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.