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Final Defensive Rankings for the 2021 Carolina Panthers


trueblade
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The offensive ineptitude and turnovers definitely skewed the yards allowed stats. The defense faded hard once Dallas exposed the weakness in the running game and Carolina couldn't stop anyone as the season went along, allowing 27 or more points 7 times in the last 8 games (only the Taysom Hill-led Saints scored fewer...), more than 30 points in 6 of those 7 and more than 40 in the final game.

Edited by KSpan
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There are so many things to say here.  Did we give up fewer yards because we kept turning the ball over?  Absolutely.  Likewise, we gave up more points because our opponents started closer to our goal line.  It's not all that hard to score when you get the ball and only need a couple first downs to be in FG range.

Our defense was dead last in opponent starting field position.  No other team's defense started, on average, in worse position.

Our defense has flaws, I will readily grant this.  However, we are not NEARLY as far away from being a true top 10 defense as some metrics (and fans, and pundits) would like us to believe.  Give the Panthers an offense that isn't historically bad - even just an average NFL offense - and you'll probably see quickly that we have a defense which can be pretty darn good.

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Intentional or not, the defense is constructed to play with a lead.  We have a good pass rush and cover corners.  Unfortunately, we do not have an offense capable of producing a lead.

The defense's weakness is stopping the run.  That's a bad weakness to have when you have a bad offense, but it's also not great for a championship defense.  Stopping the run is usually important in the playoffs.

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44 minutes ago, kass said:

2nd in yards, is that because the opponents started so close to the end zone?

Yep.  I believe we were first in terms of bad field position for the defense due to our offensive ineptitude.  We were so good in defensive yardage because there simply weren’t many yards left to get into the end zone.  I think we were first in defensive yardage before Tampa tore us up 

Edited by PandaMan
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During the mid-season, I had it out with 5+ huddlers when I said this defensive was NOT top 5 or 2. Where are you stooges at now?? You you still willing to say this is a top 5 group. "Your eyes/gut is wrong Bas". I always callout my rare mistakes, never see it the other way...

Edited by Basbear
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20 minutes ago, Waldo said:

So anyone can run on us and they don't need much yardage on offense to still win. Cool.

Anyone calling this the #2 D has severely lost context or just didn't put any effort into that analysis. 

That would be Matt Rhule, who mentioned having the #2 defense in his last presser as a bright spot of the season. I'm surprised no one brought up the turnovers/field position. We were super average in sacks and only had 9 interceptions, 2 of which were Gilmore who didn't require any coaching

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13 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

That would be Matt Rhule, who mentioned having the #2 defense in his last presser as a bright spot of the season. I'm surprised no one brought up the turnovers/field position. We were super average in sacks and only had 9 interceptions, 2 of which were Gilmore who didn't require any coaching

The longer you look, the worse it gets. 

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