When you fall off your bike, the best thing to do is to get right back on. And that's what the Carolina Panthers, fresh off a 30-point loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will have to do this week.
On Thursday, the Panthers will face the Green Bay Packers in a short turnaround from their embarrassing showing—where their run defense allowed a whopping 258 yards and three touchdowns. But the good news is that Green Bay is particularly weak in the area where Carolina suffered most on Sunday.
The Packers have the league's worst rushing offense by a wide margin, averaging less than 60 yards per game on the ground. Then again, they did just get their star running back Josh Jacobs back in the lineup—and if nothing else, they can copy some of the run plays
that worked well for the Bucs in Week 7.
That's exactly what defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton is expecting.
“I think we definitely will see some gap schemes. That’s what was hitting us a lot,” Wharton said, via Joe Person of The Athletic. “But I still think the things that they’re good at, they’re gonna do.”
Well, the Packers are pretty good at throwing the ball. Green Bay comes into Week 8 ranking fifth in passing yards per game (268.6), and has seemingly unlocked the speedy wideout duo of Christian Watson and Matthew Golden.
Pressuring quarterback Jordan Love would obviously go a long way towards containing that element, but the Panthers are going to need an answer on the backend. And to keep the Packers honest, they'll have to prevent them from establishing the run.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers defender expects Packers to copy Bucs in Week 8
