Hello CSR! While I know most of the conversation both in this community and across the internet has spanned around Bryce Young and the offense’s dreadful performance from last week, the league doesn’t stop. Neither does the NFC South as the Falcons desperately need to win this game in order to position themselves as potentially competitive for both the division crown and a potential wild card spot. The last time these two teams faced off, the Panthers frustrated QB Michael Penix Jr, and the defense pitched a shut out, which preceded the Panthers winning 5 of 8 total games since. This week likely won’t be anything similar to that performance, as this Falcons team almost beat the 8-2 Colts last week and the 7-2 Patriots the week before. Close, but no cigar, but a game like this being played in Atlanta is the perfect way for them to get right going into the second half of the season. Let’s dive right into this defensive preview.
- Ejiro Evero must continue to be creative with his scheming. As we all know, the Panthers 4 man pass rush as a whole hasn’t been all that effective this season, though we’ve seen some progress, such as by rookie Nic Scourton. The first time these two teams faced off, the Panthers forced 3 turnovers, two of which game from the defense simply confusing and frustrating Michael Penix into bad interceptions. Evero’ has continued to scheme up creative ways to get pressure and attack the strengths of opposing offenses, which for the Falcons is going to be running the football and not making Penix do too much.
- Bottle up the rushing attack. While the Falcons have themselves one of the best rushing duos in the league led by superstar Bijan Robinson, they are still about middle of the pack as far as team rushing statistics. They rank 15th in yards per rush and yards per game, and 19th in rushes per game. The Falcons last 3 losses all came with the rushing attack being kept relatively in check, which forced Penix to throw the ball more than I would assume you’d want to with how their offense is built. The Panthers have certainly given up bad games this season against opposing running backs, but when the offense isn’t giving the ball away they’ve been relatively solid, even strong against opposing rushing attacks. The bend but don’t break style works for them, and they may need to do even more of that with ILB Trevin Wallace already declared out for this week. Luckily, Claudin Cherelus stepped in and ended up grading out as the Panthers highest graded defender last week, and the defense really didn’t miss a beat with him and Christian Rozeboom manning the middle. We’ll see if he can continue to play well with a much higher expected snap count.
- Bouceback game from Jaycee Horn. Last week was a bad week for Jaycee Horn, as he fell in coverage on both of...
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