The Carolina Panthers are celebrating back to back wins with a bye week. Let’s see what else is happening.
The Carolina Panthers defeated the New York Giants in Germany on Sunday morning, which made for a pleasant Sunday of watching other football or not having to watch football at all in the afternoon. While they were celebrating their win in Germany, the rest of the league kept moving. Let’s take a look around.
NFC South
Playoffs?
Not really. But the Buccaneers and Falcons both lost, meaning the Panthers are technically only three games out of the division lead with seven games left to play. One of those is against the division leading Falcons. One can (but probably shouldn’t) dream.
The Saints got the interim coach bump and upset the Falcons
A loss to the Panthers prompted a head coaching change for the Saints. They went the increasingly popular route of hiring their special teams coach to be the interim head coach. It worked out, at least for one week. They beat the Falcons as 4.5 point home underdogs and blocked a field goal in the process.
The rest of the NFL
Sam Darnold might be turning back into Sam Darnold
Darnold put up MVP type stats the first few weeks of the season and looked like he had finally turned the corner after a disappointing start to his NFL career. We saw a similar thing happen he joined the Panthers, albeit for a shorter stretch to start his tenure. He’s now thrown five interceptions in his last two starts, with three coming on Sunday against the Jaguars. All three of those occurred in the end zone. The Vikings still managed to win because the Jaguars are the Jaguars.
The 2024 Bears are the 2023 Panthers
The Bears were supposed to make some noise this season after drafting Caleb Williams at number one overall and surrounding him with weapons. They hired a new offensive coordinator, Shane Waldron, to lead that offense. It’s been an unmitigated disaster, with Williams floundering behind a bad offensive line and poor concepts and personnel usage hindering the weapons. Waldron has been relieved of his duties, and now Thomas Brown will take over offensive play calling. Sound familiar?
Losing to the Panthers continues to cost people their jobs
After the Panthers beat the Saints, the Saints promptly fired their head coach. Now, after beating the Giants, reports are that quarterback Daniel Jones has likely played his last snap with the team. Jones was outplayed by Bryce Young and made some game altering gaffes in the loss. Now, with the Giants able to get out from under his contract provided he doesn’t get injured, it looks like the Giants are going to put him on ice and move on in the offseason.