If the Carolina can’t fix its scoring issues, this could quickly turn into the type of season that many experts thought would be the case for the Panthers before the season started.
The Panthers entered Sunday’s game against the Chicago already with one of the worst offenses for scoring touchdowns once in the red zone.
That trend continued as Carolina only managed one touchdown despite having three trips to the red zone and as a result the Bears took a 23-16 win at Bank of America Stadium and snap a three-game winning streak by the Panthers.
“It’s something we have to solve,” Panthers head coach Matt Rhule said. “You’re not going to win games. The red zone is clearly an issue.”
Carolina (3-3) entered the game ranked 27th in the NFL in scoring touchdowns once inside the red zone at 50%. It has also scored just one touchdown over its last six quarters.
“The red zone is all about focus and attention to detail,” Panthers offensive tackle Russell Okung said. “You can’t make mistakes. You have to be crisp. …
“We can’t have those mistakes. We’re getting the plays from the coordinator and we’re not delivering.”
But the offensive woes go beyond the red zone.
In four consecutive quarters that span the second half of the Atlanta game and the first half against the Bears (5-1), Carolina mustered just 250 yards of offense, while quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had a measly 112 yards passing over that span.
During that time, the Panthers managed just three field goals.
Against the Bears, Rhule said some of the issues were the fact that players were lined up in the wrong spots and running the wrong routes.
“The Panthers didn’t play the game they wanted to play today,” he said. “I think offensively we were out of sync.”
This has been a trend for nearly every game this season.
Against the Raiders, Carolina didn’t do much offensively until the second half when it was down a couple of scores. The same goes for Tampa Bay in Week 2. The following week, while the Panthers put up solid numbers against the Los Angeles Chargers, Carolina couldn’t score touchdowns and had to
settle for field goals.
The one complete game from start to finish came against Arizona, but the very next week at Atlanta, the Panthers were anemic offensively in the second half, but were saved by a game-saving drive that ate up most of the fourth quarter.
Then came the Bears, where Bridgewater finished 16-of-29 for 216 yards and two interceptions. He was sacked four times and had to scramble many others to avoid the rush.
Some might look as to the absence of Christian McCaffrey as the reason for the inconsistency on offense, but in the six quarters he’s played this season, Carolina struggled offensively in four of them.
But with 10 games left in the season, obviously there’s time to get things fixed. And even with the woes on offense, the Panthers are still right there for the division title. Just a few minor tweaks and this could be a team that gets on another winning streak.
“All that being said, we still had a chance to win at the end (against Chicago),” Rhule said.
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