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Carolina is now 5-10 after suffering a 32-6 defeat at the hands of the Buccaneers Sunday in Charlotte. The Panthers have lost five straight since an upset win against the Cardinals in Week 10. They started 3-0 and have since gone 2-10 - their 3-0 start included a 26-7 win over the Saints in Week two. In that meeting, the Panthers forced two Jameis Winston interceptions, outgained the Saints 383-128, and controlled possession 38:32-21:28. Matt Rhule is now 10-21 in two seasons leading the Panthers, and has come under siege lately from Panthers fans, hearing “Fire Rhule” chants Sunday at Bank of America Stadium during their loss to Tampa Bay. Carolina is 3-4 on the road and 2-2 so far in NFC South games.

COVID/Injury Report: As of now, Sunday’s matchup in New Orleans appears to be between two teams hit hard by COVID-19. The Panthers put six players on the COVID list Monday, meaning they now have 14 total players on the list. The players that tested positive Monday were defensive tackles Phil Hoskins and Daviyon Nixon, defensive ends Brian Burns and Marquis Haynes, and linebacker Shaq Thompson. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore left Sunday’s game with a groin injury and was ruled out. Left tackle Cameron Erving missed Sunday’s game with a calf injury.

Scouting the Offense: Since its 3-0 start, Carolina has been a team that’s really struggled to develop and maintain an identity offensively. This 2-10 stretch has seen the Panthers lose Christian McCaffrey for the season due to injury, sign Cam Newton in a desperate attempt to generate an offensive spark, and fire offensive coordinator Joe Brady. Really, nothing has worked for them – including playing two quarterbacks, which they did Sunday. As a team, they’ve had one of the worst offenses in football – since week three, per Radar360, they rank 28th in points per game (17.3), and 30th in yards per game (284.6). The quarterback position has been a major struggle, no matter who’s played. Since Week 3, they’ve started three different QB’s. In that stretch, Carolina has ranked last in passing yards per game (174), 31st in passing touchdowns (9), and first in interceptions thrown (18). On Sunday, Rhule decided to start Newton, then subbed in Sam Darnold at the 10:54 mark of the second quarter. From then on, he seemed to play Darnold in passing situations, and Newton in more run favorable situations. Neither QB experienced much success, as they combined to go 22-45, throw for 206 yards and one interception, while taking seven sacks. Darnold, in his first year with the Panthers, has high end arm talent, but is very skittish against pressure, as his mechanics greatly break down under duress leading to poor accuracy. I’ve always thought he’s better outside the pocket, where he’s got underrated mobility and ability to make downfield throws from different launch points. However, making plays from the pocket still is the key to great QB play, and Darnold just can’t do it consistently enough to hold down a starting spot long term.

The Panthers have always been much better with McCaffrey in the lineup. This year they’re 4-3 in games played with him, and 1-7 without him. His lack of durability these last two years has greatly affected their success, as he’s only played in 10 total games the last two seasons. With him out, rookie fourth-round pick Chuba Hubbard has been the primary runner. Hubbard has very good vision and run instincts pressing the line of scrimmage, and has good feet to jump cut/pick-and-slide and escape defenders. He runs behind his pads and works hard for extra yards. Unlike McCaffrey, Hubbard is still a work in progress in the passing game and lacks top explosiveness/speed to scare a defense. He also lacks natural hands to catch outside his frame. Rhule has said multiple times this season how he aims for Carolina to be a run-oriented offense that commits and stays committed to the ground game, but it’s been hard to do that without McCaffrey and with them falling behind in games so often. Brady was fired during the team’s bye week a few weeks ago, and Rhule gave Jeff Nixon, a senior offensive assistant, primary play calling duties for the remainder of the year.

As Saints fans know, one dynamic playmaker the Panthers possess is wide receiver DJ Moore. Early in the year, their offense was centered around getting McCaffrey and Moore touches, but he hasn’t been quite as productive in the second half of the season. The last eight games, Moore has eclipsed 60 all-purpose yards just twice. He remains a key focus of this offense though, as he’s had double digit targets in each of the last four games. He’s a smooth athlete with good play speed. He’s very productive underneath with good savvy to get open and ability to make catches in traffic. After the catch, he’s instinctive with good burst. The Panthers will have a decision to make on him heading into the 2022 season as he’s got one-more year remaining on his rookie contract, making him a free agent in 2023 if the team chooses not to extend their 2018 first-round pick. This past offseason, the front office made a few key decisions regarding the offensive line that they hoped would stabilize things up front. They franchise tagged (then later extended) right tackle Taylor Moton and signed guard Pat Elflein and tackle Cam Erving early in free agency. Unfortunately for them, their offensive line has been the opposite of stable. On Sunday they started their 11th different OL combination this season. Moton is the best player on the line, and after that, there’s a lot of question marks as Carolina enters the offseason. While it need to figure out its QB situation, the status of the OL heading into 2022 is a lot to unpack for the front office. For the second week in a row, on paper this feels like a matchup that greatly favors the Saints.

Scouting the Defense: Carolina’s defense is coming off one of its worst performances of the year, allowing 391 total yards and 32 points to the Buccaneers. Tampa had success both on the ground and through the air. Looking at this defense by the numbers alone, it’s a middle-of-the-pack unit. They rank 19th in points allowed (23.0 per game), second in yards allowed (300.8), and T-23rd in turnovers forced (16). This is a team that has really struggled to play complimentary football – the offense struggling to sustain drives has greatly hurt the defense. On Sunday, the Buccaneers average starting field position was their own 35-yard line, and the Panthers didn’t force Tampa to run a single offensive play within its own 22-yard line. In four of the last five games, Carolina has lost the time of possession battle – a category they ranked among the top of the league in early in the year.

In terms of roster construction, the Panthers have a clear blueprint for how they’ve built this defense: speed. Coordinator Phil Snow leads an aggressive, attacking defense that aims to put pressure on the QB by penetrating upfield early and often, then relying on their athletes at the second and third levels to win matchups in the open field. The Panthers have certainly succeeded in acquiring and fostering speed to rush the passer. 2019 first-round pick and 2021 Pro Bowler Brian Burns is a menacing presence off the edge – he had a sack in the first meeting with the Saints. His potential absence due to COVID-19 would put a lot less stress on the Saints tackles. During free agency back in March, the Panthers’ front office did a great job acquiring OLB Haason Reddick for cheap, inking him to a one-year, $6 million deal. He’s been a really good fit in this defense, as he has 11 sacks and two forced fumbles. Reddick came into the league with Arizona in 2017 and although he was drafted to play on the edge, the Cardinals eventually tried to move him to inside backer, an experiment that failed. Finally in 2020, he played exclusively on the edge as a pass rusher and totaled 12.5 sacks – by far the best season of his career. He’s not your prototypical edge player as he’s undersized and lacks length, but he’s a dynamic athlete with very good speed and bend. He’s continued to develop as a pass rusher, and he’s highly effective in Carolina’s defense due to his skillset; he’s a rush piece that can align all over the formation and allows Carolina to mix up its looks up front. If Burns is out Sunday, the Saints should key in on Reddick and where he aligns at all times.

Another good example of the type of players Carolina has pursued defensively is safety/linebacker Jeremy Chinn. Drafted in the second round out of Southern Illinois in 2020, Chinn is an intriguing body type at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds with long arms and 4.4 speed. A physical specimen like him with his speed and athletic traits is such a fun player for a defensive coordinator to have, because he’s a matchup piece that can be deployed in different ways in an attempt to create the best schematic matchups. On Sunday, he played a lot of man coverage vs Rob Gronkowski, holding him to only one catch. The team has really prioritized the cornerback position, as evidenced by its drafting of Jaycee Horn in the first round in April, trading for former first round pick CJ Henderson in late September, then trading for Stephon Gilmore a couple weeks later. Those players joined a stable that already included four-year starter Donte Jackson and free agent signee AJ Bouye. Horn, Jackson, and Bouye are currently on injured reserve, so Gilmore’s injury situation could potentially leave a once-loaded cornerback group shorthanded vs New Orleans. As Carolina looks towards the future, they’ll have Horn, Henderson, and Bouye under contract for next season, with decisions to make on Gilmore and Jackson, who are free agents in March.

Scouting the Special Teams: In the kicking game, Carolina is currently playing with a different kicker and punter than its first meeting with the Saints. The Panthers starting kicker Zane Gonzalez suffered a quad injury during warmups in the game at Buffalo a couple weeks ago and forced them to play the game with no actual kicker. The team placed Gonzalez on injured reserve last week, signing Lirim Hajrullahu to handle their kicking duties the remainder of the year. Hajrullahu has kicked in two career games, including Sunday, when he went two-for-two on field goals. Their punter is right-footed Lachlan Edwards, who was signed by the team when Joseph Charlton went on IR in Week 8. However, when it was time for Charlton to return, Edwards was punting so well that the team decided to stick with him. The long snapper is veteran J.J. Jansen, who’s snapped for them since 2009. They drafted a rookie long snapper in the sixth round in April, but he went on season-ending injured reserve right before the roster cutdown, giving Jansen the job for the 2021 season. Their leading tackler on teams is linebacker Julian Stanford, who’s 11 tackles ranked tied for eighth in the NFL.

Matchup to watch: Saints offensive line vs. Panthers front, edge rushers

Given how much Carolina’s offense has struggled, I expect the Saints defense to have a lot of success on Sunday. That shifts the attention to the Saints offense, particularly their offensive line play and ability to support the running game and QB play. Alvin Kamara has gone back-to-back games with less than 60 all-purpose yards, with the Saints offense totaling 12 points. It sounds like a broken record, but New Orleans has got to find a way to get something going on the ground and lean on it throughout the duration of the game, much like they did a couple weeks ago against the Jets. The offensive line’s ability to stand firm against Carolina’s aggressive, attacking front seven will set the tone for New Orleans’ ability to win the line of scrimmage in this one. The Saints struggled Monday night against Miami – a front that also plays aggressively. It’s time for the big fellas up front to turn in a winning effort in another must-win game for the Saints.