Greg Olsen is no longer leading the league’s tight ends in receptions and receiving yards, but that’s not necessarily his fault.

Olsen caught just one pass for 16 yards against the Seahawks, and he was targeted only three times. All of those numbers were his fewest since last year’s win at San Francisco.

But a number of circumstances contributed to his quiet game Sunday.

“We obviously were very run heavy, so that eliminates opportunities in the passing game to go around to everybody,” Olsen explained on Monday.

The Panthers ended up with 31 run plays and 22 passes, but even when they tried to pass, the makeshift and banged up offensive line needed as much help as it could get.

“Sometimes you’ve got to use (Olsen) to help in protection,” offensive coordinator Mike Shula said. “That’s kind of a double-edged sword cause you want him out there, but he’s also involved in protection. That helps an offensive line with a lot of moving parts.”

And down in the red zone? Olsen appeared to be quarterback Cam Newton’s first option on a second-quarter play that ended with a drop by receiver Kelvin Benjamin.

“They rolled that safety right over the top, so there were some things that we weren’t allowed to do, or we couldn’t do because of that,” head coach Ron Rivera said.

So while it’s easy to look at a stat sheet right after a game and wonder why a team didn’t use one of its best weapons, it’s also important to remember there are a lot of factors that go into what happens — or doesn’t happen.

“We had a couple shots that we had dialed up, for whatever reason, coverage didn’t go the way we wanted or anticipated, or … pressure,” Olsen said. “I don’t think they did anything special to take me away. I just think it’s one of those games where the ball doesn’t go your way for a lot of reasons, and you’re going to have those games in this league. You can’t catch 10 balls every week.”

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