Behind Enemy Lines with Panthers Wire: Kyle Allen or Cam Newton?

The Panthers have lost two of their last three games since winning four straight when Kyle Allen took over at QB. What’s gone wrong over the past few weeks?

The Falcons have won just two games all season, but will look to win their second straight when they take on the Carolina Panthers in Week 11.

To help us preview Sunday’s matchup, we caught up with Tim Weaver, the managing editor for Panthers Wire. Here’s four questions behind enemy lines ahead of this weekend’s NFC South battle in Carolina.

The Panthers have lost two of three games after winning four straight when Kyle Allen took over at QB. What’s gone wrong?

PW: Allen has thrown some bad passes, but the main reason they have been losing lately is their run defense. Since defensive tackle Kawann Short went on injured reserve in Week 3, it’s been steadily getting worse. Last week, they let Aaron Jones run all over them. He scored three rushing touchdowns, and the Packers averaged six yards per carry. I don’t know what the answer is, but Ron Rivera has to figure something out here.

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Report: Panthers don’t plan to be at Colin Kaepernick’s workout

That means Kyle Allen’s critics should get comfortable, because he’s not going anywhere unless he gets injured.

Panthers not planning to be at Colin Kaepernick workout, per sources.
The reasoning is along the lines of what David Tepper recently told Eric Reid: Team not looking to add a veteran QB.

— Joe Person (@josephperson) November 14, 2019

The Carolina Panthers won’t be sending anyone to free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s workout on Saturday in Atlanta, per Joe Person at the Athletic. The team has been clear it has no plans to pursue a veteran QB at this point, as owner David Tepper told safety Eric Reid earlier in the week.

That means Kyle Allen’s critics should get comfortable, because he’s not going anywhere unless he gets injured.

Even if Kaepernick was never on the table as a backup option, there are others. A case could be made to sign someone like Taylor Heinicke, as he’s familiar with the offense and Will Grier might be a liability if he’s asked to do much at all in the event Allen goes down. However, there’s been no indication of any interest on the QB front so far in 2019. Like it or not, Allen is the guy at QB for the foreseeable future.

As for Kaepernick, a lot of people have questioned why the NFL arranged this workout. Saturday is certainly an unusual time of the week to do it, when most teams are preparing for games the next day. It’s also worth asking why the league gave Kaepernick’s reps such little notice and why interested teams themselves didn’t reach out to him instead of to the league.

For what it’s worth, Reid says the whole thing feels more like a PR stunt than a legitimate opportunity for Kaepernick to show what he can do.

Several teams will be attending, though.

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Watch: Curtis Samuel’s fantasy football prospects vs. Falcons

Watch ESPN discuss Samuel’s fantasy prospects for this week.

Curtis Samuel has TD in 3 of 4 games and finds himself in a reallllly good spot this Sunday. pic.twitter.com/LeUsJQVZIR

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 14, 2019

In addition to being a critical division matchup, Sunday’s game between the Panthers and the Falcons has a lot of interesting fantasy football angles to consider. One of them is the outlook for Curtis Samuel, who is getting hot lately and has caught three touchdowns in his last four games. Watch ESPN discuss Samuel’s fantasy prospects for this week.

Samuel has been a legitimate fantasy sleeper several times this season. Whether or not he’s worth a start will likely depend on how well Kyle Allen can throw at him on deep passes. This year, Samuel has caught just half (34 of 68) of his targets, but in his defense many of those balls have been off-target by Allen.

While we like Samuel against Atlanta’s depleted secondary, Carolina’s other young gun at wide receiver is probably a better play.

Over the last two games, D.J. Moore has caught fire. He’s been targeted by Allen 21 times, catching 16 of them and producing 221 yards. Meanwhile, Samuel has had just 14 total targets. The downside with Moore is he doesn’t get much work in the red zone and is unlikely to score touchdowns – he has just three in his career. Samuel has 12.

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6 Panthers who need to step up over the last 7 games

If they’re going to defy those odds and make the postseason this year, they need these six individuals to step up over their final seven games.

Going into Week 11, the Panthers have just an 18% chance of making the playoffs, according to FiveThirtyEight.

If they’re going to defy those odds and make the postseason this year, they need these six individuals to step up over their final seven games.

QB Kyle Allen

The problem: accuracy

After seven starts, we know more about what Allen is and isn’t at quarterback. He is a relentless competitor and excellent teammate who has said all the right things and taken blame for his mistakes since Cam Newton’s injury. However, Allen has also been erratic in the pocket and has missed too many open receivers. Allen is completing just 61.5% of his passes this year. That’s more than six points lower than Newton’s completion percentage from 2018. While he seems to have a strong rhythm established with D.J. Moore and Christian McCaffrey, Allen is often out of sync with Curtis Samuel and Greg Olsen. Working on timing with those two might help boost his accuracy.

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