Panthers have forced 1 punt in 2 weeks. They hand out 1st downs like Halloween candy
On Oct. 18, in the fourth quarter, the Chicago Bears’ Pat O’Donnell lofted a punt into the air against the Carolina Panthers.
It was an unremarkable play, but would be remembered fondly by Panther fans in retrospect. It took Carolina 11 more days and nearly eight full quarters to force another punt. They finally did so in the fourth quarter Thursday night of their 25-17 loss to Atlanta on a rainy night in Charlotte.
In the meantime, New Orleans went an entire game without punting, and the Falcons went nearly 57 minutes. Atlanta punter Sterling Hofrichter finally made an appearance deep in the fourth quarter, nailing a punt to the Carolina 5.
This, as you might gather, is a problem. The Panthers (3-5) have lost three games in a row, partly because they seemingly don’t have the ball for entire quarters at a time. They give out first downs like Halloween candy.
Carolina’s defense actually did play OK inside the red zone, holding Atlanta to four field goals Thursday. The Panthers allowed a 33 percent third-down conversion percentage.
But once again, the Panthers were dominated in time of possession as Atlanta had 28 first downs, while Carolina only had 18 first downs and scored just three points after halftime. I wonder how many punts Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes will end up with in the Panthers’ next game on Nov. 8.
▪ Curtis Samuel’s “Thriller” homage after his first touchdown was the game’s best highlight for the Panthers. Among Samuel’s many talents, he can also dance.
▪ I am not a fan of the three-man pass rush in the NFL on third-and-long. Panther defensive coordinator Phil Snow sure is, though.
▪ When Derrick Brown gets hold of you, he really gets hold of you.
▪ On the Falcons’ first touchdown, Brian Burns rushed from the left side and tried to spin inside to sack Ryan. But Ryan got outside of Burns and there was no one there — the only person with a shot at him was Troy Pride Jr., who slipped and fell. The result: a 13-yard rushing TD for Ryan, which was only the 10th rush TD (and the longest ever) of his 13-year NFL career.
▪ Atlanta linebacker Foyesade Oluokun absolutely dominated stretches of the game. No Panther could block him.
▪ Fox Sports had a nice feature in the pregame on Matt Rhule and Robby Anderson’s bond. Anderson said of how Rhule has changed between coaching him at Temple and coaching him at Carolina: “He works out a little bit more than he used to. He’s taking his diet more serious.”
▪ I didn’t see this, but Panthers’ radio play-by-play man Mick Mixon noted it on his broadcast. When Donte Jackson made his sideline interception of Ryan, Jackson briefly took a seat on the Atlanta bench.
▪ Fox analyst Troy Aikman was critical of Panthers center Matt Paradis several times on the telecast, saying Paradis was doing poorly in picking up the Falcons’ frequent blitzes. Aikman was very complimentary of Rhule, comparing him to his old NFL coach, Jimmie Johnson, who also came from the college ranks.
▪ For the fifth straight game, running back Mike Davis replaced Christian McCaffrey. This wasn’t Davis’ best game. He slipped on a fourth-and-1 in the third quarter and probably wouldn’t have made it anyway.
▪ Julio Jones had 85 yards receiving in the game’s first 11 minutes. Fortunately for the Panthers, he slowed down a little after that, because for awhile it appeared he was going to have another 300-yard game against the Panthers. Jones ended up with 137 yards.
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 11:38 PM.