4 pivotal matchups that will decide Panthers’ game at Giants in Week 7

Carolina Panthers DE Brian Burns vs. Matt Peart

Brian Burns hasn’t exactly had the year we all expected him to in the early going with only three sacks so far. However, the fanbase as a whole had pretty lofty expectations for the third-year defensive end.

That being said, Week 7 may be Burns’ best chance to have that standout performance yet as the New York Giants line hasn’t exactly been good this year and they suffered another big loss on Sunday with starting left tackle Andrew Thomas going on IR with an ankle injury.

Once again, Burns will be going against a backup and will need to exploit that weakness. Starting caliber tackles are hard to come by and competent backups are even rarer, you can just ask the Carolina Panthers about that.

Matt Peart will look to be that backup thrust into the starting role and things didn’t go particularly well in his first snap on Sunday, to say the least. Daniel Jones was strip-sacked and that really put the game entirely out of reach.

The promising thing from a Panthers’ point of view is that sack came on a simple speed move, the very thing that Burns excels at better than just about anyone.

Now there isn’t a lot of tape on Peart as the second-year player only has two career starts. But the fact he isn’t starting for a team that has struggled along its line as much as the Giants should speak for itself.

Burns has to take over this game, the Panthers have looked like a broken team and need a spark. What better way to provide that than an overenthusiastic celebration from our very own Spider.

The budding superstar has gotten close and made his presence felt plenty of times this season but just hasn’t been able to get the job done on many of those opportunities. If the Florida State product can start cashing in on what should be a feast of epic proportions on Sunday, it could be just the jump the Panthers need to get things back on track.