Carolina Panthers must play from ahead
This may seem like a “well, duh” statement, but bear with me.
The Carolina Panthers are not built to come from behind this season, the offense simply isn’t good enough. In fact, the team can barely move the ball at all, let alone score it.
If you want to beat a championship-caliber team, you’ve got to get up early and make them play catch up. Look at what the Detroit Lions were able to do to the Arizona Cardinals for recent proof of this. A one-win team doesn’t just beat a franchise with the best record in the NFC every day.
When a team gets behind they play pressured, sloppy football and take risks that they normally wouldn’t. Like Tom Brady’s late interception against the New Orleans Saints.
The best players and teams are able to handle that pressure without any slump in production. But any person would be lying if they said that it didn’t affect their playcalling and performance at least a little bit when those lights come on.
A run-first team will abandon this and a conservative offense will start taking shots downfield, that’s the only way to come back in those situations. Getting the Bucs out of their comfort zone early may be the only chance the Panthers have at winning as they aren’t going to triumph in a shootout.