Carolina Panthers DE Kony Ealy contributes more dirty work against Texans

For the second week in a row, defensive end Kony Ealy did the dirty work for the Carolina Panthers’ defensive line.

And for the second straight week, Ealy went without a quarterback hit or sack in a game.

The second-year defensive end “factored” into Carolina’s defensive game plan, pushing the pocket on passing plays and being effective in the run game. But one week after not appearing on the stat sheet, Ealy had two tackles and one pass defensed in Sunday’s 24-17 victory over Houston.

Ealy also had two crucial penalties late in the game. He was flagged for roughing the passer on a play that would have put the Texans in fourth down with two minutes left in the game. Later, again on third down, Ealy was called offside and gave the Texans a first down at the Carolina 14 with 26 seconds left.

“When you play defensive line we talk about factoring in a game and factoring in plays and he factored into a number of plays,” defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said. “That was a positive. Having said that, the penalties, it’s cut and dried. You can’t do that in situations in order to win football games. He knows that and that’s going to be addressed as an overall defense.”

While Ealy did not account for one of the five sacks on Ryan Mallett, he did bat down a throw on a quick pass to the left.

But Panthers coach Ron Rivera still wants Ealy to get the rush on early passing downs. Doing the dirty work is nice, but a starting defensive end still has to hit the quarterback.

Working against Ealy is Carolina’s defensive line rotation, which brings on Mario Addison to play defensive end on third-and-long situations. That moves Ealy inside to defensive tackle.

Addison had two sacks against the Jaguars, and Panthers coaches credited him with three quarterback hits against the Texans.

“If you sit there and you take what Mario Addison did with what we had recorded as the three quarterback hits and flushing the quarterback out a couple of times,” Rivera said, “you say that’s what our right defensive end did and that includes Kony, you feel good about that position.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Carolina Panthers DE Kony Ealy contributes more dirty work against Texans."