Allen, Panthers try to rebound at Saints
The New Orleans Saints bounced back quite well from a loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Now the Carolina Panthers will try to do the same thing.
The Saints (8-2) saw their six-game winning streak end in a 26-9 home loss to the Falcons two weeks ago. Last week, they went to Tampa Bay and won, 34-17.
The Panthers (5-5) absorbed a 29-3 home loss to the Falcons last Sunday and they visit New Orleans this Sunday, desperately needing a win to stay relevant in the NFC South.
These teams will meet again in the regular-season finale, but a Saints victory Sunday would give them a four-game lead on Carolina and a leg up on the tiebreaker with five games to play.
The Panthers could make the remainder of the season more interesting if they can sweep the head-to-head meetings.
In order to do so they're going to have to bounce back like the Saints did.
"We know what type of team we are," Saints cornerback P.J. Williams said. "We know (the Falcons game) wasn't us, so we knew we were going to bounce back in a big way."
Against the Falcons, the Saints didn't score a touchdown, rushed for a season-low 52 yards and had Drew Brees sacked six times. Against the Buccaneers, the Saints rushed for 109 yards against what had been the NFL's top run defense, and Brees threw three touchdowns and wasn't sacked.
The offensive line made a big difference. Left tackle Terron Armstead was healthy after battling the flu the whole Falcons week. Nick Easton made his first start of the season against Tampa Bay in place of left guard Andrus Peat, who suffered a broken arm against the Falcons.
"That Atlanta game was not what we're about and something we weren't proud of at all," tackle Ryan Ramczyk said. "It was uncharacteristic, but we're going to get on this roll and keep going and playing our game."
The Panthers hope to play their best brand of football this week, but they are trending in the wrong direction, having lost three of their last four after a four-game winning streak.
Running back Christian McCaffrey is having an MVP-quality season, but that hasn't been enough to slow the slide. He has passed 1,000 rushing yards and is on pace to accumulate 2,522 yards from scrimmage, which would be an NFL record.
The Panthers' offensive line, which has featured seven different starters this season, struggled against Atlanta.
"It's kind of tough for that group to build a little bit of cohesiveness when they don't have an opportunity to work together as often as you would like," Carolina coach Ron Rivera said.
Kyle Allen, who was sacked five times and hit 10 times against Atlanta, threw four interceptions. One came in the end zone and two others came inside the 5, against a defense that had just two interceptions all season.
Allen has been sacked three or more times in six games this season, including four straight. Though he was pressured, Allen attributed the interceptions to "poor decision-making."
"Turnovers are not going to give us any chance to win," he said. "So, my decision-making has to be better."
In Allen's first four games this season after replacing injured Cam Newton, he threw seven touchdown passes and had no interceptions. In the last four games, he has thrown three touchdowns and nine interceptions.
--Field Level Media
