Two months ago, the biggest worry around the Carolina Panthers was what had happened late in wins against the Colts and Packers. Six days after blowing a 23-6 advantage on Monday Night Football, the Panthers nearly gave away their entire 23-point lead over Green Bay.
Those late-game concerns were then mostly forgotten ... until Sunday.
Seattle's 24-point run in the second half of the Panthers' divisional round win left many wondering what happened. But it shouldn't have been that big of a shocker.
Take a look at a couple telling numbers from the regular season:
Points Allowed in 4th Quarter Against
Jaguars QB Blake Bortles, Texans QB Ryan Mallet, Saints QB Luke McCown, Seahawks QB Russell Wilson, Eagles QB Sam Bradford, Titans QB Marcus Mariota, Redskins QB Kirk Cousins, Cowboys QB Matt Cassel and two games each from Bucs QB Jameis Winston and Falcons QB Matt Ryan — 36
Points Allowed in 4th Quarter Against
Colts QB Andrew Luck, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, Saints QB Drew Brees and Giants QB Eli Manning — 67
Notice anything about the second group?
"One of the common things is that those are great quarterbacks that have some playmakers with them, that's probably the first thing," coach Ron Rivera said Monday.
The outlier, of course, is Wilson in the top group. But the first meeting with Seattle was close throughout the second half. The rematch wasn't.
"The second thing is probably having too big of a lead," Rivera admitted, before getting a bit defensive.
"People say, 'You could call certain plays or call other plays.' Those plays may work, but what if they don't work? Now you've given them an opportunity that they're right back in it as well. It's just about making plays.
"We had some third-and-shorts that if we convert on the offensive side, we keep our defense off the field. They had third-and-longs that they converted. Whether we could have made a better call or we could have executed better and then we're off the field."
When offensive coordinator Mike Shula was asked if he thought his second-half calls were conservative, he succinctly replied: "No."
Added receiver Philly Brown, "A lot of people from the outside look in and say we were playing conservative but we weren't. We had great plays there and we didn't execute them the way were supposed to."
And ultimately, despite nearly giving away a 31-point lead, the Panthers did hold on ... again.
"I get it, I understand, but we won those football games. Look at who we played against. That's my whole point," Rivera said. "If this was a 2-14 team that did this to us, then I'd be really concerned, but it wasn't.
"Am I concerned? Yeah. Are these things correctable and fixable? Most certainly. Let's stay focused on what we did. We did some really good things and made things happen and we won the football game."
With four teams still alive, the Panthers can only face three quarterbacks. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer just happen to be pretty good with some playmakers around them.
What could go wrong?
Bill, great stuff. Will you be posting snap counts and/or targets & touches? That would be appreciated.
Hi, Karen … thanks. Hoping to get to snap counts some time Tuesday AM.
I would imagine its quite hard to keep your foot on the gas when you are up 31-0…I was hardly even paying attention at the bar after they got up by so much.
Our team too, is human. Seriously, what was going on in the locker room at half-time? I mean lots of talk about keeping the pressure on, but “we’re up 31-0 on SEATTLE!” Discipline or not, that plays on the psyche.
Conversely, in Seattle’s locker room, they must have been saying “nothing to do but play all-risk and lights out now.”
Would have been a nice feat to completely shut out Seattle, but fact is, they’re talented and wanted to win also.