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[Carolina Panthers]

Panthers vs Dolphins: Week 5 odds

The sky is falling. The end is nigh. The 1-3 Carolina Panthers are the worst team in the NFL and everybody knows it. Everybody except for sportsbooks, apparently. For the first time this season, the Panthers are favored to win a game against an NFL team.

The 1-3 Miami Dolphins—whose sole win came last week over the 0-4 New York Jets—are one of the few teams that can lay claim to a worse season than the Panthers so far. Here are the odds to date:

Week 5​

Spread​

Dolphins: +1.5 (-115)

Panthers: -1.5 (-1-5)

O/U​

44.5 (-105/-115)

Moneyline​

Dolphins: +100

Panthers: -118

Remember that home-field advantage is traditionally accounted for by spotting the home team—Carolina, in this case—three points on the spread. The spreads have been wildly inaccurate for Panthers games this season, though, so take that with the biggest grain of salt that you can carry to the stadium on Sunday.

It’s hard to make anything of these odds. The Dolphins are a slow rolling dumpster fire of a team right now, but they are relatively healthy—minus the potential loss of Tyreek Hill yesterday. The Panthers have had one extremely high high and several very low lows to date. Carolina is also very from healthy and not getting healthier quickly.

This is a game that the Panthers should absolutely win and should win by a wider margin than two points. That said, I fully expect them to do anything but that as is their historical wont.

The above odds were current as of the writing of this post. You can take a look at—and place a bet on—live odds for this game and more here at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Source: https://www.catscratchreader.com/carolina-panthers-odds/56079/panthers-vs-dolphins-week-5-odds

 

[Carolina Panthers]

Panthers vs Dolphins: Offensive preview

The Carolina Panthers fell apart in spectacular fashion after a shocking 30-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3. It didn’t look that way in the beginning. Bryce Young and company got the ball first and took it 76 yards on just seven plays to open the scoring. That was the peak of the afternoon. Here is how the subsequent drives went:

• Punt
• Punt
• Missed field goal
• Punt
• Punt
• Downs
• Punt
• Downs

The Panthers finally scored their second touchdown in garbage time with Andy Dalton leading the charge. Outside of the touchdown drives that bookended the game, the Panthers gained 159 yards and picked up 11 first downs on 45 plays. It was about as anemic as an offense can look, and it came against a Patriots defense that had been vulnerable in the first three weeks. The return of Christian Gonzalez, their best defender, certainly helped, but it was still an inexcusable showing for a unit that’s supposed to be okay at least.

Up next is a Miami Dolphins defense that ranks 32nd in the league in Defensive DVOA. They’re coming off a win over the New York Jets, but they allowed a toothless Jets offense to average over seven yards per play. This should be a bounce back for the offense. There are a few things that can make sure that happens.

• Play clean football, don’t turn the ball over. The Jets lost their game to the Dolphins more than the Dolphins won it. Miami recovered three turnovers and were the beneficiaries of a number of pre-snap penalties by the Jets offense. Those turnovers and penalties were the only thing that slowed down the Jets offense, because the Dolphins certainly weren’t offering up much resistance. Bryce Young seems to either take pristine care of the football or commit multiple turnovers in a game with no in between. Every game needs to be the former, but that’s especially true when that’s seemingly the only way to hold yourself back from moving the ball with ease against a very porous defense.
• Pound the rock. I’m normally not one to overly emphasize the ground game, but this is an exception to that. The Dolphins have allowed 5.1 yards per rush on the season, which is fourth worst in the league, and it’s gotten worse week over week since the start of the season. James Cook averaged 5.7 yards per carry against this defense in Week 2 and Breece Hall averaged 5.8. Quarterbacks have rushed for four touchdowns in four games against the Jets. There should be space to run for whoever has the ball in their hands. With the Panthers struggling to get the passing game off the ground, this is the perfect week to lean on Chuba Hubbard and the run game.
• Feed off the home crowd or home stadium or whatever it is that makes them play better. The Panthers have always had a bit of a hard time keeping visiting fans away, but the Dolphins aren’t exactly a big draw for local fans right now either. There should be a home field advantage in that aspect. But beyond that, the Panthers have largely been incapable of playing good offensive football outside the friendly confines of Bank of America Stadium. Bryce Young is 1-17 on the road with the lone win coming in last year’s shootout win over the Falcons. Outside of that one anomaly, Bryce Young starts have generated just 14.1 points per game since the start of last season. Charlotte has been much kinder to Young, where he has a better record at 6-10 while leading the team to 22.3 points per game. A home game against a weak defense is exactly the situation Bryce needs to show something.

Source: https://www.catscratchreader.com/ca...hers-vs-dolphins-offensive-preview-nfl-week-5