It’s been a brutal stretch for the Panthers as the team has spiraled to now lose five in a row – Sunday’s road loss to the Browns dropped them to 6-7 and 1-6 on the road; there’s been a few reasons for Carolina’s collapse after a 6-2 start, with the offense’s recent struggles getting some attention, but the inability of the defense to generate any pressure on the quarterback during this stretch has been staggering, coming to a head this Sunday in Cleveland.
The Panthers defense has produced 63 quarterback hits this season, the fourth-lowest amount – only Oakland, Miami and Atlanta are lower – in the NFL. On Sunday against Cleveland, it got even worse as they only hit Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield a single time – on the Captain Munnerlyn sack late in the third quarter.
Munnerlyn was able to get this sack on a near-side blitz in which he was not blocked at all; Carolina sends a zone blitzer on this play, but Baker Mayfield has no time to react because of Munnerlyn’s presence, and as he’s sacked, the Browns are forced to punt.
Yes, the Panthers defense was facing a Browns offense that since Week 9 has only given up four quarterback hits in their last five games – which is crazy, and when you consider that through the Browns’ first eight games on the season, they had given up 61 QB hits, it gets even crazier. It doesn’t help that Carolina’s 26 QB hits since Week 9 is also tied with the Bills for the seventh-lowest amount during that stretch.
The Browns have one of the best interior lines in the league, with left guard Joel Bitonio, center JC Tretter, and right guard Kevin Zeitler all playing at very high levels – the tackles are where the issues have cropped up, but newly-installed offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens has done a great job of offsetting this to a degree by giving Mayfield easier reads, an increase in motion and misdirection, and better use of personnel than Hue Jackson and Todd Haley did.
Now, you may remember that this was not the only sack from the Panthers defense in this game – but it was the only one that counted…
On a key 3rd-and-3 play – on a drive where the Browns would eventually take their first lead of the game and never relinquish it, Thomas Davis picked up what looked like a drive-ending sack on Mayfield on a blitz that wasn’t picked up. However, a holding penalty on Munnerlyn extended the drive, eventually leading to a Nick Chubb touchdown inside the red zone four plays later.
Now, while this call didn’t decide the game outright, it certainly was a momentum swinger. Let’s take a closer look to see how severe the holding was.
Looking at it, it does appear that there’s a slight tug from Munnerlyn on Rashard Higgins, but a case can be made that this penalty was a little generous. I understand why it was called, as perhaps at full speed it looked more convincing, but this is a tough pill to swallow for a team that needed a win to stay alive in the NFC playoff race.
Munnerlyn was even more insistent, especially after he says the referee admitted he may have made a mistake.
“I don’t care if I get fined or not, I think it’s bull,” said Munnerlyn after the game. “There was a sack on the play – he was going down; I even went to the sidelines and looked at the picture. I didn’t have my hands on him when TD wrapped him up. I thought it was a plaster situation and I touched him and then the flag – I can’t believe it. The referee’s explanation to me, when we were going into the fourth quarter was, “I don’t know what was going on, I might have missed that call. I probably messed up.” I don’t think, in that situation, you can say ‘I might messed up,’ that’s a critical situation in the football game and to say ‘I don’t know, I might have messed up.”
But the holding call wasn’t the reason the Panthers lost – the lack of pressure likely was.
When you get down to it, the Panthers have one of the worst pass rushes in all of football – it’s not too hard to see why. Kawann Short has been fine this season, but Dontari Poe hasn’t made the impact the team thought they’d get with him coming into the season and the edge rushing combination of Julius Peppers and Mario Addison is old and stale – it’s been easy for teams with capable offensive lines to block this combination. Efe Obada provides some solid depth, but Carolina clearly needs more help off the edge in the offseason.
Whether that comes in the form of the draft or free agency, it better come quick.
