CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The Panthers are trying to stay optimistic as
they figure out what caused their high-octane offense to sputter and
crash in a 16-10 season-opening loss at Tampa Bay.
They'll need to come up with answers soon to avoid falling into a big early season hole.
The Panthers host NFC powers New Orleans
and the New York Giants in the next 10 days, teams with quarterbacks
who know a thing or two about putting points on the board.
Another outing like Sunday -- one in
which the Panthers ran for just 10 yards, tying a dubious franchise
record -- likely won't get it done.
Although second-year coach Ron Rivera
wasn't happy with his team's performance, he remains upbeat insisting
"there's no reason to panic or do anything rash now."
Rivera is confident Carolina's offense,
which finished fifth in the league in points scored and third in
rushing a year ago, will bounce back.
"There's some cause for optimism as the
mistakes on the offensive side are all correctable," Rivera said
Monday. "It wasn't a glaring thing as far as schematically. It was a
player here or a player there, something that they did (wrong). We'll
get better at it."
Rivera hopes that begins this Sunday.
The Panthers face a Saints defense that
allowed rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III to throw for 320 yards
and two scores and run for 42 yards in a loss to 40-32 loss to the
Washington Redskins.
Like Griffin, Newton is a dual-threat quarterback.
"There are some things we can do against them," Rivera said.
The Panthers couldn't do anything against the Bucs outside of one touchdown drive to open the third quarter.
That was a head-scratcher considering
Carolina's recent success against the Bucs. Carolina scored a combined
86 points and racked up 818 yards in a home-and-away series sweep of the
Bucs last year.
But Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano stacked eight men in the box Sunday and dared Newton to beat them.
The strategy worked.
The Panthers were forced to abandon the
running game early after DeAngelo Williams carried twice on the opening
drive and lost 7 yards. He didn't carry the ball again until the second
half and finished with minus-1 yard on six carries.
Newton completed 23 of 33 for 303 yards
passing, but two interceptions and three sacks in the second half
proved to be Carolina's undoing.
Much of the blame falls on Carolina's offensive line.
The Panthers started rookie Amini
Silatolu, a second-round pick from tiny Midwestern State, at left guard
and he looked confused at times. He was flagged for two penalties and
had a hand in two of the sacks allowed on Newton.
Chudzinski and Rivera wouldn't pin it all on Silatolu, saying the entire offensive line lost too many one-on-one battles.
"I think they were more physical and it
was a missed block here or there and everybody took their turn" making
mistakes, center Ryan Kalil said. "This offense requires you to be
discipline in how we ID what doing. If you miss one guy here or there it
disrupts everything."
Throw in some self-inflicted wounds in terms of costly penalties and turnovers and you have a recipe for disaster.
Without a running game, the Panthers
struggled on first and second downs and found themselves with six
possessions where they had third-and-11 or more.
"The good thing is those mistakes can
be corrected," Chudzinski said. "We need to get those things corrected
and we will get them corrected."
The Panthers played without running
back Jonathan Stewart due to a sprained ankle, but Chudzinski doesn't
know he'd have made a difference.
"When you miss a block it isn't going to matter who the running back is," Chudzinski said.
Notes: Rivera said the Panthers escaped
Sunday's game without any injuries. ... The Panthers are re-sodding a
big portion of their field prior to Sunday's game because of damage
caused by the Democratic National Convention. Although President Barack
Obama's speech was moved from that location due to inclement weather,
the structures being in place for more than a week still caused
significant field damage.
