I made a call a few weeks ago about how people who are watching the NFL records of the teams and see that Carolina are 3/3 , now 4/3, need to put their expectations in check. With the exception of just one of those games they were facing some really terrible teams - which is really saying something when you think about how terrible Carolina is.
This weekend the Panthers went to face the Jets on NY's home turf and honestly, this game given both the lineups and the stats of the actual game, should have been an absolute slaughter. The fact that it was only a 13-3 victory speaks volumes, and showcases how Carolina is going to have a really tough 2nd half of the season.
src
A lot of the highlights or news writups that you are going to see about this game are trying to highlight the excellence of the Panther defense and to anyone who was looking at this game not knowing what other DO know, that might actually appear to the be the case. With pass swats, interceptions, and sacks galore happening and being forced by the Panthers, sure, they appear to be a good defensive team. But herein lies the problem: These guys are heavily paid professionals and compared to other people on the planet, yes they are very good. However, in this case the Jets are really just unbelievably bad and their 0-7 record speaks for itself.
src
Just a glace at Carolina's last 5 games suggests that they might actually be a decent team but there is something you need to be at least somewhat of a fan to understand. The Jets and the Dolphins are absolutely atrocious and appear to be in "rebuilding phases" and Atlanta game was a fluke, and New England could have beaten them by a lot more than they did.
Beating Dallas, I'll give credit where credit is due. Carolina did well in that game but still barely eeked out a win.
src
While I didn't watch all of this game, I watched enough to see that the Jets are just in terrible shape and don't have much in the way of so much as strategy. Nearly every play consisted of begging the offensive line to give the QB just a bit of time and then throwing a bomb far downfield that was almost always swatted away or intercepted. That's bad enough, but the Jets were also getting sacked time and time again because that offensive line couldn't give them enough time. The Jets ended up subbing in a 2nd quarterback only to have the same thing happen to him.
Between the two QB's, they went 16-34 on passes, 0 touchdowns, 6 sacks, and 2 interceptions. You can prevent at lot of this by having actual running plays to intersperce between passing plays and keep the defense guessing, but on the 20 rushing plays the Jets put up, then ended up with a grand total of 71 yards with the longest any of those plays seeing was 8 yards. Basically, if you are the Carolina defense, you know they are going to pass.
The real problem I have with all of this as a Carolina fan is that given that the Jets are so bad even on a good day, this should have been a real chance for Carolina to showcase some offense but they simply didn't. While they managed zero turnovers from the QB's they only managed a single TD against what I think many might consider to be the worst defense in the NFL right now. Ok, maybe not the worst but really close to the worst. There are 32 teams in the NFL and the Jets rank 26th in total offense per game, and 25th in points allowed per game. They are dead last in interceptions.
Carolina fans might be on a high right now because of winning 4 of their last 5 but I believe a very rude awakening is about to happen in the next 2 weeks as they will face the Buffalo Bills and then the Green Bay Packers, two teams that I believe are headed deep into the playoffs later in the season. Sure, Carolina has a similar record to both of them right now but this is almost entirely because of their schedule. The NFC South (where Carolina is) has been a bit of a laughing stock in the overall NFL in recent years and only Tampa Bay is considered a "good" team.
It's a bit early to be making calls like this but the bookies never saw a bet they didn't like. If you want to pick Carolina to win the Super Bowl this year you can do so at incredible long-shot odds of +25,000. To get a closer look at how bad the schedule the Panther's season has had up to this point, 3 of the teams they have barely beaten this year are +100,000 underdogs.
I don't mean to just be a spoil-sport, but enjoy the winning record of 4-3 while you can. In two weeks it is going to be 4-5, mark my words.