Secret to Panthers’ recent success after byes? It might be timing, Ron Rivera says

There was a time when Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera just couldn’t quite solve the game following a bye week.

But they’re not so bad these days.

From 2011 to 2014, Rivera and the Panthers were 0-5 after having the previous week off, including a playoff loss.

But starting on Oct. 18, 2015, they turned that completely around.

That was the day of a 27-23 victory against Seattle at Century Link Field, the first time Carolina had beaten the Seahawks in five meetings. It also kicked off a three-game winning streak (including a playoff game) when the team is coming off a bye or week-long break. The Panthers also beat Seattle following a first-round playoff bye that same postseason.

Perhaps things started to click because winning in one of the toughest road atmospheres in the NFL made everything else look easier afterward. Or perhaps it was because that particular bye week was so early in the season (Week 5).

Or maybe there was some magic switch Rivera figured out how to flip.

But probably not.

“I think the biggest thing that our guys have done, and I think it’s attributed to them, really, is we get in the latter part of the year and we seem to play well,” Rivera said when asked about the team’s formula for that success. “We’ve done well in November, December, typically. So I think a lot of this will reflect the way they approach things.”

Since Rivera arrived in 2011, the Panthers are 36-15 in November and December games, which Rivera thinks is closer to the answer to Carolina’s recent success out of the bye week than any kind of tweaking of the schedule (or lack thereof) the team has implemented.

“That, I think, is important. I don’t think there’s really any real magic formula to it,” he said. “Early on, we weren’t very good coming out of the byes, and then we started being really good. ... So who knows. I really think it’s about the players.”

They Panthers (7-3) will visit the New York Jets (4-6) on Sunday after heading into their bye week on a three-game winning streak.

Despite losing rookie receiver and second-round pick Curtis Samuel for the rest of the season to an ankle injury, Carolina gets a little boost to help keep up its pace.

Veteran tight end Greg Olsen, who has missed eight games with a broken foot, was practicing fully on Monday morning and again on Wednesday and expects to be able to play on Sunday.

“He brings a calming presence, not that anything has been a lack of production in that tight end room with him out,” said quarterback Cam Newton on Wednesday. “Greg is just a pro’s pro. ... It’s just an extra piece to the puzzle that we’ve long been missing.”

Carolina will also face former Panthers second-round draft pick Kony Ealy, a defensive lineman who is having some long-awaited success in New York.

But what does Newton expect to see when he faces Ealy?

“Nothing,” he grinned, with a long pause for effect before he continued.

“... I’m hoping. But I wish him the best.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2017 at 9:07 AM with the headline "Secret to Panthers’ recent success after byes? It might be timing, Ron Rivera says."