All the best NFL defences are an optical illusion. They give the impression that the offences opposing them are running uphill, at a constant geometric disadvantage, as though they’re trapped in one of those dreams where the air is syrupy and you cannot run.
The Carolina Panthers have such a defence. The Panthers’ defensive unit is second only to Denver’s in DVOA. It all starts with the league’s most dominant secondary.
The Legion of Boom has migrated southeast to Carolina, with the Panthers leading the league by a country mile in interceptions and opposing quarterback rating. Josh Norman is Richard Sherman reincarnate, a front-runner for defensive player of the year, making wide receivers extras in Interstellar on a weekly basis, sentencing them to his own personal galactic worm holes.
Norman made Dez Bryant look like present day Kobe Bryant on Thanksgiving, but it was former defensive player of the year Luke Kuechly who stole the headlines. Kuechly is the perfect prototype for a middle line-backer, an improbable combination of strength, speed, vision and timing. It’s one thing to pick off one of the game’s best quarterbacks on consecutive plays, it’s another to do it the way Kuechly did on Thursday.
The first pick was a perfect deception on Kuechly’s part, bluffing a coverage and then artfully jumping Tony Romo’s passing lane for the pick. The Panthers’ defence makes offences look like they’re running uphill, so it was all too fitting that Kuechly looked like a running back going downhill on the interception return touchdown, gathering steam with a pace antithetical to his position, rumbling towards the end-zone like a freight train on a steep decline with its brakes cut.
It would have been easy to confuse Kuechly for Greg Olsen on the second pick, as the line-backer plucked a pass in front of Jason Witten, rising backwards and somehow catching the ball with his back facing Romo. The athletic devastation and tactical genius of the first pick combined with the grace of the second is a majesty reserved for Kuechly.
In the words of Cam Newton, Kuechly is a lawyer with a demolition mentality. He’s the rightful successor to Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher, and combined with Thomas Davis he forms a part of the most lethal line-backing tandem in football.
Norman, Kuechly and Davis are the heart of the Panthers’ defence, a unit which has bounced back from its 15th ranked DVOA rating last season to climb back to the heights of 2013 where it finished third. Last year Carolina couldn’t stop the run, ranking 23rd in DVOA rushing defence. They’ve elevated that ranking to fourth this season, tightening running lanes and allowing the secondary to prosper as a playmaking unit.
The Panthers’ defence is for real. They stop the ground game, wreak havoc in the air and get after the quarterback (fourth in adjusted sack rate). While they’ve exceeded expectations on defence, it was conceivable that such a dominant unit could emerge given the talent on the roster. The success this team has had on offence, however, was totally inconceivable.
Carolina have perpetually found it difficult to keep Cam Newton upright, ranking 22nd in pass protection last season. With little in the way of off-season additions, there was no reason to suggest that was going to change this year. While still imperfect, the offensive line has improved to a middle of the pack ranking, with chronically lambasted left tackle Michael Oher having a career year.
The common Panthers refrain has long been to chuckle at their lack of wide receiver talent, and entering this season their receiving core was in the worst place it had been in over a decade. While thin, at least in years past, the Panthers could point to Steve Smith, or last year Kelvin Benjamin. This year they could point to Ted Ginn Jr and Jerricho Cotchery, neither of whom were good five years ago and have since declined. That the Panthers somehow rank ninth in DVOA passing offence through 12 weeks of the season is the most incredible stat of the year.
The Panthers’ passing game isn’t pretty, but they’ve made an art-form out of just doing enough. Greg Olsen has reasserted himself as one of the game’s premier tight ends, and Cam Newton is having an MVP season. The stats on Newton are underwhelming – he ranks a mere 20th in passer rating, behind the heralded likes of Kirk Cousins, Brian Hoyer and Josh McCown – but his impact transcends numbers.
He’s running the ball more frequently than ever before, keeping defences honest and opening up more passing lanes as a result. He continues to be a battering ram on the ground – while one fears for the hits that slighter running quarterbacks like Tyrod Taylor, Teddy Bridgewater and Russell Wilson might take, with Newton the only fear is for the men trying to tackle him.
Newton’s ability to stay composed in the pocket, absorb pressure, dust off contact and keep the chains moving is the heart of Carolina’s offence. He has never looked like a textbook passer, but it’s never really mattered. His footwork looks lazy and imprecise at times, but he has the arm strength to compensate.
While the Manning brothers and even Tom Brady always seem to need to have their feet perfectly set, and their body weight transference in perfect synchrony to execute passes, such concepts are trivial to Newton. Like Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck, and like 2008 Kobe Bryant, Newton can make plays from anywhere, in any situation.
It still feels improbable that a team could win the Super Bowl with Ted Ginn Jr as its number one receiver. But if ever a team could, it’s these Panthers. They’re a warm throwback to a seemingly bygone era – a team that succeeds with defence and running the ball (the Panthers are fifth in rushing DVOA). They’re an honest team, anchored by a no nonsense superstar line-backing duo, and given spark and charisma by the N and N boys, Newton and Norman.
For the past two years it feels as though NFL circles have been waiting for the penny to drop on the Panthers. They don’t conform to modern standards, and incongruity to modernity is a bitter pill to swallow. But to not believe in the Panthers now is only to practice ignorance.
They’ve won 16 regular season games in a row and own a two-game lead for the NFC’s number one seed. They’ve gone into Seattle and silenced the 12th man, wiped the floor with the Packers, and made a farce of a healthy Cowboys team that won 12 games last year.
They have a top-10 offence and defence by DVOA, the mark of a true contender, and DVOA has now anointed them, the last remaining undefeated team, as Super Bowl favourites. Modernity is wrong – it’s time to believe in the Panthers.
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