Hello CSR! Its time for this week’s edition of the Panthers defensive preview, as they’ll travel to Lambeau Field to face the 5-1-1 Green Bay Packers. The Panthers defense is coming off a dreadful performance, albeit definitely not aided by 3 turnovers on the offensive side of the ball. The Panthers defense managed to keep the team in it, as the score was at one point brought to 6-3 Bills after a Ryan Fitzgerald field goal. The wheels fell off after that, and in total the Bills ripped off 245 total yards
rushing and 4 TDs, which led a 40-9 thrashing of the Panthers. With a bunch of injuries on the offensive line, and a potentially hurt Bryce Young stepping back in on Sunday, the Panthers defense will likely need to once again keep the Panthers in the game in order to have any chance of a victory. Let’s dive in.
- Limit the rushing attack. The Panthers got blown up against the Bills, but luckily they are facing a Packers team that seems much less effective at running the football. They are 16th in rushing yards per game, despite running the ball 47.65% of the time, good for 4th in the NFL (all stats per Teamrankings.com). They average roughly 3.9 yards per attempt, 24th in the league. So while I would expect the Packers to try and lean on some of the concepts that killed the Panthers this past Sunday, the Panthers might be able to win this matchup if the game script manages to fall in their direction. All they can do is try to control the line of scrimmage and let the big men in the middle do their work. This will especially matter in the RedZone, as Josh Jacobs has racked up all 9 of the Packers rushing TDs in 7 games this season.
- An injured pass rush. The Panthers managed another two sacks against the Bills, which didn’t really help but continues their upward trend of doing better than zero sacks on GameDay that we’ve seen finally over the last few weeks. However, Princely Umanmielen and Trevin Wallace both did not practice as of Wednesday, and the Panthers general ammunition for rushing the passer was already starting to wear thin. They added 49ers practice squad OLB Trevis Gipson this week to their active roster, someone who was contributing this year due to injuries but in general hasn’t moved the needle since 2022, so that should tell you what kind of state the pass rush is in. They’ll still need to find a way to get after Jordan Love, who has a bevy of weapons that he can and will throw to if given too much time in the pocket.
- Navigating a diverse passing attack in the secondary. Tight end Tucker Kraft has been the Packers leading receiver this season, which is already a bad sign for a Panthers defense that generally struggled against tight ends (but has improved over the last two weeks!). Romeo Doubs has been their second leading receiver, and that duo has 10 TDs between them on the season. Behind them, you have rookie WR Markus Golden, Dontayvion Wicks, and Christian Watson all expected to factor into the passing attack. The Panthers have done relatively well in limiting the pass this season, but I don’t know if they’ve faced an offense that could and likely will spread the ball around as much as this offense can do.
What are you looking for on Sunday, Panthers fans?
