I had started to think that perhaps the Panthers had turned a corner and were going to be a much better team that had finally found their legs. I was NOT confident enough in this feeling to start to bet with them though, even though the Vegas sportsbooks had enough faith in their apparent renewed vigor, as well as the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have been in a slump this season, to actually make Carolina a 2.5 point favorite in this game. As usual, I decided to bet against Carolina on the 2.5 point spread and I'm happy that I did because that game was an embarrassment for Carolina. Well, I guess it isn't that embarrassing when you expect your team to do poorly, which they did.
My record on the year for betting is now 8-6 with betting exclusively on Carolina to lose against the spread.
Carolina jumped off to quite a bad start going down 10 points in the first quarter before pulling one back. It looked like the Panthers might have things figured out at that point but then the really bad stuff started happening. Bryce Young, Carolina's mini-me" quarterback had quite possibly the worst performance of the year as he fumbled the ball and then later threw an interception soon thereafter. He would later throw another INT but to be fair at that point the game was basically already over and he was facing a pass where if he didn't complete it, Dallas was simply going to run out the clock on their next possession anyway. So I guess he can't be totally faulted for that even though he did in fact pass into triple coverage where it was easily picked off by a linebacker who didn't so much as have to shuffle his feat to catch the ball.
Bryce Young wasn't the only poor performer here, the main issue was the Carolina defense, particularly against the run. One of the commentators stating "you can easily push the run against this Carolina defense because they are so terrible at it."
This wasn't just an attempt at humor with an off the cuff statement though... he's right. You can see above that Carolina is 32nd in the entire NFL as far as rushing yards against are concerned. There are 32 teams in the NFL. Their pass defense is actually one of the only strong elements of their entire game as they rank near last in almost any other metric.
Carolina did manage to have one spectacular passing play in the 2nd quarter, and that 83 yard TD was one for the ages. To be fair Dallas left the wide receiver truly "wide" because Bryce could have thrown that ball anywhere within 10 yards of the intended receiver and there wouldn't have been anyone there to intercept it. It was the very definition of "wide open" and that was a very bad misstep on the part of the Dallas defense. They didn't make very many other mistakes though but I do hesitate to state that Dallas played particularly good only because they were playing against Carolina, who is just terrible outside of a couple of shockingly good performances in the past 3 weeks. It is worth noting that despite the fact that the Panthers exceeded expectations in the three weeks prior to this one, they still lost every single one of those games.
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perhaps Young's performance in the past few weeks gave him some much needed confidence.. a little too much because he should have been focused on what a QB's primary job is here... and that is protecting the ball
Next week the Panthers will face the Arizona Cardinals, and the Cards are a 4.5 point favorite meaning that in order to cover the spread, they have to win by at least 5 points. The Cardinals are 6-7 on the year and I will go ahead and sat that I think they are a superior team but have the misfortune of being in a much stronger division that Carolina is in. 70% of the bets that exist at this point in time are on Arizona to cover the spread. When I place my bet later this week, it will be one more bet that is against them.
Can I go up to 9-6 on the year? I think so!