Carolina Panthers: Four things to look for this Sunday

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See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Now, I know a lot of people go into the New Year stuff. We're going to dive into all that stuff. But there's still games to be played, including this Sunday, the Carolina Panthers taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Last week, Victoria, when I sat in for Adam, I said there were four things that I wanted to see the Carolina Panthers do against the Green Bay Packers. Four things. Okay. Like no, like they weren't, like, major stuff, right?

Yeah. But just four things that I think are attainable for an NFL team in the course of a game. They only did one of those four things. Oh, no. So I'm bringing the four things back. Okay. Bringing them back.

25%. Let's at least make it to like 50. You know what? Improvement. That's what we want. We want improvement. Just progress, please. First thing, I want to see a touchdown of 25 yards or longer.

Okay. Yeah. Whether it's a run by Hubbard or an end around for Amir Smith-Marzette, whatever it is, I want to see 25 yard touchdown. I know Amir-Marzette's touchdown, if I remember correctly, last week was like a 21 yarder. I was like, okay, we're close. Yeah, we're getting there. I think it was actually officially 20 yards because it was a red zone touchdown. Hey, like, hey, I like it. I just want to see like a big play touchdown, right?

So there's one. I want to see an offensive play of over 50 yards, please. No, please. They're the only team in the NFL to not have a play of over 50 yards offensively this season. And we're at what, like week 17, 18? It's ridiculous.

Yeah, we're going into the 16th game of the season. Yeah, it's just, come on. I just want one offensive play of longer than 50 yards. That's all I want.

Just one, just one. I mean, whether it's a, you know, DJ shark catch and run where it's, you know, it's a crossing route where he's, you know, 12 yards downfield and he catches it on like a little post and he just uses his speed and, you know, races downfield and gets tackled, you know, at the 12 and it's a 53 yard pickup. I want to see that. I want to see that just once, just one play. I'm not asking for it every play. I mean, if you do it every play, sweet.

That'd be great. I'm like, Hey, two plays touchdown. Feel like that's a win.

I would say so. So I want to see again, a 25 yard touchdown play. I want to see a 50 yard play. Now Carolina's had a few close ones. I know Miles Sanders had a 48 yard run against the new Orleans saints and Hayden Hurst had a 48 yard reception against the on Thursday night football against the Chicago bears. I know DJ Tark had a 47 yard TD catch against the Seattle Seahawks in week three.

So, Hey, you've done that before. I mean, I know Andy Dalton played in that game against Seattle, but nonetheless, I still want to see that. I also want to see one strip sack on defense. I want to see one strip sack where you get to the quarterback. Not only do you get to the quarterback, you get to the ball.

Yes. I want to see one of the, by the way, Carolina only has one of those the entire season, one strip sack, and it came in week one and it was the third play of the game. So it was the opening drive. Brian Burns comes around the edge. He sacks Desmond Ritter, the quarterback at the time for the Atlanta Falcons knocks the ball out. Now Ritter does recover the ball, but it's a sack fumble, right?

It's a strips. That's what's known as a strip sack. When you sack the quarterback and you force a fumble at the same time. That's the only time this entire season where the Carolina Panthers have sacked the quarterback and have caused a fumble. Now, a lot of people say, I'm going to, I'm going to, I am going to provide context here that Carolina, because if most, most of the season, Carolina has been playing from behind. So there are less opportunities for sacks.

I totally get that. But even in terms of sack percentage, Carolina is still low. And I think they're actually dead last in the NFL in terms of number of drop backs by an opposing team.

The amount of sacks they get based on those number of drop backs. The pack therapy podcast is in session. Tim Donnelly here, host of the drive and your guide for pack therapy. Every episode is your chance to score inside information on the pack. We set you up for Wolfpack games all season long, and we break down the ACC competition. What to watch for as we roll towards the tournament madness, plus special guests to keep your Wolfpack hope alive.

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See amazon.com slash Amazon prime for details. Dead last in the NFL. Still not getting to the quarterback at the rate that they can be. To put that in perspective of when they got their first and last strip sack, Aaron Rodgers was just getting hurt. That is when that was happening at the same time. Aaron Rodgers was still healthy the last time they got a strip sack. That's how long it's been. So I want to see if it's Derek Brown coming up the middle where he just, you know, I mean, if it's, if it's Trevor Lawrence playing, I know he's doing with the shoulder injury.

I know. I'm not sure exactly what his status is going to be because he had a AC joint sprain in his shoulder, but that's it. Now we talked to bash tight hurt yesterday about Brian Burns and his effectiveness and elbow injuries kind of limit him to playing one side of the field, but Brian Burns has only been double teamed on 50 per 15% of dropbacks this season, only 15%. So it's not like he's facing constant double teams. I mean, if anything, probably Derek Brown's probably the one getting double teamed. Now there's really hasn't been someone on the other side of Brian Burns, but still like, I just, I mean, this is a team thing, right? I don't care if it's Frankie Louvou on a blitz.

I don't care if it's Etour Grossmatos. Heck, actually play Jeremy Chin and send him on a blitz. I don't know, something like that. Something like that.

I just want one of those. And the final thing that I want to see again, because Caroline Panthers did this last week, 50 plus percent in terms of red zone touchdown percentage. So what is red zone touchdown percentage?

So when you get inside your opponent's 20 yard line, that's known as the red zone. When you get inside that area, the percentage of times you get inside that area, how many touchdowns do you score? Like, what's that percentage last week? Carolina was three for three, a hundred percent.

That's awesome. Carolina going into the game against green Bay was 45%, which was 29th in the NFL. So yeah, you people talk about yards and you know, all that kind of stuff, blah, blah, blah. To me, it's all about red zone, offensively, defensively, red zone, third downs. I mean, teams can move up and down the field yards, why it's all they want.

But if you sputter, once you get inside the 20 and you're settling for field goals, then what good was it? But if you get in the red zone and you finish, that's what Carolina actually did this past Sunday. They went three for three in the red zone. So that's something I want to see Carolina continued to do offensively. So they did one of those four. They did one of those four.

Can you replicate that? So by the way, with that, with green, the performance against green Bay, going three for three inside the red zone, Carolina jumped from 29th to 23rd in the NFL and red zone touchdown percentage. They're at an even 50% on the season.

Still not great. Now the top teams only like Buffalo's at 67% San Francisco, 67% Miami just under 65%. Like those are the top three teams in the NFL.

Like there's, there's your standard right there. But like, can you get up to where next season where I don't know, Chicago is like Chicago's 12th in the NFL. They're 57%. Chicago, Chicago, put that into perspective. New England.

Great. And they don't get to the red zone often. New England's 11th in the NFL over 57%. We can't have this exactly like you're telling me like they're better than you.

Oh no. Those teams also just don't get to the red zone very often. That's a different issue, but when they get there, okay. They're actually, they're finishing their drives. So again, four things, four things I want to see from the Panthers, a touchdown play of 25 yards or more. Heck, I don't care if it's run pass. I want to see it from the offense, not a pick six, not a kick return.

Great. I'll take those two, but I want to see one of those. An offensive play at 50 plus yards, a strip sack from the defense, and at least 50% red zone touchdown percentage.

Once again, they did one of those last week and it was, it was the red zone. That's it. That's four things. It's not a whole lot to ask for. No, not a whole lot. It's only four.

Only four. Like people like, Oh, 25 yard touchdown play. Like in the NFL, that's like, Oh, okay.

That's nothing. You see 50 yard plays all the time. I just want to see that. I mean, TJ walk, it's a strip sack every week. I feel like he's also TJ.

He is TJ watt. It's in the genes in that family. It's nuts. How's your money feeling? It's about to feel happier with a certificate from happy money's partner, Michigan state university, federal credit union, elevate and increase your savings with 18 month terms and only a $500 minimum. And the happiest part MSU FCU certificates yield 4.5% APY annual presented yield. Now that's a happier side of money. Elevate your savings. Go to happy money.com slash MSU FCU that's MSU FCU funds insured up to 250,000 by NCUA. The APY is accurate as of the 12, one 2023 dividend declaration date early withdrawal penalties do apply. Fees may reduce earnings on the account, any monthly withdrawals or transfers reduce earnings.