Los Angeles Rams vs. Carolina Panthers Preview & Prediction | PFF

Los Angeles Rams vs. Carolina Panthers Preview & Prediction | PFF

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Well, if the Panthers are going to win this game and they’re going to score more points than they did against San Fran, they’ve got to play well in the trenches. They’ve been doing that this year, especially in the run game. You look at an offensive line despite some injuries that they’ve suffered throughout the year that’s eighth in PFF grade and fifth in run blocking grade. But you’re going up against a monster of a defensive line with LA Jared Versus, Byron Young, Puna Ford, Kobe Turner, Braden Fisk, all these guys they have up front. Second in the league overall, second in the league in run defense grade. I think that’s the Puna Ford addition there that has really made a big difference there. He was so good for the Chargers last year. He was exactly what they were missing on their defensive line. And so the Panthers, look, they’re going to want to run the football. It’s clear that it’s just going to be inconsistent when it comes to Bryce Young throwing the ball downfield. You were hoping you would get maybe a second half surge like you got last year after the Atlanta game throwing for almost 450 yards, but struggle to throw the ball downfield against San Francisco. I would think the Panthers are going to be relatively conservative with their game plan, try to run the football, but the problem is this Rams defensive line and then even their linebackers, Nate Landman especially, they’ve been really good at stopping the run at the second level. So, the Panthers, I I think you want to stay out of obvious passing situations and lean on this offensive line to try to physically dominate this game, but they’ve got a tough task in front of them. It’s hard to find a path where the Panthers win this game. It really is because if Carolina wins, they’d be bucking a lot of trends, not just their own, but also for the Rams. When you look at the Rams, okay, let let me set the stage like this, Dalton, what do the Panthers want to do? They want to run the football, right? You you you mentioned, okay, they don’t love putting a ton on Bryce Young’s plate when they have outside of playing Atlanta twice. It’s been very much a mixed bag. And you look at if you take those two Atlanta games out, I mean, Bryce Young, like you said, just has not been reliable when it comes to throwing beyond 10, 15 yards, uh being able to attack deep down the field. he just has not seen the ball and doesn’t have that confidence uh right now in doing so outside of those two Falcon games that they’ve played this season. So, what have they wanted to do? They wanted to run the football. They’ve run wanted to hand it off to Rico Dael and they got Chuba Hubard more involved, especially as a receiver last game. But the problem is when you look at the Rams, they are first in the NFL in points scored in the for first quarter. The average there at seven and a half. They scored more than a touchdown on average in the first quarter. They have an 80 82.6 overall offensive grade, which is third best in the NFL in the first quarter. And they have the third best EPA per play in the first quarter, as you would expect. All of that spells out the fact that if Carolina falters on their first couple of drives, or if they just don’t happen to look as explosive, they don’t get in the end zone, guess what? Now all of a sudden you’re double digits down on the scoreboard, two scores down on the scoreboard, and then that totally takes the run out of it from just a game script perspective. When you look at the Panthers, their first quarter defense, they’re 20th in overall uh points allowed in the first quarter and then the uh overall defensive grade and EPA per play. So the Panthers have really have struggled. They’ve been in the back half of the league in stopping teams in the first quarter and the Rams are excellent at it. So, all that to say, it’s just it’s hard for me to think of a it’s hard for me to look at any of these numbers and think outside of Bryce Young just looking way way way better than he has throughout most of the season. How does Carolina win this game? I I don’t really know. And I’m not picking them two. I’m picking the Rams. 31 to 17 is the final score that I have here. I I just think that they’re going to control the game because it goes too easily into what they like to do. Yeah, I’m with you. Um, I I I don’t like calling out blowouts generally either here or on the college show because I’m always trying to find ways that both teams can win. But I’m having a hard time finding a way the Panthers can win this game. Even at home, I I mean, you know, their last home game against the Saints, it didn’t look great either. Um, I you know, I look at this game, I have a 35-10 Rams. I I think this could be a runaway. I I don’t like this at all for this Panther defense. We don’t know if JC Horn is going to play. I don’t like it for the offense in the sense of Bryce Young having to make confident throws through this Rams team and this elite pass rush and a team that leads the league in coverage grade. I’m not a big fan of this matchup. I think the Panthers it’s going to be a tough one for him at home against I what I’m with you. I think the Rams are the best team in football. I mean all due respect to Brock Pury. Um Matthew Stafford’s not throwing the turnover with the plays that Brock Pury threw this past Monday and Carolina still was not able to take advantage of that. So, it’s just again, it’s very hard. Perhaps we come back on this show on Monday for the great release show and we just go, “Well, that didn’t go the way we thought it would.” But there’s just there’s not a lot of football that has been played 12 weeks through the season that tells you that Carolina is going to beat the Los Angeles Rams this weekend. We shall see.

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Los Angeles Rams and The Carolina Panthers.

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