Through their first seven games, the Panthers’ offense struggled on third down and in the red zone. 

Against the Seahawks, both issues factored into Carolina’s fourth loss in six weeks.

Carolina came in ranked 14th in the NFL on third down, converting 42 percent of their tries. Their red zone efficiency was even worse. They turned red zone trips into touchdowns just 52 percent of the time, which tied them for 23rd.

Sunday, they converted a season-low two third-down conversions on 10 attempts. The 20 percent conversion rate was also their worst of the year.

Excluding Graham Gano’s two field goals, the Panthers ran a dozen plays in the red zone during the first half. They gained just 11 yards on those 12 plays, which featured only three passes. The results of three trips inside the red zone: Field goal, field goal, Cam Newton fumble.

“When you get inside the five, you have to scratch, crawl, spit, grip, find a way,” Newton said. “We know that, it just has to settle in where we’re in the heat of the battle. We didn’t do a good job of that, and it’s happened a lot since I’ve been here.”

He’s right, and the continuing problem needs to be fixed.

“As an offense we have to take a little credit for what part we played in it,” tight end Ed Dickson said. “We need to score more touchdowns instead of those field goals.”

That’s apparently easier said than done. It didn’t help that the Panthers didn’t get into the red zone at all in the second half. Over the final two quarters, they ran only 13 plays in Seahawks’ territory. That’s a big drop-off from the 16 plays they had on Seattle’s side in the first quarter and the 25 they totaled in the first half.

With the high-powered Saints’ offense on-tap, more failed third-down conversions and field goals instead of touchdowns could again spell doom for the Panthers come Thursday night.

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