The Panthers host the Buccaneers this evening in the first NFC South matchup of the 2019 season. Even though Tampa took the last meeting between these teams, Carolina has dominated this rivalry in recent years, winning nine of the last 12 games.
Here are three keys to another victory tonight.
Defend the run better
The Panthers did an atrocious job stopping the run against the Rams, allowing Todd Gurley and Malcolm Brown to go off for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Together, they averaged six yards per carry. They’ll need to do much better against the Buccaneers. Peyton Barber is still technically their starting running back, but Ronald Jones II got more carries and was far more efficient against the 49ers on Sunday (he averaged 5.8 YPC compared to 4.1 for Barber). Containing Jones must be a major priority for the defensive front seven.
Attack Tampa’s secondary
Tampa has a new head coach in Bruce Arians and a new defensive coordinator in Todd Bowles. Together, they should make this Bucs team more difficult to beat on both sides of the ball. However, their defense is still woefully lacking on the back end. Christian McCaffrey is going to get his over the course of the game, but offensive coordinator Norv Turner should not hesitate to test the Buccaneers’ secondary with long balls.
Cam Newton needs to run
“Fish gotta swim.” So said Omar Little testifying on The Wire about Bird’s murder hobby. The same principle applies to Newton. Cam only ran the ball three times for a total of -2 yards against Los Angeles last week. It’s possible Newton’s foot was still bothering him, but to be effective he needs to use his legs as a weapon. If Newton is still hesitant to take off tonight, it would be a legitimate source of concern for Carolina fans.
