Let’s take a look at where I started this prediction piecelast week:
Things seem to be looking up for the Carolina Panthers and quarterback Bryce Young. One dominant defensive performance and two excellent offensives ones have given us more good football to start a season than we have seen in years.
Welp.
Nothing feels like it is trending upward after how thoroughly the Panthers fell apart against the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, Bryce Young didn’t play amazing football and had more than a few plays that
failed the eye test he was otherwise acing this season. Yeah, Ejiro Evero’s defense couldn’t get a stop at the end of the game. Those are both valid complaints. The early aggressiveness on fourth down and the inability to establish a consistent running game are what cost us that game more so than anything else that was under the Panthers control. The real story, however, continues to be the injuries that the Panthers have suffered.
I’m still wary of Young’s future, but I can’t really judge anything when the team can barely field half of the starters they entered the offseason with. This week’s injury news started rough and has only gotten moreso with the release of the injury reports. To put it all in perspective, Pride of Detroit asked us five questions this week and four were related to the Panthers injuries. Here are our predictions for the week, but reader beware: there isn’t a lot of optimism to be found right now.
Staff predictions for Week 4
Walker Clement
Panthers 17, Lions 21 – A fourth quarter touchdown makes the score look closer than it feels, but still not close enough to cover the spread. The only thing that slows the Lions down is the rain.
Jonathan DeLong
Panthers 28, Lions 35 – The offense gets their mojo back against a bad Lions defense but they can’t overcome all the injuries in the secondary.
Brian Beversluis
Panthers 24, Lions 35 – Jahmyr Gibbs gets 200 scrimmage yards.
Daniel Belton
Panthers 73, Lions 84 – The Lions offense against the banged up Panthers defense is the immortal clash between the Unstoppable Force and the Quite Easily Movable Object. Amon-Ra lights up the Panthers secondary, Bryce Young continues playing well but can’t keep up.
Eric Buchanan
Panthers 27, Lions 34 – Panthers attempt to slow the game down early, but a couple big plays from the Lions open the floodgates to a shoot-out.
Andrew Sweat
Panthers 34, Lions 10 – Since the Panthers seem to always do the opposite of what I think they’ll do, Carolina wins as Bryce Young throws for 400+ yards
