Panthers' pass rush feasts on Cardinals' rookie Kyler Murray

[Sir Purr]

Murray is lightning quick, and he got loose a few times, evidenced by his eight rushes for 69 yards. But the Panthers were determined to use waves of pressure to both contain him and create negative plays.


“He’s fast,” Burns said, “but if you’ve got multiple people, if you’ve got numbers to the ball, you can’t beat it.”


And when a quarterback is feeling the heat, the defensive backs start to salivate. Cornerback Donte Jackson was the beneficiary on Sunday, reeling in a pair of second-half interceptions on errant passes.


“Those guys can’t get enough credit,” Jackson said of Carolina’s pass-rushers. “All week they were practicing their asses off. They knew they had to get to the quarterback; they knew the type of guy we were up against.


“We trusted those guys. We told them we were going to play great coverage on the back end. I had two interceptions because of the rush. It had nothing to do with me. He was scared of the rush. He didn’t want to get hit anymore.”


Scary thing is, even after a feast like that, the Panthers felt they left some plays on the table.


“We played well, but to be honest, we left so much out there,” McCoy said. “That could have been a 10 or 15-sack game.”


Saving some for next week against Houston isn’t a bad idea. But we all know eight-sack outings like the one the Panthers just produced don’t come around often in this league.


“Well probably the biggest thing we’ve got to do is be able to go out and do it again,” Rivera said. “We’ll start getting ready for our next opponent and believe me, they’re not going to give up eight sacks.”


That won’t stop ‘em from trying.


“The message from me and Rio pregame was, ‘We haven’t had that stamp game to show who we really are. We hadn’t had that game yet where we take over and dominate.’ This was the game,” McCoy said.


“And sometimes one game like this is all it takes.”