Patriots at Panthers: odds, predictions and preview
By Bryan Rose
The Carolina Panthers are flying high after their Week 10 victory against the reigning NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.
Few pundits gave the Panthers much of a chance flying across country against the defensive minded Niners, but Cam Newton and company were able to pull out a clutch victory, their fifth straight victory.
They’ll face another tough test when they take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Foxboro on Monday night.
New England is coming off two straight victories and three of four, so the battle of two streaking teams is expected to be one of the premier Week 11 matchups.
For Carolina, not only have they been winning games but they’ve been doing so in dominant fashion. In the past five weeks, Carolina has given up just 58 points. Granted, outside of San Francisco they haven’t played any teams considered to have more than an adequate offense (at best), but regardless, that’s impressive. New England on the other hand has been beating teams with their high powered offense, one that looked like a well oiled machine with the return of Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola in Week 9 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, in which the Patriots put up 55 points – the most ever given up in a regular season game by the Steelers.
It should be interesting to see if Carolina can slow down New England’s explosive offense, as the Patriots had an extra week to prepare thanks to their Week 10 bye.
Date: November 18
Start Time: 8:40 p.m. ET
Location: Charlotte, NC
Stadium: Bank of America Stadium
TV Info: ESPN
Line: Carolina -2.5
Over/Under: 46.5
Prediction:
Carolina – 17
New England – 28