By Chris Lea, WRAL-TV sports anchor/reporter

Charlotte, N.C. — The tables have turned between the Carolina Panthers offense and defense this season. Gone are the days where the Panthers defense was needed to play perfectly to keep the team in the game because the offense offered nothing. Even Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn sees it.

“That’s the most frustrating part to me,” Horn said in the locker room after the game. “It’s always been like if we had an offense we could do this, we could do that and now (the offense is) doing more than enough every week for us to win. We haven’t gone out there and had that dominating performance yet as a defense.”

The Atlanta Falcons were credited with 11 drives in their 38-20 win over the Panthers Sunday. They punted on their first drive, turned it over on their third, had a one-play kneel down before the end of the first half and took a knee on their final possession to end the game. Besides these instances, they scored on their other seven drives.

Stopping the run has been the Achilles heel for this team this season, especially Sunday. The Falcons netted 198 yards on the ground, which would’ve been over 200 if they didn’t kneel to end the game. Chunk runs of 8, 9, even 20 yards kept drives going for Atlanta, while keeping Carolina’s defense on the field.

Then there were lapses in coverage from the secondary. In the second quarter, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins found tight end Kyle Pitts wide open for a 52 yard gain down to the Panthers 7 yard line. Runningback Bijan Robinson scored on the very next play to give the Falcons the lead for good.

Yes, the Panthers have the excuse of injuries. Shaq Thompson, Josey Jewell, Derrick Brown, Jadeveon Clowney, along with Dane Jackson and DJ Wonnum who’ve each have yet to play a snap this season, are all starters who didn’t play in this game. Yet many mistakes on defense came from the other starters like Xavier Woods and Jaycee Horn. It’s simply not good enough and this team is not good enough to overcome these kinds of lapses.

This puts too much pressure on the Panthers offense to play perfectly for the team to win. Andy Dalton was picked twice, penalties on the offensive line and subpar play-calling in some key situations didn’t allow the offense to reach that perfection.

On the play-calling aspect, runningback Chuba Hubbard has been among the best in the NFL this season, coming top five in the league before this game. Hubbard only had 18 carries for a whopping 92 yards. Head coach Dave Canales seems to go away from the run too quick at times to pass the ball, which doesn’t put any pressure on opposing defenses. If Hubbard is ran enough, he could consistently rush for over 100 yards for the Panthers.

The last two paragraphs are being ‘nitpicky’, but it’s to illustrate the point of this column. The Panthers offense needs to go out with the attitude to play ball control and win the game, because your defense simply can not keep you into games.

Source: wralsportsfan.com