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Ron Rivera made an interesting admission Friday afternoon. The Panthers head coach said his defense started playing better once it accepted that Pro Bowl defensive end Greg Hardy would not be returning this season.

“There was a little bit of closure as far as the defense was concerned,” Rivera said. “We were waiting, and Greg is not back. Part of it was maybe wondering if he was going to come back. I think having the closure that he wasn’t coming back helped, to a degree.”

There has never been an official announcement that has shelved Hardy for the season, but his fate was essentially sealed when he went on the Commissioners’ Exempt List in September. Part of the agreement was he would still be paid nearly $800,000 per week, but he would not be eligible for reinstatement until his legal situation was settled.

Hardy’s jury trial on domestic violence charges, which was originally scheduled for Nov. 17, was postponed in early November. But according to Rivera, it was in mid-October — after Week 7’s blowout loss to the Packers — when the Panthers’ defense stopped hoping for Hardy.

But accepting his status wasn’t the only thing that helped turn things around.

The day after the 38-17 embarrassment in Green Bay, when the Panthers went down 28-0 in the first half, linebacker Thomas Davis said, “we’re not competing hard enough.” Davis admitted last week the defense huddled together after that loss to talk about its lackluster effort, which Rivera confirmed on Friday.

“Once we got past Green Bay, they rallied around one another. They realized we weren’t playing to our potential,” Rivera said.

“A group of the guys got together and they talked about a whole bunch of things. They kind of put everything out on the line. They talked about going forward, and the big focus has got to be who’s here now. And if it happens, it happens, but no more waiting, is probably the best way to put it.”

The chart below shows the differences in the Panthers’ defense between Weeks 3-7 and its six games after. The improvement has only helped produce one win, but the unit has gotten significantly better across the board since that loss to the Packers.

	Rushing Yds Allowed	Passing Yds Allowed	Total Yds Allowed	Points Allowed
Wks 3-7	158.2	268.0	426.2	34.8
Wks 8-14	88.5	230.8	319.3	24.3

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