Defense paves the way to 2-0
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers had one of those blue-sky afternoons where everything seems possible Sunday, throttling New Orleans 26-7 on the strength of a fearsome defense.
Watching the 2-0 Panthers at Bank of America Stadium you had to think: Yeah, the playoffs are possible for this group.
Quarterback Sam Darnold was very good again (305 yards passing), and the defense was great. The Panthers’ defense had four sacks — that makes 10 in two games. The Panthers also picked off Jameis Winston twice and managed to make New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara look ordinary.
Yes, the Saints were undermanned, missing seven starters and a slew of assistant coaches because of a combination of injuries and COVID-19 protocol. Still, they had smashed Green Bay by 35 points a week ago with Winston at quarterback, not allowing a single touchdown on defense and not allowing Winston to get sacked.
Carolina took care of all of that in the first quarter and rolled from there. The Panthers still have yet to trail all season entering Thursday night’s nationally televised road game at the Texans.
There was one brief scare Sunday when Christian McCaffrey left the game and went back to the locker room in the third quarter, but it was only cramping issues and not something more serious. He returned to play in the fourth quarter and didn’t miss a step.
The Panthers had lost eight of their past nine games to the Saints, so any win against their NFC South rival would have been significant. This one came with the added bonus of Carolina thoroughly outplaying the Saints at home.
Again, the Panthers started the game at full speed and slowed down in the second half. They outscored the New York Jets 16-0 in Week 1; this time, it was 17-0 against the Saints at halftime. The teams then played a scoreless third quarter, and New Orleans finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth with a Winston scramble to make it 17-7. But McCaffrey’s first touchdown of the season with 5:53 to go sealed the game, putting Carolina up 23-7.
Red-zone fix
Although the Panthers have moved the ball well during the first two weeks, they were having trouble inside the 20. In Week 1, Darnold missed two open receivers on potential touchdown passes and also lost a fumble when he got too wide on an attempted handoff.
The Panthers scored on their first possession Sunday on a 20-yard strike from Darnold to little-used wide receiver Brandon Zylstra. However, that didn’t count as a red-zone play because it didn’t come from inside the 20.
Then came another possession in which McCaffrey had no room and got stuffed on third-and-goal from the 1, so Carolina kicked a short field goal. That made the Panthers officially 1-for-5 this season on touchdown percentage when advancing inside the 20. But they fixed it the next time. Instead of trying to batter through a stacked box on third-and-goal from the 2, Darnold threw out of an empty backfield and hit DJ Moore for a touchdown on a contested slant pattern.
The Panthers then converted again in the fourth quarter on McCaffrey’s 11yard run.
Speaking of Moore …
Moore has become Carolina’s most effective thirddown receiver, especially on slants. He had several big ones in this game with seven catches for 70 yards in the first half alone. Moore isn’t a big target by NFL standards — he’s listed at 6-0 and 210 — but he excels at catching the ball in traffic and then acting like a running back once he gets it.
In the end zone after his touchdown, Moore also offered a tribute to Brian Burns’ sack celebration, doing a Spider-Man pose.
Kicking woes continue
The Panthers’ kicking game continues to be an issue. Zane Gonzalez made field goals of 20 and 42 yards, but then had a 50yard field goal blocked and returned to Carolina’s 38. And then in the fourth quarter, he missed an extra point.
Gonzalez also obviously doesn’t have the strong leg of Joey Slye or Ryan Santoso, Carolina’s most recent two kickers. (Slye is now kicking for the Texans; wouldn’t it be sadly ironic if he beat the Panthers with a field goal Thursday night?)
Gonzalez, a Deer Park product, had three kickoffs in the first half and none reached the end zone, with New Orleans returner Deonte Harris returning the three for a total of 95 yards. A fourth-quarter kickoff reached only the 15.
Because Carolina picked Gonzalez off Detroit’s practice squad, he has to be on the active roster and must be paid for three weeks. That likely means he will kick at Houston and at Dallas in Carolina’s next two games, unless the Panthers want to waste another roster spot on another kicker. But his chances at a fulltime job here seem iffy.