The Carolina Panthers reached the NFL’s final game of the 2015 season, Super Bowl 50, and were thus expected to push on in the new season. Cam Newton’s side was deservedly installed as one of the favorites to reach Super Bowl 51.
Things have not worked out for the Panthers, however. They began pre-season with Super Bowl winning odds installed at +800, according to USfootballtips.com. The site reports that Carolina are now +6600 and not even considered likely to make the playoffs by the odds compilers.
The main problem is the defense, which has reached record-breaking levels of ineptitude already in this campaign. The 2016 Panthers are the first team in NFL history to allow two quarterbacks to throw for over 450 yards in a single game and that stat tells you everything you need to know about where things have gone south for Ron Rivera’s team.
If you can’t defend against the pass, you’re not going to win much in the NFL, and Carolina is conveying that. They went 15-1 in the 2015 season but have started 1-5 in 2016. Only four teams in history have gone 1-5 in their first six after reaching the Super Bowl and none of those teams made the postseason.
The last team to put up such a poor showing after playing in the big game was, in fact, the Carolina Panthers. The 2004 Panthers went 7-9 after playing in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Can the current roster fare better than their fellow post Super Bowl losers?
“There is no other way to describe what’s going on with our team,’’ said wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr.
“We just have to win a football game. It’s no one individual’s fault. It’s everyone’s fault.’’
Cam Newton, last season’s MVP, echoed Ginn’s statement, adding after the Saints loss:
“We’ve just got to find ways to win a football game.”
At the moment that looks tough for Carolina. Josh Norman is badly missed in the secondary and in his place is a young group of cornerbacks who are making the kind of mistakes that young cornerbacks often make. Rivera thinks time will help and once the youngsters gain experience they will really improve.
“What’s going to happen is we are going to take our lumps,’’ Rivera said.
“Once we get to the point where these guys gain experience they need, we are going to get better.’’
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be enough time this season for that to happen and it could be that the 2016 Panthers go down in history as one of the poorest post-Super Bowl teams of all time.