Panthers Win Third in a Row

Source: Bellingham Herald

Patience is finally paying off for the Panthers faithful, as the team defeated Tampa Bay 31-13 to improve to 4-3 on the season, marking the first time that they have held a winning record since the end of the 2008 season. Yes, it's been a long time, but the Carolina Panthers are finally relevant again.

The Bucs (0-7) never really had a chance in the Thursday night showdown, with Mike Glennon starting at QB, Doug Martin injured, and the team's entire season spiraling out of control. The Panthers played solid football from start to finish, led by another extremely efficient game from Cam Newton.

Source: USA Today

Newton has now thrown for 667 yards, six touchdowns, and no interceptions over Carolina's last three games, and the team is undefeated during that stretch. The mobile young quarterback finished with 221 yards and two touchdowns through the air, adding another 50 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

The Panthers league-best defense was once again outstanding, allowing just 49 rushing yards and 297 total yards to the Buccaneers.

Head coach Ron Rivera has earned himself the nickname "Riverboat Ron" with his suddenly incredibly aggressive decisions, and it's no coincidence that the Panthers have been winning behind his new mentality. Offensive coordinator Mike Shula has also left his conservative shell and dared to throw the ball when the team gets a lead, and it has paid off in a big way. Shula seems to finally understand Newton's talents, and his play calling has been spot on over the past three weeks.

Next up for the Panthers is a home date with division rival Atlanta (2-5).

Panthers Throttle Rams

Disclaimer: So I am very sorry for not putting up any posts about the loss to Arizona or the win against Minnesota, I have been a little bit busy recently.

The Carolina Panthers (3-3) continue to beat the bad teams and fall to the good ones after their 30-15 week 7 victory against the St. Louis Rams (3-4). The Panthers defense came flying out of the gates, with cornerback Captain Munnerlyn intercepting Sam Bradford's very first pass and taking it back 45 yards for a touchdown to set the tone for the rest of the game.

Bradford would tear his left ACL after being shoved out of bounds on a scramble in the fourth quarter, and the Rams have put him on season ending injured reserve.

Source: SB Nation

Watching the game, a casual viewer would think they were watching a gritty divisional match up between two bitter rivals. In an extremely chippy game, St. Louis accumulated five personal foul penalties and defensive end Chris Long was ejected from the game for throwing a punch during a brawl between more than a dozen players. Carolina wide receiver Steve Smith and St. Louis cornerback Janoris Jenkins exchanged insults throughout the game and got into repeated shoving matches along the sidelines. Smith would get the better of Jenkins, however, finishing with five receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown.

Source: USA Today

Cam Newton turned in a second consecutive quality start, completing 15 of 17 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown. Over his past two games, Newton is now 35 of 43 for 464 yards with four touchdowns and zero turnovers. When Newton produces efficient games and does not turn the ball over, the Panthers are able to rely on third ranked defense and pick up wins. The team has demonstrated this ability over the last two weeks, defeating the Vikings 35-10 last week and the Rams 30-15 this week.

Credit Mike Shula for remaining aggressive despite the Panther's decent lead. Over the first few weeks of the season, Shula had a tendency to go uber-conservative when the Panthers took a lead, a habit he seems to be breaking. Additionally, Ron Rivera continues to show his new gutsy style of coaching, a far cry from his former conservative style. Over the past two years, Rivera would almost always choose to play it safe when given the opportunity, and his gutsy calls always seemed to be poorly timed, leading many to question his game managing abilities. However, over the last two weeks Rivera has made unusually aggressive decisions, and it is no coincidence that his team has won both of those games. Last week against Minnesota, the head coach elected to go for it on fourth-and-one twice on Carolina's opening drive, giving the Panthers a confidence booster that lasted them for the rest of the game.

If the team can continue to turn in efficient performances like these last two, Carolina could be a surprise playoff contender late in the season.

The Panthers will face Tampa Bay (0-6) in a Thursday night battle in week 8.

Panthers Cruise Past Giants

Ron Rivera lives to see another game. In a battle of disappointing 0-2 teams, we learned which team is a lot less disappointing. Carolina (1-2) demolished the New York Giants 38-0, a laughable game that was sweet revenge for the 36-7 drubbing that the Giants (0-3) handed the Panthers last season.

Source: Star Gazette

Eli Manning was visibly frustrated throughout the game, throwing for just 119 yards as the Panthers front seven pounded him into the ground for a whopping seven sacks, led by three from Greg Hardy. The Giants were shut down offensively despite Carolina's rag tag secondary made up mostly of practice squad bodies and free agents brought in just this week. The strange group made up of rookies Melvin White and Robert Lester, along with Drayton Florence and Mike Mitchell, played admirably, shutting down the Giants two dangerous wideouts, Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks.

Source: SB Nation

Offensive coordinator Mike Shula finally seems to understand how to effectively use Cam Newton, and overall the Panthers offense seems to be realizing its full potential. After an early interception, Newton threw for 223 yards and three touchdowns and added another one on the ground. Shula threw in some read option plays and designed runs for Newton to keep the Giants impressive defensive line honest, and it worked to perfection. Cam was getting rid of the ball quickly and making good decisions, and Shula once again allowed Newton to heave the ball over the top of the secondary, leading to a 47 yard touchdown between Newton and Ted Ginn Jr. Brandon Lafell also caught two touchdown passes, and he looked like the number two receiver that Carolina had hoped he would be when they drafted him in 2010.

DeAngelo Williams ran for 120 yards on 23 carriers for a 5.2 yards per carry average. The offensive line opened up gaping whole all day long, and the Panthers were able to total 194 yards on the ground, including touchdowns from Newton and Mike Tolbert.

Source: Panthers.com

Head coach Ron Rivera was on the hot seat following his team's fourth quarter collapses against Seattle and Buffalo, but he may have saved himself with this huge blowout win. Reports are surfacing around the league now that Rivera will not be fired during the season, but there are no guarantees in the NFL, so Rivera shouldn't get too cozy. The organization still cannot ignore Rivera's 2-14 record in games decided by one score or less, and his 14-21 overall record. Even so, Rivera's specialty is defense and we are beginning to see a great one develop in Carolina, so we may finally be seeing his blueprint beginning to come together.

The 38-0 loss was the biggest of Tom Coughlin's career, and also the biggest win in franchise history for the Panthers.

It looks like the Panthers' plan may finally be coming together, and Ron Rivera is sitting on a seat that is not quite as hot as it was coming into the week. Carolina gets a bye week next week to prepare for the Arizona Cardinals in week five.

Panthers Fall to Bills 24-23

Ron Rivera is sitting on the hottest seat in football right now, and it's only week two. After the Panthers heart wrenching last second loss at the hands of the Buffalo Bills, fans are screaming for Rivera's head.

Source: Buffalo News

Under the third year head coach, Carolina is an unacceptable 2-14 in games decided by 7 points or less, a trend that continued Sunday when E.J Manuel found Stevie Johnson wide open in the corner of the end zone with :02 left on the clock. Inexperienced cornerback Josh Norman and veteran D.J Moore got mixed up on their assignments on the play, and Johnson had no one around him when he made the catch.

The Panthers looked like they had the game under wraps with under two minutes to go in the Buffalo redzone. But the drive stalled out with 1:38 to go, and Carolina had to settle for a Graham Gano field goal, giving the Panthers a 23-17 lead, instead of a potential 27-17 advantage. Then the defense I touted so highly last week imploded and Manuel was able to drive the Bills to the Carolina two with six seconds remaining, despite having no timeouts, and you know what happened next.

Once again the Panthers got a late lead and offensive coordinator Mike Shula hid in his shell and went conservative again, and Carolina lost yet another heart breaker. If the Panthers collapse against the New York Giants this Sunday, Ron Rivera may be out the door after just three weeks. For the sake of Panther fans everywhere, let's hope Shula does not take over as interim head coach.

Now that I have ragged on Shula, we can talk about some of the positives from the loss. Shula actually did allow Cam Newton to stretch the field this time, hoisting a barrage of deep balls, primarily to Ted Ginn Jr. Newton overthrew his speedy wideout on most of the throws, but the two finally hooked up for a beautiful 40 yard touchdown in the third quarter that extended the Panthers lead.

Source: Washington Post

Perhaps the biggest negative from the game, however, was the injury bug that suddenly struck the secondary. Safety Charles Godfrey is lost for the season with a torn Achilles tendon, and Quintin Mikel needed crutches on the sideline after an ankle injury. Starting cornerback Josh Thomas suffered a concussion in the game, and James Dockery was out of the game with a thumb injury. D.J Moore was playing hurt on the final play, and Josh Norman had a thigh injury.

All in all Carolina put the reason for their recent struggles on full blast against Buffalo: the team simply cannot close out close games.

Next up is the New York Giants (0-2) in Charlotte in a battle of disappointing 0-2 teams.

Panthers Lose 12-7, Drop to 0-1

Week one of the NFL season has come and gone, and we start off the year with another gloriously blown close game by the Carolina Panthers.

Ho-hum.

Now that my misplaced anger is out of the way, let's talk about some of the good and bad things we saw in the Panther's 12-7 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Source: ESPN

As expected, the front seven looked very much improved, pressuring Russel Wilson out of the pocket all day and forcing him to throw off balance. Additionally, the Panthers' defensive line bottled up Marshawn Lynch for just 43 yards on 17 carries, a pretty remarkable feat. Somehow Wilson was able to throw for 320 yards, a testament to his uncanny ability to get out of the pocket and make solid throws on the run. The same can't be said for every quarterback in the NFL, so the Panthers' defense looks set for some shutouts this season.

Cam Newton looked lost and way to conservative in the passing game, which I will get to later. Newton doesn't appear to have any receivers to stretch the defense, his only true weapons are Steve Smith and Greg Olsen, and Smith isn't the same deep threat he used to be. Brandon Lafell was nowhere to be found, and 

the only other Panthers wide receiver who even caught a pass was Ted Ginn Jr., who had one reception for 10 yards.

Source: Fox Sports

Mike Shula, the team's new offensive coordinator, was way too conservative in his first game. The Panthers used way too many run-run-pass sequences, leading to multiple three-and-outs. The defense was never stretched, as Shula seemed content to run the offense like a west coast system, which simply doesn't work with Newton. With a weapon like Cam, Shula has to allow his star quarterback to use his cannon arm to get the ball down the field and throw bullets into the seams. On the other hand, you can't blame Shula for wanting to stick with the ground game, which had surprising success against a very tough Seattle defense. The Panthers totaled 134 yards on the ground, led by 86 yards on just 17 carries for DeAngelo Williams.

Despite all the negatives, the Panthers still played a great game of football. Their defense kept them in it until the very end, and the team even had a shot to take a 14-6 lead late, before Williams fumbled in the redzone. Williams took fault for the loss and swore it would never happen again, but no game is decided by just one play, so not all the blame can be put on Williams.

All in all, the Panthers were able to keep it close against this year's sexy Super Bowl pick, the Seahawks. That in itself is an accomplishment.  Next up is the Buffalo Bills, where the Panthers may get a shot to showcase what their offense is capable of against a spotty Bills defense.