The Carolina Panthers faced a 17-7 defeat against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, struggling to adapt after their leading rusher, Rico Dowdle, was limited by the Saints’ defensive strategy.
Dowdle entered the game as the NFC’s top rusher with 735 yards and an average of 5.6 yards per carry. However, he managed only 53 yards on 18 attempts, averaging just 2.9 yards per carry. He noted that the Saints consistently used heavy defensive formations and brought additional pressure throughout the game.
“Heavy boxes from the start, safeties dropping out of the sky, things like that,” Dowdle said about facing New Orleans’ defense.
Carolina had been averaging nearly 140 rushing yards per game this season, ranking fifth in the league. The team’s inability to adjust to New Orleans’ focus on stopping their ground attack affected their overall performance.
“I mean, when you can’t play complementary football, when we can’t move the ball in the run game, it just makes everything harder,” center Cade Mays said. “Harder on the defense, harder on us, harder on everybody.
“I mean, obviously they respected our run game, and we didn’t do good enough today to get it going and get the offense going.”
The Panthers started their eighth different offensive line combination in ten games but had key players such as Austin Corbett at right guard and Taylor Moton returning at right tackle. Left guard Damien Lewis emphasized reviewing mistakes and making necessary adjustments moving forward.
“Oh man, like any other team, you’ve just got to go back, see what we did wrong, see what the defense did and adjust to it, got to make adjustments,” Lewis said. “The Saints got a great defense, they played some good ball today; I took my hat off to them.
“They came to play; we’ve got to go back and watch film and get back to work; see what we can do better.”
Chuba Hubbard saw limited action with three carries for 14 yards but stressed sticking with fundamentals despite challenges running against tough defenses.
“I think just continue to stay true to our process; continue to play clean football,” Hubbard said. “It’s going to be grimy sometimes. It’s hard to win in this league. It’s hard to run the ball; hard to do—pass the ball—all these different things.
“Everyone’s giving their best so I think just continue to rely on our fundamentals and technique and what we’re being coached to do—and eventually those grimy runs will start to pop and turn into bigger chunks.”
The Panthers completed only one pass longer than 15 yards during Sunday’s contest as their passing game struggled under pressure from New Orleans’ defense.
“I’ve got to do a better job of making sure that we have answers and complements to our run game,” head coach Dave Canales said. “They did a fantastic job taking care of that part of it—and we had a couple of passes—but not enough. I’ve got to make sure that we put our heads together and game plan so that we have answers for when teams make it difficult to run the ball.”
Dowdle expressed frustration over losing but emphasized perseverance moving forward: “Like I said—we just got to continue—to keep fighting,” he stated. “Obviously—we lost—to a team—that came here very hungry—and beat us—and losing is never acceptable—so yeah—everybody’s frustrated.”
