All the goodwill defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero earned over the past month or so may have just evaporated.
Nothing worked for the Carolina Panthers throughout Sunday's 43-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their highly-productive offense was halted, their special teams faltered multiple times and the focus—as a whole—seemed to be almost non-existent.
But the defense, which was matched up against a very banged-up offense, took the cake.
With their quarterback needing to wear a glove to protect the dislocated thumb on his throwing hand and their No. 1 wide receiver out, the Buccaneers ran their way to the dominant 30-point victory. Tampa dialed up 46 rushing attempts to just 11 passes, and totaled a whopping 258 yards on the ground.
After the
game, head coach Dave Canales was asked if the defensive game plan, considering their opposition's restrictions, lacked in facing the run.
"I liked our calls. We had good run calls to take care of some of that run game," Canales replied. "It just really came down to execution. Came down to guys fitting their gaps, setting their blocks and then containing the running backs.
"They [Tampa Bay] did a good job. Again, I can't take that them away from that—being patient with their runs and trying to find voids. But it is stuff we have to look at. It's stuff that we have to attack and something that we've made great strides in. But we can't have setbacks like this."
Evero and the Carolina defense entered Week 7 in a groove, having bounced back from their nightmarish season opener. From Weeks 2 to 6, the unit ranked second in scoring defense, fifth in yards per play and 10th versus the run.
That group, however, was nowhere to be found this time around.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers HC Dave Canales is asked about defensive play-calling after getting run over by Bucs
