Every offensive stat sheet has a section called “plays per game.” There’s a different view from the other side of the football, which is why Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott has his own term for it — “bullets.”

“This is the NFL,” McDermott said Monday. “The more opportunities, the more chances to score, the probability changes.”

Despite being one of three NFC teams to hold opponents’ scoring average under 20 points, the Panthers went into Sunday’s game against the Titans allowing a league-high 76 plays per game.

That’s a lot of bullets.

“Any time you’re facing the number of bullets we’ve faced … you’re giving the opponent opportunities to score,” McDermott said.

Yet thanks in part to sound special teams and a grinding offense, the Panthers’ defense saw a league-low 46 plays in Sunday’s 27-10 win. The significance of that number, according to head coach Ron Rivera, cannot be understated.

“It’s huge. One thing it does is keeps our defense on the sideline and gives them an opportunity to rest up and get fresher,” he said. “If you have the ball and possess it, I think you wear down their defense and you get your rhythm.”

Meanwhile, the Carolina offense ran 19 more plays than Tennessee. That kind of possession domination begins an ideal cycle of tired opposing defense and opportunistic offense.

“We’d love to play keep away,” offensive coordinator Mike Shula said. “Keep our defense off the field and then put up points while we’re doing it.”

 

 

Filed under “Great Problems to Have” is that the Panthers’ offense generates .43 points per play, which is a faster score rate than all but three NFL teams. Faster score rates mean less time on offense, which means more time on defense.

McDermott is fine with that, so long as the defense keeps doing its job.

“You never want to take away our offense scoring points,” he said. “We’ve gotten takeaways on defense and created short fields at times for our offense, and they’ve converted those into points. Then bang, we’re right back on the field again.”

McDermott even suggests that, given the number of high-tempo offenses making their way into the NFL, a more telling statistic for defenses might be points allowed per possession.

The Panthers’ rank in that category? No. 1 in the league.