CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -Damione Lewis doesn’t remember his Carolina Panthers’ coaches ever bringing up the statistic “yards after contact.”
So when the defensive tackle heard the eye-popping number of yards the Panthers gave up to Atlanta Sunday after making an initial hit – 193 – it was jarring. It only got worse when he and his teammates had to watch it on film.
“You see guys coming in and hitting a guy and he’s staying up,” Lewis said. “We’re not wrapping up. We’re going in getting big shots on them and they’re bouncing off and making big runs out of it.”
It was part of an ugly day. With Michael Turner running loose and Harry Douglas bouncing off defenders, the Panthers allowed the most points in coach John Fox’s seven seasons in the 45-28 loss that snapped a four-game winning streak.
e Panthers to face large time of possession deficits early in games.
“We’ve been missing tackles across the board – D-line, linebackers and secondary – and I think it’s more of a mind-set,” Lewis said. “You know you have to break down and grab cloth when you wrap a guy up.
“When you’re playing these guys, they get paid, too. We’ve been playing a lot of good running backs here. So you really have to hone in on getting them down to the ground,” he said. “You can’t just go in and give shoulder shots and stuff like that.”
There were some surprising sights at the Georgia Dome. Leading tackler Jon Beason bouncing off a receiver in the first half, then unable to wrap up Turner on his fourth touchdown of the day.
But he wasn’t alone. And once when the Panthers finally got a guy down, it was illegal: The Falcons got 15 yards tacked on at the end of a play when cornerback Richard Marshall was called for a horse-collar tackle.
“We weren’t the running to the ball at full speed as a defense, something we preach here,” Marshall said. “It showed up on film. There were a couple of plays where we just missed tackles and didn’t wrap up like we usually do. We’ve just got to wrap up this week and make the tackle when we get to the ball.”
ome in the preseason. The Panthers haven’t practiced in pads this week in an effort to keep players fresh in a grinding 16-game season.
“It’s a combination of things,” linebacker Na’il Diggs said. “Technique is one, another is getting players to the ball. That’s where we’ve got to improve, especially this time of the season.”
Marshall agreed that the Panthers’ compounded their problems against Atlanta because if a player missed a tackle, he was getting little help, allowing for big gains.
“Sometimes you can slip up on your technique or the way you come in on a tackle,” Marshall said. “It happens sometimes and we just have to try to prevent it from happening and try to make the tackles the first time. Get all 11 guys to the ball so if one person misses a tackle, the other 10 guys can be there to make the tackle.”
Coach John Fox indicated tackling is being emphasized ahead of Sunday’s visit to Green Bay, when they’ll face another good running back, Ryan Grant. The recent woes have helped the Panthers drop from second in the NFL in points allowed to seventh.
But the stat that most irks Lewis is the 193 yards after contact.
“That’s way too many. There are games when we haven’t given up that many (total) yards,” Lewis said. “That’s pretty much ridiculous. We don’t play like that. That’s been rough. We’ve just got to hone in, get guys down and be where we’re supposed to be. Just get back to playing hungry defense.”
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