop the deep pass.
We know that the Packers can hit 30+ yard bombs with ease. If Carolina can’t match them in that department, it’s going to be a long day for the Cats.
4) Stay clean
Two weeks ago, the Panthers set a franchise record for penalty yards accepted against them (159). Against Tampa Bay, this number dropped by over 100 yards to a mere four penalties for 56 total yards.
This is what we like to see. Carolina will have to be even more disciplined this week, as the NFL has assigned Scott Novak’s crew, who are known for calling more penalties than the average group.
In particular, Novak’s crew tends to call more pre-snap and unnecessary roughness penalties, infractions that Carolina has struggled to stay clean of this season.
Aside from playing cleanly in regards to penalties, the Carolina Panthers also need to clean up the silly, and frankly inexcusable errors. You can’t have perfect passes dropped in 4th down situations.
Earlier this season, Jimmy Horn Jr. was released from the team following a muffed punt against Chicago. I doubt we see David Moore meet a similar fate, but special teams blunders cannot continue to happen.
This includes the extra point fiasco that has taken place in almost every game this season. Ryan Fitzgerald hit the key game-winning field goal in this matchup last season, but also missed one of the two extra points Carolina earned.
If Horn was released for his blunders, the team has to follow suit should similar errors continue this week.
After last week, it’s pretty difficult to imagine the Panthers pulling off any win, much less a road game on a short week in a hostile environment in primetime.
However, these are the games Dave Canales seems to live for.
For as much criticism regarding preparation and handling success that’s been doled out against the Carolina Head Coach, Canales seems to do an excellent job at rousing the team to perform as the underdog or when all odds are against them.
It’ll take all that preparation and more for Carolina to get their season back on track this week in Lambeau.
