Panthers Tracks: Average or bad? Whatever it is, Carolina isn’t a playoff-worthy team
There’s a fine line in the NFL between pretty good and playoff-worthy. The Panthers had been straddling it since their Week 4 upset of the Texans in Houston.
After two straight seasons of missing the playoffs — and the nine consecutive games the Panthers had lost with anyone not named Kyle Allen starting at quarterback — that milky gray area didn’t feel like a bad place to live.
Until Sunday, when Carolina was knocked from looking like a team with potential to just plain bad.
It wasn’t an offensive issue. It wasn’t a defensive issue. It wasn’t a special teams issues — though special teams continue to be an issue. The Panthers’ 51-13 loss to San Francisco was an issue of Carolina simply not being that good.
That’s a simple way of putting it, but why dance around the truth?
Coming off a bye, Carolina (4-3) had two weeks to prepare for the 49ers’ rushing attack; coach Ron Rivera even stressed to the media how much of a focus the running back trio of Matt Breida, Telvin Coleman and would be. So much for being ready.
Coming off a bye, Carolina had two weeks to prepare for the 49ers’ pass rush. Allen was sacked six times in the first half.
Oh, and coming off a bye, Carolina had two weeks to find a capable kick returner. Reggie Bonnafon and Brandon Zylstra both carried the banner of the since-released Ray-Ray McCloud by muffing catches.
Just about everything the Panthers did well (and these moments were seldom), they immediately flubbed it up: Christian McCaffrey had a 47-yard run nullified thanks to a hold against Trai Turner that was behind the play. … Greg Olsen held his block, then had a delayed release on a route for an important third-down conversion that got called back because Dennis Daley decided to take off down field early. … Bruce Irvin sacked Jimmy Garoppolo for a safety and McCaffrey scored the next drive, and then the 49ers reeled off 24 unanswered points — including with backups.
The 49ers are a good team. They’re no Patriots, and I’ll go ahead and picks the Saints over them in Week 15; still, they’re undefeated for a reason. Coach Kyle Shanahan runs a deceptive offense that’s hard to stop. But Washington held San Francisco to just 9 points a week ago, and even the Browns limited the Niners to only 31 points.
Then how do the Panthers, who knew what was going to be thrown at them, get walloped for 51 points?
We’ve been duped. It appears this team leans more toward bad than “pretty good.”
Whatever the Panthers, they’re not playoff-worthy.
— Matt L. Stephens
Required reading
+ DeCock: Thanks, Kyle Allen, but the Panthers are Cam Newton’s team again — whenever he’s ready
+ Analysis: In prove-it test vs. undefeated 49ers, Panthers flunk in every way possible
+ 49ers rushing attack was a ‘buzzsaw’ in Panthers loss. It also exposed a critical flaw
+ Grading the Panthers’ loss to the 49ers
+ Panthers expected 49ers’ misdirection, but still baffled and bamboozled in blowout
This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 12:00 AM.
