4 ways Frank Reich and his coaching staff are failing the Carolina Panthers
By Ricky Raines
Carolina Panthers poor planning and penalties
This Carolina Panthers coaching staff has more than 200 years of NFL coaching experience, 75 years of NFL playing experience, and a combined 10 Super Bowl rings earned. It wasn’t a narrative created by the fans or media about this group being an all-star collective. That’s simply the reality.
The thought was that with all this experience, they’d be smooth out of the gates regarding operations on both sides of the football and with preparation. In my best Maury Povich voice - we have determined that was a lie.
The Panthers lead the league in penalties through the first five weeks of the NFL regular season with 41 infractions. No fewer than 14 of those are false start penalties, which is another league-leading figure.
When the question is posed of how much responsibility for penalties should fall at the coaches’ feet, the retort is simple. If they’re not coaching it, they’re condoning it.
There are plenty of instances of highly penalized teams still finding success in the NFL. However, this Panthers group simply isn’t good enough in any aspect of the game to overcome that frequency of avoidable mistakes.
That’s also on coaching.