Last time in Atlanta, Panthers DBs couldn’t keep up with (Julio) Jones

Carolina cornerback Bené Benwikere didn’t need to be in the Georgia Dome last December to know the Panthers’ defensive backs had left their mojo in Charlotte.

Benwikere, watching from his home in Charlotte while recovering from a broken leg, noticed how calm and understated cornerback Josh Norman, in particular, was a week after his personal foul-filled grudge match with New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham.

What followed was a listless 20-13 loss to the Falcons in Week 16 that ended the Panthers’ dreams of a perfect season.

Norman is gone and last year’s game won’t have any bearing on Sunday’s final Panthers-Falcons matchup in the Georgia Dome, which the Falcons are leaving for a $1.4 billion stadium after this season.

But the Panthers are ready to avenge their lone regular-season loss from 2015 and say they need to be more aggressive in the secondary against Falcons wideouts Mohamed Sanu and Julio Jones, who had a big day vs. Norman in December.

“Those guys need to go out there and if they get (pass interference penalties) for being too chippy, then we’ll live (with) it,” defensive tackle Kawann Short said. “We feel like our defense is good enough to stop that if it happens.”

The secondary’s swagger boiled over last year during a Dec. 20 win at New York, where Norman and Beckham went at it after the whistle throughout the game. Giants players also complained about safety Marcus Ball bringing a bat on the field before the game.

Giants punter Brad Wing claimed Ball threatened Beckham, while the Panthers defensive backs said the bat was a prop representing their “keep bringing the wood” theme.

The fallout included $26,000 worth of fines for Norman, a one-game suspension for Beckham and a different vibe the following week in the Georgia Dome, where game officials formed a barricade of sorts near the 50-yard line to ensure players stayed on their side of the field during warmups.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera thought the extra officials’ presence was unnecessary.

“Yeah, to me it was. But they did what they felt they had to do,” Rivera said. “So going forward, it’s water under the bridge and there’s nothing we can do about that.”

Something amiss from the start

Benwikere sensed something was amiss from the start when he noticed Norman wasn’t doing his usual jawing with Jones or celebrating after good plays – not there were a lot.

The Panthers had no answer for Jones, who caught nine passes for 178 yards. Norman covered Jones most of the game, although Jones’ 70-yard touchdown catch came when he made a great leaping catch over middle linebacker Luke Kuechly and ran into the end zone.

“I was at home watching and I just remember seeing the team wasn’t playing with the usual swagger that they’d been playing with,” Benwikere said Wednesday. “They seemed a little more reserved, trying not to get in trouble or do anything to get in trouble.”

Short remembered conversations before the game about the defensive backs not being too aggressive after the events from the Giants game.

But nickel back Robert McClain, who joined the Panthers the week of the New York game, isn’t sure there was a hangover effect.

“We weren’t really walking on eggshells after the Giants game,” McClain said. “We knew they were going to be ready. We knew they didn’t want to play the way they played the first game. So we knew they were going to be prepared and have a little payback.”

A bad taste

The Panthers had blown out Atlanta 38-0 two weeks earlier in Charlotte. Falcons coach Dan Quinn said erasing that memory was more important than spoiling the Panthers’ shot at perfection.

Carolina had a shot to tie the game in the final two minutes. But defensive end Vic Beasley had a strip-sack against Cam Newton and defensive end Adrian Clayborn recovered to seal it.

“We went to Carolina just a few weeks prior to that and they really kind of stuck it to us and we didn’t play as well as we would have liked. That’s a feeling that you don’t like,” Quinn said during a conference call with Charlotte reporters. “To play better was certainly something that we felt better about.”

Rivera agreed with Benwikere’s initial assessment about the secondary – Norman in particular – being swag-less in Atlanta. But the sixth-year coach wasn’t interested in looking back Wednesday.

“It’s one of those things that who knows what could’ve happened? But again, kudos to them. They played a good game and were able to hold us off at the end,” Rivera said. “It happens. This is 2016 and we’re in position where we can beat a division foe and take a step up on them in the race for the division.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Last time in Atlanta, Panthers DBs couldn’t keep up with (Julio) Jones."