Black and Blue Review
The Panthers are 1-4-1 over the last six weeks, and they’re winless three games into their toughest stretch of the season. Their offensive line is a mess, and their defense is about to face a team that somewhat easily rolled up 44 points on Sunday Night Football.
But somehow, they still sit atop the NFC South (by .009 percentage points) going into Thursday night’s home matchup with the Saints.
“Win this game, you stay in first place,” head coach Ron Rivera said Monday. “This division, I think we’re going to beat each other up. It’s almost going to be a game of attrition, who survives at the end of the year.”
The NFC South isn’t going to strike anyone as strong from top-to-bottom, with some of the league’s top teams slugging it out against each other. If attrition is needed, it may be more about being the best of the not-so-good.
But it’s unlikely that whoever wins the division will apologize, and Thursday night is an opportunity for the Panthers to inch further ahead in their quest to become the NFC South’s first ever back-to-back champions.
“If you said at the start of training camp, or the start of OTAs, ‘Hey, you’ve got a chance on Week 9 to be playing for first place, would you take it?’ offensive coordinator Mike Shula asked reporters. “Yeah, I’d take it,” he answered.
While Shula, who has to gameplan with an offensive line that is 80 percent injured, has a major headache this week, defensive coordinator Sean McDermott will once again be on limited sleep.
Sunday night, he watched film of the Seahawks game the Panthers had just lost while also keeping an eye on the Saints against the Packers. What he saw was New Orleans awake from its 2014 slumber to explode for 28 points in the second half.
“I’ve been there before, where (Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers) was last night, where it’s hitting you in a hurry. Not just the pass game, but the run game. It can steamroll in a hurry,” McDermott admitted.
The Saints not only scored a season-high 44 points, but their 193 rushing yards were their most since last November.
If there is good news for the Panthers, it’s that game was in New Orleans, and the Saints tend to do things like that in the Superdome in primetime. But Thursday’s nationally televised game is in Charlotte, and the Saints are a much different team on the road.
“(If) you want to win the division, you have to within the division,” Rivera said. “And you’ve got to win at home.”