Finding the very narrow slice of future that lies between the likely and the possible
The Carolina Panthers have a fun opportunity in Week 14, which is more than could have been said about them for several weeks prior. Their match up against the New Orleans Saints features a Panthers defense surging in health against a quarterback with the most YOLO attitude in the entire league.
The offense has proven implacably incompetent, so the Panthers have to look to less traditional means for their wins—if they are going to see any at all for the rest of the season. This week that means taking advantage of Jameis Winston’s unrequited love for the deep ball and finally producing multiple turnovers on defense.
The team has only produced plural turnovers in a game once this season: their disappointing loss to the Minnesota Vikings, a game that both teams entered 0-3. But with Yetur Gross-Matos, Jeremy Chinn, and Jaycee Horn’s recent returns from injured reserve and promised increase in snaps in their second week back, the defense is healthier than it has been since, well, the team’s disappointing loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Ejiro Evero’s unit has done reasonably well, given how the other side of the ball treats them, in terms of holding other teams to lower than average yard and point totals. They do a decent job of getting off the field on third downs. But they have struggled to produce turnovers. They have eight in 12 games. Turn that up and the defense would be good enough to win a few games against bad teams on their own.
Fortunately for the Panthers, the Saints are in the NFC South. That automatically qualifies them as a bad team. As far as taking this advice to betting markets, it’s relatively simple. Don’t trust the teams to perform according to expectations. Don’t trust any individual player to produce superlative stats. This game is going to get weird and, as weird games between bad teams are wont to be, it is going to be close.
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