Sir Purr
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Olsen is getting at something that has really come into focus for the Panthers as of late. Second-year quarterback Kyle Allen, set to make his 10th career start at New Orleans this Sunday, has struggled in situations when Carolina has trailed by multiple scores. The entire offense has struggled in that situation.
“If you break it down, the four games we’ve won – the four games where Kyle threw zero interceptions – we were ahead in all those games throughout the entire game,” offensive coordinator Norv Turner said. “The games where we’ve fallen behind has obviously been a totally different picture. You’ve got to learn how to play in a game like that. That’s part of the growing process.”
“When we get behind I think we press a little bit,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “It changes the approach sometimes out of necessity. And I think there maybe is something to do with inexperience.”
Allen attempted a career-high 50 passes in last week’s 29-3 loss to Atlanta. That’s not ideal. The week prior, he attempted 43 passes in the 24-16 loss at Green Bay.
The more Allen is throwing it, the less McCaffrey is running it. And clearly the Panthers want to be able to feed one of the best offensive weapons in the league.
When the Panthers are in catch-up mode, the balance is thrown off and McCaffrey's influence decreases. That’s not a winning formula. In fact, Carolina has totaled at least 27 rushing attempts in all five wins. They haven't rushed more than 23 times in any of the five losses. Last week, it was a season-low 15 rush attempts versus the Falcons.
“Our strengths being our run game and then our play-action and our protections based off that kind of become obsolete,” Olsen said.