Carolina started its season 6-2 and looked like it would challenge the Saints and Rams for the top spot in the NFC. But after three straight losses, the Panthers now sit outside the playoff picture looking in — and they haven’t even faced New Orleans yet.
The culprit behind Carolina’s three-game losing streak is a defense whose early season cracks have given way to massive leaks. The Panthers were able to paper over big aerial performances from Andy Dalton and Eli Manning (712 combined passing yards vs. the Panthers) with victories in Weeks 3 and 5. They weren’t as lucky against Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson.
In their last three games, the Panthers have given up 285 passing yards per contest, 24th-best in the league in that stretch. They’ve given up nine yards per pass, worse than any other franchise but the hapless Bengals. And when Carolina needed two major stops late in the fourth quarter of a Seahawks’ comeback, the secondary responded with this:
CLUTCH! #GoHawks | #SEAvsCAR pic.twitter.com/cxuw0lpn9F
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) November 25, 2018
And this:
WHAT. A. THROW.
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) November 25, 2018
@DangeRussWilson | @TDLockett12 pic.twitter.com/MODn83TqWA
The Panthers are vulnerable against top-line passers in 2018. The NFC playoffs, should they make it that far, are slated to feature Drew Brees and Jared Goff acting as sentinels on either end of the Divisional Round. That’s an awful combination for a team that looked like a contender after eight games.
Panic index: The Panthers already have five losses and still have two games against the red hot Saints looming. Cam Newton is going to have to be perfect to overcome the holes in his team’s defense, and even then that might not be enough.
The Steelers’ loss to the Broncos is going to come back to bite them in butt
If the Steelers aren’t feeling massive regret for letting a winnable game slip away from them Sunday, they probably will be when January comes along.
Pittsburgh had shaken off an unfamiliarly sluggish start to the season to string together six straight wins and climb to No. 2 in the AFC playoff picture. During that winning streak, the Steelers looked everything from trolly (handing the Bengals another heartbreaking loss) to dominant (a 31-point whuppin’ on the Panthers) to lucky (last-second win over the pesky Jaguars).
So while there were some concerning moments — especially after starting 1-2-1 and having to deal with the uncertainty of the Le’Veon Bell situation for most of the season — the Steelers had, more or less, evened out. That was hardly a surprise. These are the Steelers. They always get their shit together once it becomes acceptable to listen to Christmas music again.
Then they just couldn’t get out of their own way in Denver. And OK, dropping a game on the road against a decent (I guess) opponent is not that big of a deal. But it was the inexcusably sloppy way they did it that left doubt about how cohesive the Steelers really are this season.
Here’s a quick review of all their wasted scoring opportunities in a seven-point loss to the Broncos:
- On a trick play, Antonio Brown threw to a wide-open Jaylen Samuels, who had nothing but daylight in front of him. Brown missed ... badly.
- Later on that drive, Chris Boswell’s field goal attempt got blocked.
- Ben Roethlisberger hit Xavier Grimble for a 23-yard gain, and while trying to fight for the pylon, Grimble got stripped and fumbled out of the end zone for a touchback.
- Right after getting their first lead of the game, Roethlisberger got picked off at midfield by Chris Harris Jr.
- In a tie game, James Conner caught a pass and then the ball got knocked out of his hands, turning a 23-yard gain into Denver’s ball. The Broncos took the lead on the ensuing drive.
- With a minute remaining and a game-tying touchdown in grasp, Roethlisberger threw where only Broncos defenders were waiting in the end zone. That gave defensive lineman Shelby Harris the first interception of his career — and the Broncos the win.
It was so preventable. Now the Steelers are 7-3-1, with the 6-5 Ravens nipping at their heels in the AFC North. Even worse, the loss dropped the Steelers from the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye to the No. 4 seed. The schedule doesn’t get easier, either: three of their last five games are against contenders (Chargers, Patriots, and Saints).
Panic index: The Steelers might lack consistency this year, but they’ve had enough high points that there’s no reason to think they won’t make the playoffs. The first-round bye is looking a lot tougher, though.
Currently, the top two spots in the AFC belong to the Chiefs and the Patriots. The Chiefs have two games left against the Raiders, so let’s go ahead and pencil them in for one of those spots. Even in the midst of their most “meh” season in a decade, the Patriots are probably gonna fart their way to a first-round bye too. They only have two games remaining against likely playoff teams, and one of those is the Steelers, the Wile E. Coyote to their Road Runner.
In the end, the difference between the Steelers getting a week off and having to suit up in the wild card round could be the game they gave away to the Broncos. That could be huge, especially with a quarterback who has looked liked his usual Pro Bowl self at home and more like Blake Bortles on the road.
Then again, Pittsburgh owned the No. 2 seed last year and it didn’t matter. The Steelers lost at home to the Jaguars in the divisional round. So while the self-inflicted loss to the Broncos might be infuriating, it doesn’t have to decide the Steelers’ fate.
The 49ers 2017 draft class ... is not looking great
After the 2017 NFL Draft, almost everyone agreed that the 49ers knocked it out of the park. It looked like they had gotten the best defensive lineman in the draft, Solomon Thomas, the best linebacker prospect, Reuben Foster, and high-upside picks on the second and third day of the draft.
Fast forward to now, and that draft class isn’t looking so hot — save for George Kittle who has developed into an elite tight end.
we have come a long way from the 49ers winning the 2017 draft pic.twitter.com/fiREFr4NwL
— charles mcdonald (lakers 11-8) (@FourVerts) November 27, 2018
Thomas has just four sacks in 25 career games and just one this season in 11 games. Foster was recently released after another domestic violence arrest. C.J. Beathard was beaten out this season by undrafted free agent Nick Mullens to be Jimmy Garoppolo’s replacement. Joe Williams isn’t even on an NFL roster right now.
The only saving grace for their 2017 draft class is Kittle who has been wildly productive no matter who is at quarterback. Kittle currently has 823 yards and three touchdowns for the 2018 season.
Panic index: Even though the results of the John Lynch-Kyle Shanahan era haven’t been great, fans should still have a little patience with this regime. Their 2018 draft class looks strong with first round pick Mike McGlinchey already developing into one of the better right tackles in the league. Dante Pettis and Fred Warner look like players that can develop into steady starters in the very near future as well.
The 2019 offseason will be huge for Lynch and Shanahan. They know it’s crunch time, now they just need to deliver the results — and pray that Garoppolo doesn’t get hurt next year.
There’s no way this Jaguars regime is going to find a quarterback
The Blake Bortles era is over in Jacksonville. That’s pretty clear now that he was benched Monday after a seventh consecutive loss for the Jaguars.
The good news? Losing seven in a row means the Jaguars are in line for a pick near the top of the 2019 NFL Draft.
The bad news? The same people who thought Blake Bortles was good enough to be the Jaguars’ starting quarterback for 72 consecutive regular season games will probably be the ones trying to find his replacement.
Tom Coughlin joined the Jaguars as en executive vice president in January 2017, and he spent his Tuesday morning defending the team’s decisions in the 2018 offseason.
“We were a whistle [away from the Super Bowl],” Coughlin said Tuesday morning on 1010 XL in Jacksonville. “We’re a whistle [away and] we’re in the Super Bowl. And that’s my position, OK? So tell me, everyone out there, what they’re going to do in that circumstance about your football team.
“Aren’t you going to fill other pieces in and try to be as good as you can be? And we tried, didn’t we? Well, the nature of the game got us, so we go back to the drawing board. But I’ll put the gloves on with anybody that wants to talk about what [moves the team made].”
The biggest decision of the offseason was giving Bortles a three-year, $54 million extension in February. The Jaguars could’ve parted ways with Bortles and pursued Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum, Tyrod Taylor, or Alex Smith. They could’ve drafted Lamar Jackson in 2018, and they had a shot at Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson in 2017.
These are the decision-makers the Jaguars are trusting to find a winner in the spring?
Panic index: There’s a chance the Jaguars will have a chance to take the first quarterback off the board in 2019. But they had that same opportunity in 2014 when they picked Bortles.
If it’s Coughlin and general manager Dave Caldwell in charge of finding the Jaguars’ quarterback of the future, it’s hard not to have doubts about their evaluation abilities.