The Panthers continue to find new and creative ways to lose games – having now slipped to 6-7, they would likely find themselves out of playoff contention in any normal season.

But this isn’t a normal season and despite being under .500 the Panthers find themselves just half a game back in the hunt for the sixth seed with three games left in the season and somehow an even more clear path than there was last week. In those three games, they will host the 4-9 Falcons sandwiched between two games against the Saints, and while given their current form, the Falcons game will be far from trivial, if the Panthers are going to make the playoffs, they are almost certainly going to have to win at least one game against the Saints.

Two weeks ago, this looked like an impossibility, with the then 10-1 Saints having won ten straight and possessing one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL. However, over the past two weeks, they have found themselves being almost completely shut down on the road against the Cowboys and needing a 17-point fourth quarter to rescue a game against the floundering Buccaneers. What these teams have done, therefore, is give the Panthers a blueprint as to how to beat the Panthers – while the Bucs weren’t able to see this through, the Panthers should know what it is they need to do if they are to end their losing streak on Monday nights at home to the Saints.

Step One: Stop The Run

It’s never good to allow a team to run all over you – but for the Saints, the run game is even more important than with most teams. The Saints offense isn’t the Chiefs, they’re not built on explosive passing plays to generate chunk plays to either set up easy scoring opportunities or to flip the field; rather, the Saints look to move the ball meticulously down the field with an excellent run game and an efficient short and intermediate passing attack. The Saints use their run game to put them ahead of the chains and if the Panthers allow them to do this, they will likely find it hard to force the Saints into many third down situations, and the ones they do manage to get the Saints in will likely be fairly manageable – how do you stop a team from running the ball when they have a great OL and two good running backs?

First, despite many of the struggles in the past month-and-a-bit on both sides of the ball, the Panthers have actually done a fairly decent job of stopping the run; with the Seahawks’ vaunted rushing attack and others being held largely in check. At the end of the day, run defense comes down to doing a few simple things adequately over and over again, and on the times when the Panthers have struggled against the run, it has largely come down not to a lack of talent, but rather to a failure to do basic jobs well. Missed tackles have been a theme throughout this season at times – if they are unable to make tackles against the Saints, they have almost no chance of keeping their running game in check. There’s not much strategy, if any, that can make up for poor tackling on defense.

The other thing that the Panthers have to demonstrate on every rushing play is gap discipline; if the Panthers give the Saints easy rushing lanes, they will almost certainly take advantage. This was one of the Panthers’ biggest issues last season against the Saints, they’d play generally good defense only to give up chunk rushing plays that undid all of their good work. Some of the issues in this regard can be put down to the Panthers trying to be too clever, as some of Eric Washington’s experiments with defensive line formations have put players in positions that they’re just not used to being in – while the fault is at least somewhat on the players, when you have put a defensive end in as a 3-technique and then ask him to drop into coverage, it’s quite hard to blame the player completely if he doesn’t stick to his gap. There really is a lot to be said for keeping things simple when defending the run, and the Panthers would be well served to remember that.

The Bucs’ run defense fell apart in the second half, but in the first three quarters of the game last Sunday, they were able to keep the Saints’ run game in check – they nearly came away with the upset as a result. That alone wasn’t enough, but it went a long way to getting the job done.