Hello CSR! We’re rocking and rolling into another game week as the 2-2 Panthers are coming off a bye and traveling to Philadelphia for a battle against the 2-3 Eagles. The Eagles started off 2-0 to begin the season but have since lost 3 straight games as they too have experienced the injury bug and shuffling of their roster. OT Lane Johnson abruptly retired last week, they then traded C Cam Jurgens, and they’ve been dealing with multiple injuries at RB including Saquon Barkley, and were missing WR
Devonta Smith last week. Those two specifically could be back this week, which might provide a boost to an offense that has struggled MIGHTILY ass season. The Panthers have been dealing with several issues of their own, but could be getting back OT Taylor Moton, DT Turk Wharton, and RB Trevor Etienne this week from their own injury absences. We won’t know the status on any of these guys until much closer to the game, but we can still evaluate the storylines going into the game now.
Offense: Dealing with the Eagles front, specifically Jalen Carter
The Eagles could also be missing EDGE players Jalyx Hunt and Jonathan Greenard, but this is still a pretty strong unit that the Panthers beat up offensive line will be facing this week. They have LBs Zach Baun and Jihaad Campbell manning the front behind DL Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, and EDGE Nolan Smith Jr. Jalen Carter in particular could be a massive problem for this Panthers front, whether he lines up in the interior or on the outside. Carter can be extremely disruptive, causing 3 sacks and forcing 3 fumbles already this season, and for a Panthers unit that is playing well in the passing game but still allowing a ton of pressures on Bryce Young, Carter could very much be the X-Factor for this game plan. I don’t know how the Panthers will contain him, especially if both Taylor Moton and Monroe Freeling can’t play, and I didn’t necessarily like the matchup even if one of those two guys is playing. Brad Idzik could elect to again hammer the RPO plays to give Bryce Young some quick completions like they did against the Lions front seven, but the Eagles secondary is considerably better than the beat up unit that Detroit fielded.
Defense: Contain Jalen Hurts
The common denominator in both of the Panthers losses this season was facing a mobile quarterback. While week 1 was an all around bad defensive effort, the Panthers defense has done a relatively solid job in the other 3 games. However, when they faced the Browns, Deshaun Watson’s ability to extend plays and break contain was ultimately the downfall of the defense, who again weren’t “bad”, but those scrambles by Watson were back breaking when the defense was attempting to get off the field. Things won’t get any easier this week, as Hurts can definitely run and likely will since the rest of the offense for the Eagles has very much struggled to get much going. If there’s ever a game for the defense to clean up the issues with containing the quarterback and preventing scrambles, its this one. Having Devin Lloyd back will certainly help, but he can’t do it all and he very much needs the edge defenders to do their job.
Bonus storyline: The plan at cornerback
While the Panthers walked away with a win against a very productive Detroit offense in week 4, their cornerbacks got targeted quite a bit, specifically Akayleb Evans. Now, nobody expected both Mike Jackson and Jaycee Horn to go down in the same game the week prior, but the Panthers didn’t really change the formula too much during their bye week. Will Lee, Evans, and Chau Smith-Wade still are the only cornerbacks on the active roster, and they did some churning on the practice squad and have 5 guys eligible to be promoted to the game day roster there. The Eagles have some speedy options between the always reliable Devonta Smith, Makai Lemon, and some of their other depth. The passing offense for them hasn’t been great for several weeks, but Nick Sirianni may choose to let Jalen Hurts put some air yards out there to try and get their offense back on some sort of schedule. Ejiro Evero will need a plan to limit the big plays, and obviously their safety room will play into the equation as well.
What are you watching for this week, Panthers fans?
