4 critical observations from the Panthers success vs. Falcons in Week 10
By Luke Gray
Carolina Panthers played undisciplined
Despite coming away with a win on Thursday, it wasn’t all positive for the Carolina Panthers.
Interim head coach Steve Wilks was no doubt frustrated with the undisciplined display from his team. Something that has to change in the coming weeks if they want to build on this positive result.
In the second half, Carolina’s offense struggled with penalties. It was particularly rough for rookie Ikem Ekwonu who had four penalties on the night for holding, which took away from another outstanding showcase of edge protection from the North Carolina State product.
The Panthers ended the day with 10 penalties for 89 yards. Frankly, this is unacceptable.
Carolina’s offensive unit doesn’t perform well when they are in second or third and long situations. Starting drives with penalties leading to first and 15 or 20 is a surefire way to kill momentum, which was evident to start the second half with the Panthers ending up on the goal line with back-to-back holding penalties from Ekwonu.
Luckily for the Panthers, the Atlanta Falcons aren’t a very good team and were unable to punish these mistakes by Ben McAdoo’s unit. But moving forward when the Panthers face higher-quality teams, a string of penalties is something they must tidy up in order to stay in games.