The Panthers didn’t embarrass themselves in a competitive 34-30 loss to the Raiders yesterday. They also did a number of things well, including not turning the ball over and only allowing one sack on quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. However, there are some obvious areas they need to improve on if they’re going to beat the Buccaneers next week.

Here are four to work on as they prepare for Tampa and Tom Brady.

Too many missed tackles

Carolina had the worst run defense in the NFL last year by far. Despite a ton of personnel changes, on Sunday they picked up right where they left off in 2019, allowing Josh Jacobs to run all over them for 93 yards and three touchdowns. Part of the problem was simply bad tackling. Middle linebacker Tahir Whitehead admitted after the game it wasn’t good enough. Arm tackles don’t work on Jacobs and they won’t work on Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette, either. Head coach Matt Rhule has to make this a point of emphasis in practice this week.