538: Panthers may be screwed

[UNCrules2187]

Quote

 

The Carolina offense was unusually successful last year: The Panthers led the NFL in scoring and offensive touchdowns, but the team ranked just 11th overall in yards and just ninth in net yards per pass. Carolina also averaged a league-high 5.54 points per trip to the red zone last season, and history shows that that level of success isn’t sustainable; as a result, some regression to the mean on the scoreboard was to be expected.

But the defense, which returned All-Pro linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis and Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kawann Short, was supposed to again be among the league’s stingiest units. So far, it has allowed Trevor Siemian to lead a fourth-quarter comeback in his first NFL start, failed to record a takeaway against a Vikings team missing Adrian Peterson and in Sam Bradford’s second start with the team, and on Sunday allowed an opposing QB to reach 500 passing yards and an opposing pass catcher to reach 300 receiving yards in the same game, a first in the Super Bowl era.

Josh Norman isn’t walking through that door, and both Newton and Davis (hamstring) are banged up. The Panthers were probably worse than their record for most of last year and are likely better than their record this year. But with both the offense and defense taking steps back, it’s time to panic in Carolina.

 

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-it-freak-out-time-for-the-panthers-and-cardinals/

[Adb6368]

They obviously haven't read our board... I thought the time to panic was after week 1?