Hope for Panthers fading fast
After five consecutive losses, the Carolina Panthers haven’t given up hope.
But time is running out going into Monday night’s home game against NFC South champion New Orleans.
The Panthers (6-7) no longer control their own destiny, but there is a path to the postseason as one of the two NFC wild cards.
“We had high expectations for the season and unfortunately it hasn’t been going our way,” safety Mike Adams said. “The only people we can blame is ourselves. We were put in position to make plays and we just haven’t been making them.”
The Panthers play the Saints twice across the final two weeks of the regular season – with a home game against the Atlanta Falcons in between. The frustrating thing is that a month ago these appeared to be monumental showdowns with the Saints, who eliminated Carolina from the playoffs last season.
Now it’s just a matter of survival for head coach Ron Rivera’s team.
“You have to also understand that there’s a second team out there playing,” Rivera said. “It’s not just about the mistakes you make, but about the plays that they make.”
The Panthers have struggled in clutch moments. They’re 2-5 in games decided by seven points or less.
On defense, the Panthers have been beaten for big touchdown plays and they’ve been unable to get off the field with third-down stops with any regularity.
But the most glaring issues often seem to come on offense because they’ve stalled in the red zone so often that field goals have seemed costly. This comes about despite the Panthers producing the No. 2 rushing offense in the NFL.
It’s the timing of the breakdowns that seems must disturbing.
“It’s extremely frustrating to come up short each and every week with similar settings and not be able to push through,” quarterback Cam Newton said. “In this league, that’s what it always comes down to – finding ways to keep the game close. We just haven’t found a way to win.”
Rivera said he doesn’t anticipate any additional staff changes after the firing of two defensive assistant coaches following the Dec. 2 loss at Tampa Bay. Rivera has taken over the defensive play-calling, though Eric Washington remains as the defensive coordinator.
The Panthers and Saints have developed a rivalry and the scheduling with two meetings late in the season should add to that.
The Panthers will be playing for their playoff lives, so that level of desperation could be a factor. During the five-game skid, only one of the games has come at home. That was a loss to Seattle that affected the potential playoff picture.
Right now, the Panthers figure there’s still time to make this right.
“We feel like we are going to win every game,” defensive end Julius Peppers said. “It is not for a lack of confidence. It is just a lack of execution.”
SERIES HISTORY: 47th regular-season meeting. Panthers lead series, 24-22. Teams met three times last season, with the Saints winning each of those. That included a 31-26 outcome in New Orleans in the first postseason meeting between the teams. Each result last year got closer, with the Saints winning 34-13 and 31-21 in the regular season.
