The Carolina Panthers’ defense was swarmed in their 43-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While the Buccaneers’ defense added to the scoring, this is the second out of six games that the Panthers’ defense has allowed more than 40 points on the scoreboard. Head coach Dave Canales made it clear after the game that he did not have an issue with the play calls by defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero. The issue was execution related.
“I liked our calls,” revealed Canales after the game. “We had good run calls to take care of some of that run game, and it just really came down to execution.”
Canales noted that the defense was not filling the right gaps and being assignment sound.
“It came down to guys fitting their gaps,” said Canales. “Setting their blocks and then containing the running backs. They did a good job.”
Canales gave credit to the Buccaneers’ rushing attack as well, but added that the team cannot continue to have this happen.
“I can’t take that away from them being patient with their runs and trying to find voids,” said Canales of the Bucs run game. “But it is stuff we have to look at. It’s stuff that we have to attack and something that we’ve made great strides in, but we can’t have setbacks like this.”
The Panthers were strong between Weeks 2 and 6, but there are two major outliers in their run defense.
Carolina Panthers Run Defense Falls Apart in Loss to Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This is a similar sentiment to what Canales expressed in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears. Chicago scored 59 points in Week 1. D’Andre Swift had 18 rushes for 124 yards, and his backup, Kyle Monangai, had 10 rushes for 100 yards.
Canales said that the defense played hard, but once again admitted that they were not executing the scheme.
“We played hard,” Canales said. “We played with great effort. The guys were together. All those things are true. Playing smart, that’s where we fell short. And it was about executing our plan. It was about timely and costly penalties. Certainly, the turnovers … against a really good team. That’s not something that you can do to play the championship football that we need to play.”
The next week they faced Bijan Robinson, but he had 16 rushes for 72 yards. They held Quinshon Judkins of the Cleveland Browns to 70 yards on 18 rushes the following week. Their most impressive performance was Week 4, when Jahmyr Gibbs was held to 46 yards on 15 rushes.
Then, they shut down the Philadelphia Eagles, but Saquon Barkley was out.
Panthers Run Defense Under Fire
Then, in Week 7, it looked similar to the first week. Bucky Irving had 24 rushes for 106 yards, and Kenneth Gainwell added 14 rushes for 88 yards. Even Sean Tucker had seven rushes for 52 yards.
Bobby Okereke, Akayleb Evans, Nick Hampton, Princely Umanamielen, Zakee Wheatley, and Nick Scott all missed tackles in the loss. Scott missed two tackles.
Dave Canales Reveals Why Panthers Defense Collapsed in Week 7