The Carolina Panthers may be 2-1 in their last three games, but they have not looked like a team that is ready to make a deep post season run.
While teams will take any type of win that is thrown their way, it’s likely that they would not prefer to win the way that the Carolina Panthers did in Week 7 against the Philadelphia Eagles. Trailing 17-0 heading into the fourth quarter, the Panthers scored 21 unanswered points to walk out of Philly with the win.
This was an important victory for the Panthers as it pushed their record to 4-2 and helped quell the growing questions around this team early in the 2018 season. Still, the question stands with just how good this team is with much of the season left to play.
In the Panthers two previous games, they have not looked like a team that is poised to make another run to the postseason. In fact, they looked more like the “Cardiac Cats” of old as they were failing on both sides of the ball. The Panthers rallied late against the Washington Redskins a week earlier, but were unable to finish the job.
On Sunday, they found a way to get the job done against the defending Super Bowl champions. If it wasn’t for a late-game field goal by Graham Gano, the Panthers would have dropped three-straight losses and killed any momentum that was building early in the year.
The question is whether the Panthers can keep this going. Playing from behind will catch up to any team at some point in time. Within the box score, it seems like the Panthers played well, but diving deeper into the numbers reveals some telling trends that do not bode well for the Charlotte-based organization.
Offensively, Carolina is struggling to consistently move the ball. In the last three games against the NFC East, the Panthers are 12-of-33 on third down for a paltry 36 percent success rate. This offense has flashes of excellence from moment to moment, but sputters when there’s a need to complete a play to extend the drive
. To go along with this, Carolina is struggling to score early in the game, scoring 26 points in the first half combined during their last three games. This isn’t a problem that’s indicative to one person, but a collective issue that has the offense stalling out in a way that should cause concern as they head to face a team in the Baltimore Ravens that boasts the best defense in the league.
That turns the focus to how the Panthers are playing on the defensive side of the ball. Overall, this unit has been average in their play this season, allowing 355 yards and 21.8 points per game. Baltimore can challenge those averages and recent play has shown that Carolina continues to wilt against quarterbacks that can move the ball through the air.
Two of the last three quarterbacks faced have put up at least 300 passing yards against the Panthers, with Alex Smith being the only one to miss that mark. Plus, the opposition is having success scoring early as Carolina is consistently playing from behind by halftime, allowing 40-first half points combined in the last three games.
At 4-2 the Carolina Panthers sit on the fence as to whether this will be a team strong enough to reach the post season. There’s a lot of football left to be played, but these distressing signals should not be ignored. The NFC South is a deep division and each of the four teams looking like they can come out on top. Carolina will have to correct these issues if they are going to make history and end the year above .500 for the first time in back-to-back seasons.