The Panthers look like they’re on their way to another second-half collapse. Following Sunday’s disturbing loss to a toothless 3-9 Washington team, Carolina has now dropped four games in a row and five of the last six going back to the blowout against the 49ers.
As expected, this latest failure has hurt their position in Touchdown Wire’s weekly NFL power rankings. Heading into Week 14, Doug Farrar has them at No. 18, down three spots from last week.
“One week after a close loss to the Saints in which Carolina seemed like a team on the verge of doing something relevant this season, it all fell apart against a Redskins squad that has spent most of 2019 insisting on losing in the most agonizing ways possible. . . The Panthers have now lost four consecutive games, and this marks the second season in a row in which they’ve collapsed down the stretch — last season, they took a 5-2 record halfway through to a 7-9 finish. There comes a point where Ron Rivera and his staff have to be a bit concerned about their jobs.”
Looking ahead, it’s clear Rivera’s job will be in jeopardy once the regular season is over, no matter how the team finishes.
Owner David Tepper might be tempted to clean house and start over with a whole new front office. General manager Marty Hurney could survive any offseason purge given his relationship with Tepper. Nobody should feel too comfortable about their positions though, even Hurney.
Whoever winds up on top when the dust settles will have to make an extremely difficult decision about what to do with Cam Newton, who is going into the last year of his contract.
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