5 major factors to blame for Carolina Panthers’ loss vs. Washington

Carolina Panthers were outcoached

This would have been incredibly satisfying for Ron Rivera, who got one over on the team that fired him on his first visit back to Bank of America Stadium. It was a masterful gameplan for the head coach, who snuffed out pretty quickly what the Carolina Panthers were doing on offense and knew exactly where to attack the defensive side of things thanks to his previous knowledge of some personnel.

These smooth adjustments made a significant difference as the game went on. Something Matt Rhule and his staff couldn’t match and this ongoing complication is holding the Panthers back.

That’s the long and short of it, really.

Making excuses for poor execution and sloppy situational football is all well and good and might fly in other organizations. But not when it occurs most weeks.

Rhule is no longer a rookie head coach learning his craft. So it’s about time he started acting like it and start making the correct in-game adjustments that counteract what the other team is doing and provide a spark that simple isn’t there for the Panthers immediately after the halftime break.

Until this happens, the Panthers will only get so far. If last weekend’s shock win at the Arizona Cardinals was their most complete display of 2021, then this one saw them revert to type.

And nobody will have been happier about this than Rivera.