THE PANTHERS
- Lead the all-time series, 23-19. Carolina’s won three in a row and four out of the past five.
- Have gone just 14-of-40 (35%) on third down the past three weeks. They were 16-of-30 (53%) in their first two games.
- Have gone 35:20 without scoring a point in the first quarter.
- Have been shut out in the third quarter in three of their five games.
- Have been outscored 40-30 by opponents in points off turnovers.
- Have scored touchdowns on 11 of their 15 (73%) drives in the red zone.
- Have allowed opponents to score touchdowns on 5 of their 15 (33%) drives in the red zone.
THE SAINTS
- Are 10-1 at home in Oct. since 2009.
- Are 1-5 all-time in games played on Oct. 16.
PANTHERS
- QB Cam Newton
- Has 872 passing yards with 10 touchdowns and one interception for a 119.2 passer rating in his past three games against the Saints.
- Needs 22 passing yards to take over the top spot from Jake Delhomme (19,258) for most in franchise history.
- Needs one more rushing touchdown to tie DeAngelo Williams (46) for most in franchise history.
- RB Jonathan Stewart has averaged 5.9 yards per carry while totaling 320 yards and two touchdowns in his past three games against the Saints.
- TE Greg Olsen
- Has 27 receptions, 335 yards and three touchdowns in his past three games against the Saints.
- Ranks fourth in the NFL with 516 receiving yards, just three behind league leader, Lions WR Marvin Jones.
- LB Luke Kuechly is tied for NFL lead with 57 tackles.
SAINTS
- QB Drew Brees has 27 passing touchdowns in his past seven home games.
I’ll say this: all I heard last year was how overrated this team was and how that record was a product of a super easy schedule. I thought that was nonsense, of course, and I still want to think these criticisms are nonsense. But dang if this team isn’t trying it’s hardest to prove all the haters right.
Well, that’s pretty much that. Now the team has to figure out how to get better personnel-wise, and not all of it can be reasonably fixed via the draft (see 2016 season so far). So, given that DG apparently doesn’t like to spend money on FAs, and doesn’t like to spend big on homegrown talent, and apparently can’t draft very well to boot, I question how the holes in this defense and O-LIne and the depth needed in the running game can be realistically shored up in one offseason. It’ll be interesting to see going forward; it’s hard to pin this on one guy – staff or player – because it surely takes a full team effort to be this bad coming off a SB appearance, but my faith in DG is diminishing with each move he makes.