The last time a Carolina Panthers' defensive end earned a full sack, most watching were moments away from heading off for a post-turkey nap.
Ever since Kony Ealy corralled Cowboys' backup quarterback Matt Cassel with less than a minute on Thanksgiving, the Panthers have generated little pressure from the edge. In their four games after that blowout win, Mario Addison has been the only end credited with a sack, and he shared it with Thomas Davis in New Orleans.
"We've got to affect the quarterback better, no doubt," defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said Monday, a day after the Panthers fell for the first time this season.
McDermott's defense sacked Atlanta's Matt Ryan twice Sunday, but both were courtesy of defensive end Kawann Short. Of the Panthers' nine sacks since Thanksgiving, five have come from Short. Meanwhile, Charles Johnson, Jared Allen, Kony Ealy, Addison and Ryan Delaire have come up short.
"[The ends haven't been] as productive as you'd like to be in terms of numbers," coach Ron Rivera said. "But as long as they're continuing to put pressure, as long as they're continuing to force the quarterback to step up and [Short's] going to continue to get sacks or blitzing linebackers are getting sacks, then we'll be OK."
"The hard part is when you put the tape on, you see how close we are. You see the things that we're doing, we're doing well, we've just got to be better."
It's easy to trace back and see a correlation to when the Panthers started losing oomph from their ends. That Dallas game was Johnson's return from temporary injured reserve. Since then, he's had six tackles and no sacks. He actually has just one sack this season, which came all the way back in Week 1. That's not ideal production from a guy with a $20 million cap hit.
But the Panthers' problems don't just stem from what Johnson hasn't done. They're also an effect of what Ealy hasn't been able to do. He had a run of four straight games with a sack, and then, Johnson came back and reassumed his starting role.
Inside the building, the Panthers admit they need more from Johnson. But during this defensive end funk, they've gotten less from Allen. After arriving in a trade the day after Johnson pulled his hamstring, Allen did his job as a Band-Aid. But the 33 year old, who doesn't have a sack since Week 7, doesn't appear to have much left in the tank.
With the postseason ahead, the Panthers don't have much time to tinker. There's a good chance they'll start using less of Allen and more of Ealy, Addison and Delaire.
"The depth is good for us," McDermott said. "At the end of the day, the guys that are productive are going to play."
It's unlikely this current crop of ends will start piling up sacks any time soon, but something is better than what the Panthers have been getting.