The Carolina Panthers enter Thursday night’s trip to Green Bay as an up-and-down team through six games, showcasing dominant wins and alarming losses. The club crushed the Atlanta Falcons 34-3 in Week 2 and defeated the Detroit Lions’ No. 2-ranked offense in Week 4, yet surrendered 552 net yards and eight total touchdowns to the Chicago Bears in Week 1 and allowed 258 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in a 30-point loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Carolina is 3-3 and sits atop the NFC South, and its offense ranks fifth in the league entering Week 8. The Panthers face a Packers team with a top-five passing offense and a top-10 passing defense on Thursday Night Football at Lambeau Field.
Run defense has been the most persistent concern. After yielding a franchise-record 59 points, 291 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns to Chicago, Carolina’s rushing-allowance declined over the next four weeks, holding Bijan Robinson to 72 yards and Jahmyr Gibbs to 46 yards in key wins. The Buccaneers game, however, saw the rushing lanes reopen; Tampa Bay gained 258 rushing yards behind an injured Baker Mayfield, who lined up under center wearing a glove for a dislocated thumb.
Ejiro Evero, named the Panthers’ defensive coordinator in 2023, has presided over an unusually frequent problem: his unit has allowed opponents to rush for 200 or more yards 12 times since his hiring, including three such games against Tampa Bay. Since the start of coach Dave Canales’ era in 2024, Carolina has given up 200-plus rushing yards to opponents six more times than any other NFL defense. Through seven weeks this season the Panthers rank last against the run, allowing 153.2 rushing yards per game, 7.5 yards more than No. 31 Dallas at 145.7.
Evero’s 2024 defense surrendered a league-worst 3,057 rushing yards (179.8 per game) and became the first unit since 1980 — and the first under a 17-game schedule — to allow 3,000 or more rushing yards in a season. Coach Dave Canales addressed the issue Monday, saying, “That’s what we’re working on right now — I don’t really want to get into the specifics of it. I feel like there’s the adjustments and the things that we need to do. I don’t want to really air that out, but just understanding that we got to do it. We got to execute it well.” The defense still shows strengths in coverage, but run defense remains a defining concern.
