Four things you should take away from the Panthers’ 20-0 victory victory over the Lions

Jonathan M. Alexander

November 23, 2020 at 4:59 AM·6 min read

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One week after suffering their worst loss of the season, the Panthers made up for it by playing their best game of the year, a 20-0 shutout over the Detroit Lions.

It was the Panthers’ first shoutout in five years, and an impressive one, considering who did not play Sunday.

The Panthers were without starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, starting left tackle Russell Okung and starting cornerback Donte Jackson.

Yet, the Panthers didn’t need them Sunday.

Here are four takeaways from Sunday’s win:

Shaq Thompson’s message last week was heard loud and clear

Thompson, one of the Panthers captains this season, let his team know last week how he felt about their performance. Cornerback Rasul Douglas said Thompson ‘cursed them out’ because he felt like they didn’t play to the standard they were capable of playing. They got wupped and embarrassed.

It appears that message was heard loud and clear.

The Lions did not score a single point Sunday. They didn’t even reach the red zone. Not once. The last time the Panthers shut out an opponent was Dec. 13, 2015, when they beat the Falcons 38-0.

The Lions were bad Sunday — really bad — but the Panthers put them in that position, too. Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was pressured often. The Panthers sacked him five times, recovered a fumbled snap and held the Lions to 185 yards of total offense.

The biggest stat, though?

The Lions were 3 of 14 on third-down conversions. Entering Sunday’s game, the Panthers had allowed teams to convert 55% of their third downs, which was the worst in the NFL. But not this week.

The Panthers forced the Lions to punt six times, which was more than the previous four games combined.

“It attests to the hard work that you put in, week in, week out,” Panthers safety Tre Boston said. “Especially like Joe just got done saying, last week we got it handed to us and this week we came back out understanding that, we don’t have to do anything special, we just have to do our jobs and guys went out there and they did their jobs and did them well.”

Brian Burns, the ‘Lead Dog.’

Burns had another monster performance Sunday, adding to what has already been a Pro Bowl-type season. Though he got to the quarterback three times, he was credited with two sacks.

Burns was all over the field. Not only did he rush the quarterback, but he also dropped back in coverage. He had five total tackles, and a near interception.

He credited the defensive gameplan for his effectiveness.

“They had no idea where we were coming from,” Burns said. “They didn’t know if I was dropping, covering the slot, covering the back or if I was rushing off the edge or going into the B-gap. We were sending guys from all over the place and they messed up their protection a lot.

“Like I said, I usually don’t get freebies and they decided not to block me.”

Burns, who was drafted No. 16 overall in the 2019 draft, has been everything for the Panthers’ defense this season. When they’ve struggled, he’s come up with timely turnovers. He has six sacks this season, including three strip sacks.

“It’s Year 2 and he is our ‘lead dog,’ ” Boston said of Burns. “For him to take that and shoulder that and come out here and play well, game in and game out, knowing that we need him Year 2, it’s special.

“He is going to be special. This is Year 2. I have to remind people sometimes that this guy is in Year 2. I can only imagine him down the road.”

Panthers should have rested Donte Jackson all along

It’s unclear how having a near-healthy Donte Jackson would have helped the Panthers, but it certainly would not have hurt. Jackson has been dealing with an injured toe all season. He has been able to practice throughout the week, but it flares up on gameday, and he has had to come out of games because of it.

The Panthers finally decided to rest him for at least a week to see if it’ll get better. They likely should have done so early before they had to play quarterbacks like Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady who carved up the Panthers’ secondary.

Jackson was not 100% in those games and it showed.

Sunday, the Panthers rotated rookies Troy Pride Jr. and Stan Thomas-Oliver opposite of Douglas. Thomas-Oliver played the majority of the second half, and had some good moments, making a key stop on third down.

The Panthers’ secondary held Stafford to 178 yards passing.

It wasn’t always pretty, but P.J. Walker got the job done

For a player who found out he was starting only an hour before the game, P.J. Walker played relatively well Sunday. In the first quarter, Walker threw a 52-yard dime to DJ Moore, which set up the Panthers’ first score of the game.

Walker passed for 258 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

The two interceptions were bad. Both happened in the end zone. On the first interception, which happened in the second quarter, Walker looked flustered and stared down Moore before throwing to him. Cornerback Amani Oruwariye picked it off.

The second one appeared to be a miscommunication, because Walker threw it to a spot in the end zone where there were no receivers. Just Lions players.

Those interceptions, as Rhule noted, could have lost the Panthers the game.

But Walker made up for it in other areas and didn’t make matters worse. He made some timely throws on third down. The Panthers were 5 of 15 on third-down attempts. He threw a 17-yard touchdown to Samuel in the third quarter.

And aside from the two turnovers, Walker didn’t try to do too much, completing 70% of his pass attempts. He received the game ball after the win.

“I felt like once I got a little comfortable after the first couple of drives, it was just go out there and play football again,” Walker said, “go out there and have fun.”