5 keys to victory for the Carolina Panthers vs. Eagles in Week 5

Carolina Panthers must exploit a soft defense

The Carolina Panthers will be going from one of the more surprisingly stout and in-your-face defenses of the NFL in the Dallas Cowboys to one of the softest in the Philadelphia Eagles. Something this team’s playmakers love to exploit.

Space is the one thing you never want to give yards after catch specialists and that’s just what the Eagles defense is built around.

Philadelphia plays a very conservative breed of defense, especially with their linebackers, that sees them play in soft zones most of the time and rally to the ball when it is thrown. This kind of defense can work well in certain situations but can become a liability if a player can cause a few missed tackles. And the Eagles aren’t known to be particularly good at this aspect of the game.

We saw how badly this breed of defense can be exploited in Week 4 when Tyreek Hill was able to put up a massive 186 yards and three touchdowns.

Now the Panthers may not have someone of the speed of Hill, but D.J. Moore is no slouch when it comes to evasiveness and has a little bit of speed to his name for good measure.

The way to beat this defense is actually pretty simple.

Bait them and find the open man.

With this kind of defensive playcalling, there will almost always be someone open enough to catch a pass. Especially with this group of receivers and Tommy Tremble set for a larger role somewhere down the line.

In the end, this game will come down to the short pass setting up the long ball with the positioning of their linebackers and how reactionary their defense is. Bait them into cheating a bit closer to the line with some short screens or similar plays and then catch them flat-footed with a go route to Robby Anderson.

The intermediate game will be nearly non-existent with how crowded that area of the field will become. So look for the Panthers to try and be a bit more risky and explosive.