News Panthers Team Notes

[Zedster]

Pretty wild situation for Carolina to be in. Making the playoffs at 8-9 is definitely not ideal, but hey, playoff football is playoff football. The NFC South really is something else.

That X-Clown breakdown was a nice read. Still one of the most iconic plays in franchise history. The way Smith ran that route and Delhomme delivered under that kind of pressure in double overtime... that's the stuff you remember forever.

As for the Rams rematch, I think the keys they laid out are spot on. The Panthers absolutely have to control the clock like they did in Week 13. That time of possession battle is everything against a team with Stafford and McVay. If LA gets the ball for 35+ minutes, it's going to be rough.

The 3rd down numbers are concerning though. Converting at 25% over the last few games while allowing opponents to convert at 55%... that's not a recipe for playoff success. Going to need a much better showing there.

Realistically? I'd say they have maybe a 25-30% shot at beating the Rams at home. Stranger things have happened, and they already proved they can beat this team once. But expecting a Super Bowl run is probably a stretch. Still, fun to have meaningful January football in Charlotte regardless of how it ends.

 

[Carolina Panthers]

Panthers vs Rams: Offensive Preview

Somehow we’re here. Despite a season of ups and downs and more losses than wins, the Carolina Panthers find themselves hosting a playoff game. It just so happens that it’s against the Los Angeles Rams, the team the Panthers defeated at Bank of America Stadium about a month ago in what was arguably the most surprising result in the NFL all season.

The Rams do seem a little less of a juggernaut this time around. They came into the first meeting on a six game win streak in which they throttled most of their opposition. This time, they look more human. They lost two in a row before ending their season with a win that required a comeback over the Arizona Cardinals. One of those losses was at the hands of the Falcons and is one of the reasons the Panthers are here at all. Their offense is still as explosive as ever. Their defense is showing some cracks though.

The Rams had one of the best defenses throughout the season, but they allowed their opponents to average 6.4 yards per play over the last three weeks of the season. Only the Ravens, Cowboys, and Dolphins were worse. That’s despite the last two offenses they faced being known not-good offenses in the Kirk Cousins led Falcons and Jacoby Brissett led Cardinals. They were gashed on the ground, allowing 6.4 yards per carry in those three games. That sets up nicely for what the Panthers need to do to pull off another upset. And spoiler alert, it’s the same stuff they needed to do the first time around.

• Pound the rock, but do it successfully. There are two reasons for this. One, the Rams’ offense is significantly more potent than the Panthers’. The more possessions this game goes, the more likely it is that the Rams pull away because the Panthers simply can’t keep up. That means the Panthers need to keep the clock running as much as possible to keep the total number of possessions low. Two, the Rams are a whole lot more susceptible to getting beaten on the ground than they are through the air right now. Like I said above, they have gotten run all over the last few weeks, while their pass rush and pass defense have been as good as ever. The Panthers need to hit the Rams with a heavy dose of Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle, preferably in that order. Hubbard has been the much better back for like a month now, and he was decidedly the better of the two in the first meeting with the Rams. Unfortunately neither back could get anything going last week, and the Rams won’t be as forgiving if the same holds true on Saturday.
• Bryce Young needs to hit his high leverage throws. The Panthers have somehow gotten on this roll where it seems like every 4th and short from outside of the red zone ends up turning into a long play that often ends in a touchdown. We saw it last week with the deep ball from Young to Tetairoa McMillan on a 40 yard pass on 4th and 8 that set up the Panthers’ second touchdown of the evening. We saw it twice in Panthers vs Rams part 1. It seems like Dave Canales and Brad Idzik have settled on their ideal approach being to trust the ground game as much as possible and then turn to Bryce when absolutely necessary. It’s been working, and it’ll have to continue to work. We’ll probably need to see at least a couple long touchdowns, though it’d be nice if the Panthers didn’t wait until fourth down to find them.
• Be aggressive on fourth down. This plays into both of the first two points above. The Panthers need to stay on the field as much as possible, which means avoiding kicking the ball back to the Rams unless absolutely necessary. It’s also going to take more touchdowns than field goals to win this game. Fourth down has been a money down for this team, and it’s good that they’ve built so much confidence in themselves and in Bryce Young in particular in those situations. They’re going to be vital for any chance at postseason success.

Source: https://www.catscratchreader.com/carolina-panthers-analysis/57702/panthers-vs-rams-offensive-preview

 

[Carolina Panthers]

NFL Power Rankings Roundup: Where the Panthers rank in the Wild Card round

The Carolina Panthers are one of 14 NFL teams still standing. But not all 14 of these teams are created equal.

With an 8-9 record and backing their way into the playoffs in a less-than-impressive fashion, there are plenty of Panthers skeptics out there. There are probably plenty of Panthers skeptics here, too, but for now Carolina is alive in the postseason and that’s all that matters.

An annual tradition among football writers is to take the playoff contenders and rank them from top to bottom, so we’re going to celebrate that tradition this year with the Panthers included. Here’s where some of the more prominent NFL sites rank the 14 teams in the playoffs, and not surprisingly they’re not very kind to Carolina.

NFL.com​

Eric Edholm of NFL.com calls this year’s playoffs “one of the more wide-open postseasons in years.” His view is this a number of teams could win this year’s Super Bowl with some of the annual postseason studs like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson watching from their couches. But when listing the contenders, the Panthers are looking up from the bottom in Edholm’s rankings.

1. Seattle Seahawks
2. New England Patriots
3. Jacksonville Jaguars
4. Denver Broncos
5. Buffalo Bills
6. Houston Texans
7. Los Angeles Rams
8. Chicago Bears
9. San Francisco 49ers
10. Philadelphia Eagles
11. Los Angeles Chargers
12. Pittsburgh Steelers
13. Green Bay Packers
14. Carolina Panthers

CBS Sports​

Zachary Pereles of CBS Sports ranks the Panthers 14th – dead last – among all playoff contenders. But we Panthers fans shouldn’t take it personally. Pereles said the No. 14 spot was reserved for the NFC South winner, which fortuitously was Carolina. Pereles goes on to note that the last playoff team with a losing record to win were our very own Carolina Panthers back in 2014. But he doesn’t expect a repeat upset victory this year, especially with the Panthers opponent, the Los Angeles Rams, coming out as No. 1 in his rankings.

1. Los Angeles Rams
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. Jacksonville Jaguars
4. Denver Broncos
5. Philadelphia Eagles
6. New England Patriots
7. Buffalo Bills
8. Houston Texans
9. Los Angeles Chargers
10. Chicago Bears
11. San Francisco 49ers
12. Green Bay Packers
13. Pittsburgh Steelers
14. Carolina Panthers

Fox Sports​

Ralph Vacchiano oversaw Fox Sports’ power rankings and it has something in common with most of the others:

The Panthers are ranked dead last.

But the Vacchiano goes on the insult our favorite team by claiming, “Hard to imagine they won’t be one and done in the playoffs.”

Frankly, Mr. Vacchiano, I find that statement very insulting regarding my imagination. It was easy for me to imagine hundreds of situations in which the Panthers win on Sunday. In my imagination Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua are abducted by space aliens. Or perhaps there’s an Angels in the Endzone experience (the less popular sequel to Angels in the Outfield) where Carolina gets some divine intervention. Or maybe one of the officials owes a massive gambling debt to the Italian mafia and the Cosa Nostra happen to be big Panthers fans because of all of Carolina’s games in Europe.

Never lose the faith! Any given Sunday!

1. Seattle Seahawks
2. New England Patriots
3. Jacksonville Jaguars
4. Denver Broncos
5. Los Angeles Rams
6. San Francisco 49ers
7. Houston Texans
8. Buffalo Bills
9. Chicago Bears
10. Philadelphia Eagles
11. Los Angeles Chargers
12. Green Bay Packers
13. Pittsburgh Steelers
14. Carolina Panthers

Source: https://www.catscratchreader.com/ca...here-the-panthers-rank-in-the-wild-card-round

 

[Carolina Panthers]

Panthers vs Rams NFC Wild Card Round: Defensive Preview

The Carolina Panthers are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2017, and are division champions for the first time in ten years. That means we get bonus football! Unfortunately, it comes against a Rams team, and more specifically their offense, that will likely be looking for blood in this rematch from the 2025 regular season. The last time around, the Panthers came up with an upset of the season candidate, as they outlasted the Rams in a 31-28 victory in Carolina. The defense played a major role in this, as they picked off two of Matthew Stafford’s passes, one of which Mike Jackson returned for a TD, and Derrick Brown forced a game clinching fumble that allowed the Panthers offense to simply run the clock out. Many say the game was perfect for the Panthers, however the defense wasn’t perfect by any means, they simply made enough big plays to make the difference. Let’s dive into how they can make that happen again.

• Force turnovers. Dave Canales preached it ahead of the last game and in the post game press conferences after the fact; you beat really good teams in the NFL by stealing extra possessions. Whether those come via opportunistic 4th down conversions on offense, or turnovers on defense to keep the opposing offense out of the end zone. I don’t think its any secret that this Rams offense is VERY good, and up until the previous encounter with the Panthers, Matt Stafford was one of the best in the league at controlling turnovers. Since then, Stafford has thrown 4 more interceptions and fumbled the ball once, though 3 of those turnovers came against the Falcons in another stunning upset. The Panthers have to find a way to force those turnovers, as the Rams started the last game moving the ball basically at will until Stafford’s first interception.
• The run game was quietly a problem. The Rams put a lot of resources this last off-season into improving their power rushing attack, and it showed in their previous game. They averaged 7.2 yards per carry on 21 rushes for 152 yards. The Rams sport a potent passing attack, but the thing that generally gets a team through the playoffs is a solid and consistent rushing attack, and the Rams currently rank 6th in yards per rush and 7th in rush yards per game, despite only being dead in the middle of the NFL in rushes per game. They will likely have learned from the last time around, and lean on the rushing attack this time to prevent turnovers. Blake Corum and Kyren Williams could have a field day if the game script becomes negative for the Panthers quickly.
• Mike Jackson and Jaycee Horn’s tallest task of the season. Jaycee Horn was injured the last time these two teams faced, and while Jackson had himself a pretty good day, Davante Adams scored twice and Puke Nacua had a highlight reel catch that led to a score. With both Nakua and Adams fully healthy again, this is a marquee matchup as far as secondary vs wide receivers go. Mike Jack and Jaycee have quietly been one of the best tandems in the league at CB, while Davante Adams and Puka Nacua have been about as dangerous as we might have imagined going into the season. We can’t have Jaycee Horn slipping or making unfortunate penalties happen, these two really need to lock in for this defense to have a chance.

What are you looking for from the defense this week, Panthers fans?

Source: https://www.catscratchreader.com/ca...vs-rams-nfc-wild-card-round-defensive-preview