A Troubling Trend is Beginning to Emerge for the Carolina Panthers

In Week 1, the Carolina Panthers enjoyed a stellar offensive outing. Bryce Young and company went off. The defense was abysmal in that outing, though, allowing 59 points and nearly 600 yards of offense.

In Week 2, the defense was significantly better, and the offense was still pretty good. So, the result is that the team is 1-1 and in good shape. There is a problem, though, and based on the above, it's not that one side of the ball has floundered.

It's that the Panthers can't get out of their own way with penalties. In a 22-point loss, rampant penalties likely don't make an impact. In a big win, penalties obviously do not matter. But moving forward, that could be a massive problem.

Panthers keep shooting themselves in the foot with penalties

A general view of the penalty flag on the field during the first half between the Miami Dolphins and the Carolina Panthers | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

The Carolina Panthers may not have been good at much last year, but they were good at limiting penalties. They ranked fourth in the league with just 95 penalties last year. In terms of yardage, they ranked seventh, so they were good at avoiding back-breakers, too.

This year, that has not remotely been the case through two games. The Panthers were penalized like crazy against the Bears. It didn't limit them offensively too much, scoring 37 points anyway, but it was a major problem.

It came up again against the Falcons. The Panthers did overcome plenty of bad offensive penalties, but they still kept happening. In Week 1, they committed 11 penalties for 84 yards. In Week 2, it was nine penalties for 63 yards, most of them on the offensive line.

That's the sort of thing that contenders cannot allow to happen. They have to be more disciplined. It's something well-coached teams don't do. Dave Canales' offense wasn't great last year, but he had the players disciplined and playing smart.

Because of that, we're inclined to believe that it'll turn around in the coming weeks. It's still early, so there's some rust from the preseason. Crowd noise may have been an issue early on today against the Falcons, which is going to happen.

Still, the Panthers are 1-1 and have to be feeling decent about their defense and incredible about the offense. So perhaps it's a bit of a nitpick to complain about something that hasn't truly hurt them in either game, but it is a problem that will bite them if the Panthers don't fix it.

It's not all smiles since the Panthers lost a game, but it is mostly smiles, and that will continue if they cut down on the penalties.

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