The Carolina Panthers are coming off one of their worst performances in recent memory, and that’s saying a lot for a team that has been rebuilding for the better part of the last decade. Carolina got embarrassed 43-13 at home against division rivals the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Baker Mayfield revenge game. It was an awful outing that dropped the Panthers to 3-3 on the season and halted the team’s momentum-building two-game win streak.
And now here come the 4-3 Green Bay Packers in a primetime Thursday
Night Football showdown.
The Packers had their own three-game winning streak snapped last week in a 20-17 defeat at the hands of the Detroit Lions on a last-second field goal.
While there is still a lot of football to play this season, a win for the Panthers in this one to get to 4-3 would be a massive boost and cleanse the team’s collective palate of the bitter aftertaste lingering from the Tampa Bay debacle. Whether or not Dave Canales’s squad will come away with a much-needed victory will depend heavily on these four matchups:
Carolina’s run defense vs Josh Jacobs
The Packers come into this game as the least productive rushing team in the NFL. Green Bay averages just 59.9 rushing yards per game, which is last in the league by a country mile. The next worst rushing attack is the Las Vegas Raiders at 74.7 yards per outing, so on paper it looks like the Panthers should be able to bottle up the run.
However (and you knew there was a “but” coming here), the Packers played their first six games without star running back Josh Jacobs due to suspension. Jacobs returned last week and had 11 carries for just 36 yards, but that could be viewed as a tune-up for Green Bay’s featured back. Jacobs, a three-time Pro Bowler, has averaged 74.0 rushing yards per game over his seven-year career, and the Panthers run defense will need to hold him well below that average to keep Green Bay’s offense one dimensional.
The Panthers offensive line against the Packers defensive line
According to the metrics, the Panthers offensive line is struggling this year.
According to those same metrics, the Packers defensive line is struggling even more.
ESPN producesa stat called “win rate” to measure how often offensive lines “win” in both run blocking and pass blocking. On the flip side, it also measures how often defenses “win” against both run and pass blocking.
Coming into Thursday night the Panthers offensive line ranks 31st in run blocking and 25th in pass blocking. As subpar as those results may appear for the Panthers offensive line, they’re somewhat on par with Packers defense’s rankings of 28th in run stop win rate and 26th in pass blocking. Neither team has been particularly good across the line of scrimmage, so whoever wins in the trenches could go on to win this game.
Jordan Love vs the Panthers banged-up secondary
Packers quarterback Jordan Love is having perhaps his worst starting season in Green Bay. Now in his fourth year as a full-time starter, Love is mired in career lows in completion percentage (59.8%), passer rating (90.3), and quarterback rating (59.8). While he’s widely regarded as a good quarterback who can lead a good team to the postseason most years, Love has yet to be selected for a Pro Bowl.
But Jordan Love is probably licking his chops looking at the Panthers cornerback room that’s being held together by band-aids and duct tape. The Panthers Week 1 starting duo of Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson is arguably the best cornerback duo in the league, when healthy. Both Horn and Jackson have been injured most of the season. In their absences, Carolina has been starting fourth-round rookie Will Lee and veteran Akayleb Evans. While this is Evans’s fifth year in the league, he had largely been relegated to special teams duty in the previous two seasons before being thrust into a starting role this year.
While Jordan Love isn’t the second coming of Tom Brady, he’s a good quarterback who at times can be great. The Panthers are going to need their two fill-in corners to step up.
Dr. Jekyll vs Mr. Hyde
If you can figure out the 2026 Carolina Panthers, you are far wiser than I am.
Dave Canales’s team definitely has a Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde vibe this year.
Carolina’s defense can surrender 59 points in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears, then in Week 2 clamp down against the Atlanta Falcons and yield just three points. The Panthers can lose a headscratcher to the Cleveland Browns in Week 3, then pull off impressive back-to-back wins in the two following weeks against the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions.
And just as soon as the Panthers look like they have things figured out and are ready to stake their claim as the best team in the NFC South, they can find themselves losing 33-6 at halftime at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers like they did last week.
The 2026 Carolina Panthers suffer from multiple personalities.
We’ll see if we get Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde on Thursday night.
