The Carolina Panthers will need to find a way to fix their run defense and get it healthy if they hope to go anywhere in the NFC playoffs.
With run-stopping defensive tackle Maake Kemoeatu on the sidelines Sunday night, the Panthers allowed 301 yards on the ground in a loss to the New York Giants.
Kemoeatu said he expects to play this week, although he didn't practice on Wednesday. But fellow defensive tackle Damione Lewis wasn't so sure after injuring his shoulder Sunday night and missing most of the last quarter and overtime.
After losing Lewis, the Panthers' were down to Darwin Walker, Gary Gibson, who was basically playing with one hand (and has since been placed on injured reserve) and Nick Hayden, a rookie just called up from the practice squad and playing in his first NFL game.
While it would be simple to blame all of Carolina's problems defending the run on injuries, that wouldn't be altogether correct, coach John Fox said.
"I don't like to pin it on (Kemoeatu being out)," Fox said. "Obviously we'd prefer to have Maake in there, but that wasn't the case, even with (more injuries) like D-Lew (Lewis) out of there and a hand issue with Gary Gibson. There at the end, we had some guys filling in; Charles Johnson had to play some tackle.
But that wasn't the majority of our issues. We didn't execute, in particular on what we call sub-runs, as well as we could have. We made No. 34 (Derrick Ward) look pretty good."
"Sub-runs" are where the Giants spread out the Panthers using three wide receivers, a tight end and halfback, often with the quarterback lined up in the shotgun. The Giants ran out of that formation several times Sunday night and the Panthers couldn't stop it.
"Not getting into too many specifics, but we just didn't fit that as well as we should have," Fox said. "It was poorly executed on our part.
"Give them credit. I think you don't become the No. 1 rushing team in the National Football League by accident. But I think we helped them in some areas.
"We didn't execute as well on defense as we could have. They're things that are correctable, and we'll have to get those fixed."
SERIES MATCHUP: 28th regular-season meeting. Panthers lead series 15-12. Earlier this season the Panthers dominated the Saints at home 30-7 and had no problem shutting down Drew Brees and the Saints' powerful pass offense. Brees was limited to 231 yards passing and no touchdowns. He was picked off once.
