DJ Moore, Christian McCaffrey give the Panthers the NFL’s best big-play offense
Although there is plenty of angst around the Carolina franchise as the calendar turns to December, you’ve got to give the Panthers this: They have a knack for the home run.
The Panthers boast eight plays of 50-plus yards on offense entering Sunday’s 1 p.m. game vs. Washington. To put it in non-scientific terms, that’s a whole lot. They only had six of those all of last year.
Carolina (5-6) is tied for first in the NFL in offensive plays of 50 or more yards with Tennessee. Baltimore, quarterbacked by likely NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, is close behind with seven.
Seven of the Panthers’ eight 50-plus-yard plays have two people in common: running back Christian McCaffrey and wide receiver DJ Moore.
McCaffrey has three runs of 50-plus — of 84, 76 and 58 yards — and scored on all three of them. Moore has four receptions of 50-plus yards, including two just last week against New Orleans (of 52 and 51). Moore has scored on two of his — he also has two 52-yarders on which he didn’t score. He and quarterback Kyle Allen have had an especially strong connection over the past month.
And then there’s the outlier on this list — backup running back Reggie Bonnafon, who sprinted home with a 59-yard touchdown against Jacksonville.
Do you know who isn’t on the 50-plus list at all? Curtis Samuel, the third member of the “Cat Pack” that also includes Moore and McCaffrey.
Undeniably the MVP of the Panthers’ training camp over the summer, Samuel has shown a knack for the end zone this year (five total TDs) and has proven effective at running the jet sweep.
But those huge plays in the passing game Carolina has hoped to get out of Samuel just haven’t come to fruition often enough.
Samuel has great speed and has occasionally been underthrown by Allen. At other times, Samuel just hasn’t been able to get off press coverage quickly enough, or he hasn’t been able to come up with the 50-50 balls that Moore is able to wrest away from defenders. Samuel’s longest play has gone for 44 yards, and that was back in Week 2 in Cam Newton’s last game at quarterback.
Samuel’s yards per catch this season are only slightly better than tight end Greg Olsen (12.2 to 11.8). With the extra attention given to Moore these days due to his hot streak, though, Samuel is likely going to get some chances for the deep ball against Washington.
▪ One of the greatest football coaches of all time, at any level, died on Thanksgiving Day at age 93.
Think a kind thought today for John McKissick, who coached Summerville High for more than 60 years, from 1952-2014. He won 621 games at Summerville, a record for all levels of football. That’s a staggering number. McKissick averaged 10 wins a year — for 62 years.
More than that, though, McKissick mentored thousands of young men on his practice fields. I wrote several feature stories on McKissick over the years for The Observer, driving three hours from Charlotte to Summerville and to watch him work on Friday nights under the lights.
One thing he said during our interviews still sticks with me.
When explaining to me why he never cut anyone, McKissick said: “They’re not all great athletes. But they’re all good kids.”
McKissick was a testament to quiet grace. The late author Pat Conroy — and if you don’t know who that is, go find “The Prince of Tides” and thank me later — once wrote this about McKissick: “I wish, in my heart, that John McKissick could have coached me in football when I was a boy. Quite possibly, he could not have made me a better athlete, but I think he could have made me a better man.”
▪ Prediction time. I moved to 8-3 picking Carolina’s games this season by successfully forecasting the Panthers’ loss at New Orleans last week. This time I think Carolina will have plenty to defeat a 2-9 Washington squad and get back to .500.
My pick: Carolina 32, Washington 20.