Captain Munnerlyn is annoyed.
After a 31-21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in which they limited the Bengals to only 66 yards on the ground and forced Andy Dalton to throw four interceptions – the first time since 2015 the Panthers have forced that many – Munnerlyn thinks the defense is starting to find it’s footing, learning to adjust to what Eric Washington wants out of his defense as he transitions from defensive line coach to defensive coordinator.
Even if some of the stats may not be pretty – 396 yards allowed, 100% touchdown percentage in the red zone, 25 first downs – the most important stats are 21 points and one win. Oh, and four takeaways.
“Takeaways are big things to us on the defense – when you can take the ball away from the offense, it’s demoralizing – it hurts,” said Mario Addison. “Anytime we can put our offense back on the field to score points, we’ve got to do it. Hats off to our defense, but we’ve got room to improve and that’s what we’re going to do.”
“We’re starting back over on Monday.”
Head Coach Ron Rivera liked what he saw from his defense today, a week after calling his run defense “terrible” and some of their play “lazy”, complimenting Eric Washington’s game plan and adjustments to try and slow down a team that had scored 68 points in it’s first two weeks – after little to no run defense and pass rush against Atlanta, the Panthers bounced back by constantly bothering Andy Dalton and sacking him twice. If you remove two chunk carries from Giovanni Bernard’s total, the back only picked up 16 yards on ten carries.
But the turnovers are what made the difference. In a game when the Bengals outgained the Panthers and had more first downs, it was the interceptions – three of the four picks resulted in 17 points for the Panthers and the final one ended the game – that ultimately made the difference. The Panthers are 28-5 when winning the turnover differential since 2015 and the Panthers didn’t turn it over once; Cam Newton recovered his own fumble during the fourth quarter after a Carlos Dunlap sack.
“I’ve been bashed before for not jumping on fumbles,” said Newton, tongue firmly in cheek about the gif that seems to circulate on social media anytime Newton’s name is brought up. “So I just wanted to make sure, come hell or high water, I was going to get that fumble.”
Newton is used to being the brashest voice in the locker room, but he’s had some competition since the Panthers spent their second-round pick on cornerback Donte Jackson; Rivera says the swagger that Jackson brings to the locker room is one of the reasons why they drafted him – injuries to Ross Cockrell and Kevon Seymour during training camp pressed Jackson into the starting lineup, and while he’s had his ups and downs, he’s one of only eight players in NFL history to record three interceptions in the first three games of his career, including two against the Bengals.
“The rookie can play,” said Jackson about himself, who added seven tackles and two pass defenses to go with his two interceptions; it’s no surprise he used the third person. “That’s what I’m trying to keep building on; I’m not trying to be a superhero because I have a lot of great players around me; just sticking within the system and coming out and trying to play ball, that’s what I’m trying to do. We have a very smart defense full of very smart players that prepare like no other.”
But Donte wouldn’t be Donte without adding a juicy tidbit about Andy Dalton.
“I was like, I appreciate you, 14 [Dalton’s number],” grinned Jackson. “He was being very generous out there.”
But Munnerlyn is still annoyed – annoyed that Luke Kuechly stole what he thought was going to be his first interception of the season.
“I’m kind of mad at Luke because he kind of jumped in front of me on the last one,” joked the nickel cornerback, who probably lands in the top five among Panthers players in terms of jokes per interview. “I saw it coming and was like ‘Oh, man, this is kind of an easy interception’ and of course Luke jumped in front of me.”
As Kuechly spoke to the media a few minutes later, Munnerlyn grinned and yelled in mock-anger to ask him again why he stole the interception.
“Oh, you’re going to have to take that up with Captain,” Kuechly sheepishly replied – the best linebacker in the league probably ranks a lot lower on the jokes-per-interview leaderboard. “I was just trying to get that ball out of play so we could finish out with a win.”
Life is a lot easier and the jokes are funnier when you head into an early bye with a winning record, but after taking this next week off, the team know they’ll play 13 straight to finish out the season.
“We’ve just got to know when we come back, it’s all gas – no brakes,” said Munnerlyn. “We are going to keep pressing through anything, just like everybody says, ‘Keep Pounding.’ We are definitely going to keep pounding no mater what, and I think that shows every time we step on the football field.”
