4 keys to victory for the Carolina Panthers vs. NY Jets in Week 1

Carolina Panthers must finish drives

One of the most concerning trends for this young squad during the preseason was their inability to convert long drives into seven points. Field goals are a good thing don’t get me wrong, but not many games can be won on them alone.

Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs.

There’s also the fairly big question mark surrounding the Carolina Panthers’ ability to even make field goals this season after a fairly haphazard and rushed kicking competition. Something that hopefully won’t happen again for a long while after a few uneasy years on special teams.

With that being said, however, the onus is not on the kicker to gain yards and get touchdowns, at least usually. That burden is on the offense and in today’s NFL the wide receiver group or others assisting in the passing game.

Robby Anderson and D.J. Moore are among the best and most underrated tandems in the league going into 2021 after both having more than 1,000 receiving yards.

This is even more impressive when you consider the conservative quarterback play they suffered through. But the one area that they struggled in was finding the end-zone, combining for a staggering seven total touchdowns.

This is something that has to change this season because if it does not, all those starts are good for are fantasy points and Monday morning arguments.

One thing that should help is the offseason additions of big-bodied targets Dan Arnold and Terrace Marshall Jr. Size wins in the RedZone.

We see this happen time and time again, when the field gets short there is less room for speed to kill and that’s all the team had last year.

The Panthers absolutely have to go at those size mismatches and finally start finishing some drives. We may beat the New York Jets with field goals, but if they can’t fix this issue it won’t beat many others.