National Football League

Panthers need rush defense to return to form

Published Oct. 2, 2014 9:09 p.m. ET

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A big running play in the NFL is defined as a run that goes for 10 or more yards. Doing that against the Carolina Panthers defense the past two season has been difficult at best. Well, at least until the last two weeks, when all of a sudden it seems rather simple.

In the last two games, both blowout losses for the Panthers (2-2), opposing running backs have rushed for 10 or more yards 10 times. To put things in perspective, Carolina has rushed for at least 10 yards on a play just twice over the same time frame.

So, what has happened over the last two games that has seen the second-best running defense from a year ago get torched on the ground recently?

"I think guys just aren't doing what we need to do right now," said middle linebacker Luke Kuechly, who was named last season's Defensive Player of the Year. "It is simple things. A lot of it is gap defense. Guys not in their gaps. It's one person here, one person there. And you can't have a good defense with one guy not in his spot."

A defender staying in his gap seems simple enough, but Panthers coach Ron Rivera said what has happened the last couple of games is that players are trying to do too much on defense. What he means by that is defenders are trying to help out elsewhere instead of maintaining their position and preventing cutback lanes for the running backs.

Stopping the run is paramount for Carolina's success. The Panthers have a suspect secondary and stopping the run is the first step towards helping out the defensive backs. If the run is stopped, then the opposing team has to pass more often than not, which then allows the Panthers to do what they do best -- putting pressure on the quarterback, which in turn forces him to make errant throws, thus helping out the secondary.

"Any defense has to stop the run to be successful," Kuechly said. "Every team that is good is able to stop the run. If you can stop the run it makes the (opposing) team one dimensional. That's the goal of ours to get where we want to be."

However, if the Panthers aren't able to prevent big chunks gained in the running game, then it will make for a long day, just as it does for most teams.

"If you think about it, with a gap defense if there's one guy not in a gap a good running back is going to find it," Kuechly said. "That's what it comes down to. These guys are so good that they'll be patient and they'll patient and once a guy gets out his gap, they're going to hit it. Everybody just has to do a good job of getting in their gaps and staying in their gaps."

With the Chicago Bears and their formidable rushing attack powered by Matt Forte coming to town on Sunday, this will certainly be a true test for the defense to see if it's corrected the problems, which hadn't been there dating back to last season, when they were second in the NFL in rushing defense.

Kuechly and Rivera each said they have little worries things on defense will return to norm.

"We've made a conscious effort this week to make sure everybody knows where they're supposed to be on a given play," Kuechly said. "I think we'll do a better job this week."

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