CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It's no secret that for several years now, Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson has been considered the best at his position in the NFL -- by a long shot.
Of course, when someone stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 236 pounds and runs like a deer, it's not exactly a surprise that smaller defensive backs have a difficult time slowing him down, let alone stopping him.
But that's the task ahead of the secondary of the Panthers (1-0), which entered this season as a hodgepodge collection of castoffs from other teams and newbies. After a respectable showing against Tampa Bay last week, Carolina will certainly be tested by Johnson and the Lions on Sunday.
So, how does one go about trying to limit the damage Johnson can do against a team?
"I haven't had any success whenever we've played Calvin Johnson in the past," said veteran strong safety Roman Harper, who is in his first year with the Panthers after spending eight seasons with the Saints (two Pro Bowl seasons). "I think he's averaging about 160 (yards a game).
"I can't tell you specifically, but the biggest thing is all about team defense. You just can't really say that you're going to shut down a great player. The great players are always going to get theirs. What you've got to do is limit others and make other people try and beat you and make them play left handed at the end of the day."
Harper is being hard on himself and his former Saints teammates. Truth be told, Harper has limited Johnson to per-game averages of four-plus catches and 74 yards over three outings, without a single touchdown.
"The biggest thing is you don't want them in a dominant position where they can just make it a jump ball and they can body you out," Harper said. "The quarterback has a lot to do with that with ball placement. All of these things come into hand. But at the end of the day, God blessed these guys with huge hands and are tall and have leaping ability."
However, it's not Harper that could be lined up across from him. That duty will fall on the shoulders of the cornerbacks, like Josh Norman, who said there are little things that can be done to pester and disrupt big receivers like Johnson.
"You've got to box out," said Norman, who's giving away five inches and 30 pounds to Johnson. "Just play it like a defender in basketball. When you're down in the post you try to box out for the rebound.
"And when we go up for the ball at the highest point, just rake the arms. Go up in between (his arms) as he's going up to catch the ball and just pull the arms down. That's the thing they've been teaching us all week, so we're going to give a shot at that and see how that goes."
Nobody expects Johnson not to do some damage to the Panthers defense, not even Norman. It's just a matter of how much damage he does that is the key. And truth be told, Norman prefers the bigger receivers as opposed to the tiny, shift ones like Wes Welker.
"I feel like playing with little guys are harder for me personally than the big guys because big guys are pretty much doing the same movement," he said. "They take longer sometimes coming out of their breaks than the shorter guys. Either way, you've got to go and guard them to the best of your abilities and try and take care of the situation that's in front of you.
"But you've just got to play sound, fundamental technique and I think everything out of that will take care of itself. You just have to force the quarterback into some bad decisions. This is the NFL. Guys are going to catch the football, so you just try to limit that as much as possible. We're not going to stop everything."
Harper, the long-toothed veteran of the secondary, completely agrees.
"He just always finds ways to get open," Harper said. "It is what it is. The guy's great. You've got to respect that he's fast, he's big and you can't really physical him because he's larger than corners. But at the end of the day, you just want to win the game, so we've got to do enough to stop these guys and do enough to allow our offense to score more points than them.
Even so, like most corners, however, Norman doesn't lack in confidence in his or his teammates' abilities and he expects big results.
"I think we're going to be successful," he said. "For myself, I'm just going to get the ball, which is my mentality. Regardless of our play, we're just going to do our best abilities to try and stop Megatron."
