Panthers' Pass Defense is Surprisingly One of the Best in the NFL

Young secondary? No problem?

One of the glaring concerns for the Carolina Panthers heading into the 2020 season was the inexperience and lack fo depth that was in the secondary. Even GM Marty Hurney and the coaching staff knew that moves still needed to be made following the NFL Draft, which is why they signed veteran corner Eli Apple. Once Apple went down with a hamstring injury, it put the Panthers right back in the same situation - in dire need of a veteran corner. The team signed former Philadelphia Eagle Rasul Douglas and it has helped boost the play of the guys in the back end tremendously.

Other guys like Tre Boston and Juston Burris have played well, but it's been the younger guys that have really stood out such as third year corner Donte Jackson and rookie safety Jeremy Chinn, who could be a defensive rookie of the year candidate. 

Despite all of the youth that makes up the secondary, the Panthers are surprisingly 7th in the league pass defense, only allowing 227 yards through the air per game. Carolina defensive coordinator Phil Snow says a lot of the team's success has to do with the guys believing in the defense and understanding how to play with one another.

"Anytime that you play good whether it be the run or the pass, eleven people got to be a part of it. We are getting better each week, hopefully that continues this week and I think it's just we're starting to get comfortable in the package and the guys are getting more confidence in themselves and with each other," Snow said. "They're starting to communicate with each other better and the last two games, we've got a lot more pressure on the quarterback. So, all those things factor into playing good pass defense."

If you have paid close attention to the Panthers' defense over the last couple of weeks, one thing that has really helped the secondary is the pressure caused by the guys in the front seven. Both Snow and head coach Matt Rhule are pleased with the production they are getting out of their defense, but analytics show that there is still room for improvement 

"Two things about statistics: A. They're always a group effort, whether they're good or bad and B. They never tell the real story. I always use statistics to go back and find areas that we need to research and get better at. We're 7th in passing [defense], but I think we're first in yards per completion, but we're giving up a lot of completions. But I think that's been our approach is to play things top-down, make people throw the ball in front of us. When we've tackled well, we've played good defense, when we haven't tackled well we haven't played great defense, so we're trying to improve on some of those different areas."

The Panthers will have yet another tall task this Sunday vs the Atlanta Falcons and their passing attack led by quarterback Matt Ryan and receivers Calvin Ridley and Julio Jones. 

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