3 silver linings for the Panthers following Week 10 loss vs. Bucs
By Dean Jones
Final. 46. 48. 23. 87
Were there any silver linings for the Carolina Panthers in Week 10?
The Carolina Panthers won’t be examining the tape of their Week 10 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for too long. An embarrassing 43-26 loss to their NFC South rival came thanks to a disastrous second-half performance that ensured a fifth-straight loss and head coach Matt Rhule now staring at a 3-7 record.
Everything went wrong after the break. But it’s not like this is a rare occurrence.
Sufficient adjustments aren’t being made by the coaching staff and for some reason unbeknown to those on the outside looking in, the players are suffering a significant drop-off in effort and production, especially in the third quarter.
Few projected the Panthers to make any substantial strides this season. However, this roster was expected to get better as the campaign wore on. This is obviously not the case at this particular juncture and their latest collapse is another strong indicator that there is plenty of work still to do in order for Carolina to secure realistic postseason ambitions in 2021 and beyond.
It might not seem like it right now, but it wasn’t all bad. Here are some silver linings the Panthers can take from another body blow at Bank of America Stadium.
Silver Lining No. 1
Red zone defense
For all the Panthers’ faults, this would have been a blowout of epic proportions had it not been for some improved red-zone defense. They might have had some trouble keeping the Buccaneers from moving the ball in the open field, but once things got a little more condensed it brought around some marked improvements.
This is probably the only positive one can take from their defensive display. They won’t be coming up against teams with the elite weapons available to Tampa Bay every week, but it’s clear that some vast changes made across the board this offseason aren’t working out.
However, once they take a look at the film from this absolute horror show, this will be something that really catches the eye as a positive.