The Panthers started with the possession of the ball and they moved the ball extremely well down field until they arrived inside the 5 yard line where they tried a dive run with FB Tolbert and also a pass play that show all the limits of this offense having just 1 reliable receiver in Greg Olsen, Gano made the first FG of the game giving his team a 3-0 lead. Packers reaction came at the end of the first quarter when they put Starks at the place of Lacy so they have been able to get a difference pace at HB position something that allowed them to mach down the field and score a 1 yard receiving TD by TE Richard Rodgers on a perfect scrambling pass. Green Bay defense forced Carolina's offense to a very long 3rd down but they forgot to cover Cotchery down field who received the ball and brought them inside the redzone and once there Newton scored his 38th rushing TD of his career jumping over the lines. Panthers defense gave immediately their offense a chance to score again stopping Rodgers and the Packers offense, Newton at his first pass on the following drive made an unbelievable pass 52 yards pass down field to the rookie WR Funchess, once close to the end zone the Panthers' QB found Olsen in the end zone on a crossing route. Packers' struggle on offense continued and a silly face mask penalty on a punt gave to Carolina a very good field position that let them arrive early to kick another FG, a 49 yards one by Gano. Lacy fumbled the ball on the very next drive and fortunately for them their defense stop Carolina's offense and Gano missed his 4th FG of this season. The last score of the first half has been a Brown's TD who pushed the visitors under by 20 points.
Rodgers didn't waste any time and with less than a minute played in the second half he found Cobb for a 71 yards strike for his 2 TD pass of the afternoon. The home team scored other 3 points after another good drive until the came close to the end zone where all the Newton's limits in passing shown up and forced them to kick a FG. The Panthers ended the Packers' chances of a comeback on a Funchess TD on a post route to beat the man coverage.
Panthers stayed undefeated thanks to a great performance on both sides, on defense the put a great pressure on Rodgers and their man coverage worked out perfectly, on offense the o-line protected well Newton that without pressure made some great plays especially deep down field but his precision on short and medium passes continued to have some problems, on the ground Steward run hard and got his job done providing the majority of times good positive yardage.
Packers offense continued to struggle due to the poor protection that their o-line provided to Rodgers, in fact he has been knocked down 14 times but he still played a good game overall. Lacy struggled and Starks seemed a better option at HB position, LT and RT have been outplayed even without facing the best Panthers pas rusher Johnson. On defense they continue to suffer scrambling QB and also they concede too many deep passes result of a poor coverage.
MVP: Olsen and T. Davis
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento