Panthers coach Ron Rivera calls lack of attention unfair
By Mike Dyce
The Carolina Panthers’ record indicates that they’ve had a poor start to their season. They’re 1-2 and are coming of a dominating 38-0 win over the New York Giants, a team that isn’t too far removed from winning the Super Bowl.
The media has made that loss more about the woes of the Giants, than what the Panthers are doing correctly.
“It’s not fair,” head coach Ron Rivera said, via NFL.com. “Again, you’d like to point at some of the things that happened in the game and say ‘wow’ we’ve been doing it since we started in the preseason.
“Our defense played well in the preseason. We played well against Baltimore, our first unit … you like to say we deserve a little bit more attention, but that’s alright. Believe me, I’ve got no problem flying under the radar. To me the more important thing is how our players feel about themselves.”
The Panthers haven’t done that bad this season, they could very easily be 3-0. They held the Seattle Seahawks, who dominated the San Francisco 49ers, to a 12-7 game and barely lost to the Buffalo Bills. In the Bills game, they lost due to a Stevie Johnson touchdown reception at the end of the game. Had the defense held them back, they could have won.
Their passing offense still needs a lot of work but they boast the second best ground game in the league, averaging 151 yards per game. They also have the 13th ranked defense against the past and the 10th ranked defense against the run.