5 most disappointing Carolina Panthers vs. Washington in Week 11
By Dean Jones
Juston Burris – Carolina Panthers S
Getting Juston Burris back into the lineup was set to be a major boost to the Carolina Panthers. The safety had been sorely missed during his time away from the gridiron and placing the veteran with Jeremy Chinn on the backend made this defensive unit a complete force capable of matching up with any standard of opposition.
Sadly, Burris didn’t reach this sort of level on Sunday. He was left manning the safety spot single-handedly on occasions as Chinn came down to lend assistance in pursuit of limiting yards on the ground, which was a responsibility he wasn’t quite ready for.
This task exposed Burris to a certain extent. Although one could make the argument he shouldn’t have been put in this position after multiple weeks on the sideline.
Burris was on the field for 91 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. But his less-than-stellar production was summed up by a mindless unnecessary roughness penalty that probably came about out of frustration more than anything else.
Again, the Panthers will be banking on this being a small bump in the road on defense. Burris and others need to step up their respective contributions or Carolina can kiss any hopes they have of postseason football goodbye.