What do you think of when you think of Panthers football?
If the image of a bruising running game and a stout defense doesn’t pop into your head, you’re either a fan of the University of Pittsburgh or an NHL team from Florida; while more recent fans may remember Cam Newton’s 35 passing touchdowns from 2015, the Panthers have made their money for the past two decades by running the football and stopping the run.
This season is no different, with the Panthers ranked fourth in the run game on the ground and third on rush defense through the regular season; they’ll be tested on the ground by Kamara and Ingram, who led the Saints to the top average rushing yards per carry in the league to go along with 23 rushing touchdowns. It will be strength on strength, as one of the best rushing duos in the league goes against one of the stoutest and deepest defensive lines in the league; an area where the Panthers usually have an advantage heading into the game is counteracted by the dynamic duo that helped the Saints rack up 149 and 148 yards on the ground in their previous matchups with the Panthers. The Panthers haven’t allowed another team to break 120 in a game this season.
The Panthers must stop the run on defense, but perhaps more important will be there ability to run while on offense; the Saints rank in the bottom third of the league in rush defense efficiency, allowing 4.4 yards per carry, and the Panthers must be able to use their three-headed monster in the running game to shorten the game and keep Drew Brees and the Saints offense off of the field.
Here’s the problem. You know the Panthers need to run to be successful; the Panthers know they need to run to be successful; most importantly, and perhaps most detrimentally to the Panthers, the Saints know that they need to run to be successful. So how does a defense stop the run?
They drop a defender down and put eight men in the box, stacking the line and daring the team to run. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
“There’s not as many lanes,” running back Cameron Artis-Payne said about running against a stacked box. “But the one good thing about running against an eight-man box, as you’ve seen with Stew’s [60-yard touchdown] run against Minnesota, once you break that line, it’s pretty much over.”
“Any time one of our backs is one-on-one with a corner, that’s a definite win.”
Opposing defenses have stacked the box a lot this season against the Panthers; Jonathan Stewart has faced an eight-man box on 51.01% of his 198 rush attempts this season, the highest percentage in the league. But the Panthers offense has responded, allowing the Panthers to gain 1,391 yards before contact throughout the season, again, the highest number in the league. Even facing an eight-man box on over 50% of his carries, Stewart has managed 11 rushes of ten yards or more.
A lot of the running game’s success has had to do with the misdirection that is used by Cam Newton in the option run game; in addition to the power running game of Jonathan Stewart, the value of Newton’s legs has paid dividends for the Panthers this season as Newton has rushed for a career-high 754 yards on 139 carries.
“[Cam] is a viable part of what we want to do and even if he hands it off and carries out his fake, that’s why it’s so important that you fake the ball well,” Ron Rivera explained recently. “If you’re anticipating him running the ball, you’re going to be a little bit more disciplined and be where you need to be; if you’re not anticipating him running the ball and he goes and he hands it off, you’re going to be downhill and if he doesn’t hand it off you’re going to be out of position.”
“I’m comfortable running the football,” said Newton, who has insisted throughout the season that his running ability has been his edge over other NFL quarterbacks. “I feel like I help the team when I’m running the football; as long as I’m playing this game, I will run the football.”
Running against an eight-man box can be difficult, and the Panthers expect to see a fair amount of stacked boxes against the Saints. They’ll need Jonathan Stewart to be at his best, as he was last year when he averaged 4.51 yards per carry against eight-man boxes, including three runs of 20+ yards. Bringing the extra defender down to help in the run game is designed to stop the run, but sometimes the opposite can happen. Big plays can come from the eight-man box.
“If everybody’s does their job, it gives us the opportunity to run on possibly somebody that doesn’t like to tackle as much,” said running back Fozzy Whittaker. “Usually, in an eight-man box, that safety is down to provide that help. Whenever we get that eight-man box, we’ll have one of the receivers block “force”, which is the safety; hopefully, if we get through the first level cleanly, it’s us versus the cornerback, who is moreso paid to cover. It gives us the opportunity to make a big play from there.”
“Obviously, the more people [in the box], it gets a little bit tougher; either way, as long as you execute, you have a possibility to make a big play.”
