Carolina Panthers Report Card: Defense vs Saints

The Carolina Panthers dropped their final game of the season 33-7 to the New Orleans Saints this past Sunday and from a defensive standpoint, it was not pretty. Let's take a look at how each phase of the Panthers' defense graded out!

Pass defense: C+

This grade may seem a bit high, but it's not like Drew Brees was carving the secondary up as he did in the previous meeting. He only threw for 201 yards and the longest passing play of the day went for 27 yards - a far cry from his feast of the Panthers defense in October. Tre Boston, Jeremy Chinn, Rasul Douglas, and Donte Jackson all played well at times and never really let New Orleans hit for big plays on a consistent basis.

Run defense: F

Just as soon as I thought the Panthers were getting a good grasp of stopping the run, Sunday happens. The entire Saints' running back room was ruled out for the game after being deemed high-risk of COVID-19 when Alvin Kamara tested positive, yet they still had a 100-yard rusher and ran for 156 yards. Ty Montgomery rushed for 105 yards on 18 carries, averaging 5.8 yards per pop and Taysom Hill tacked on another 41 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.

Pressure: D

Even without Brian Burns in the lineup, I expected the Panthers to still manage to get to the quarterback more often than they did. The Panthers applied just four QB hits and only sacked Brees twice. One of those sacks came from a safety blitz off the edge from Tre Boston, so really, the pressure up front was non-existent.

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