Football is back for Week 8, and it is hard to believe we are almost halfway through the regular season. I still feel like we don’t really know all that much about these teams. Are some of these teams that have good records actually bad (the Chiefs), or are some of the bad-record teams actually good (the Cowboys)? Maybe those two teams aren’t even the best examples of those situations. There are two teams on Thursday Night Football that are a bit hard to judge, as the Panthers and Packers take each other on.
The Carolina Panthers are 3-3 for the season and 2-1 on the road. Bryce Young is searching for a contract extension, or maybe at this point a new home. The good news for him is that he has looked fantastic in his fourth year under center. He is on pace to have the best season of his career. The running game has been solid for the team, even if they don’t really use it as much as they probably need to. Chuba Hubbard is averaging about 4.5 yards per carry, but the team has attempted roughly 100 more passes than runs.
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Defensively, this team has struggled against the run, but has been very good against the pass. They have the worst defense in football when it comes to stopping the run. However, against the pass, they are ranked sixth. That might be a good thing against a Packers team that has struggled to run the ball this season. What is interesting to me is that, if you look at the schedule, the Panthers have won games against Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Saquon Barkley. They lost to the Bears, Browns and Buccaneers. No knock on those three, but I don’t think their team’s running backs would be as feared as the ones they beat.
The Green Bay Packers are 4-3 for the season and have done a good job of protecting their home field, entering with a 2-1 record. Jordan Love is having a really strong season and is arguably being asked to do more than ever before. The team was missing starting running back Josh Jacobs, who was away from the team due to legal issues. Without Jacobs, the Packers really struggled to find any traction on the ground this season. His return last week wasn’t transformational; Jacobs only had 36 yards on 11 carries.
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The Packers will continue to rely on Love’s arm to get the job done. He’s already thrown the ball 270 times this season, which is almost double the number of times they’ve called a run play. That does make the offense a bit one-dimensional, and against the Panthers’ defense, they could struggle.
The Packers, in general, don’t score all that many points. They are averaging 20.6 points per game, 25th in the NFL, putting them in the same company as the Cardinals and Broncos.
It would be really hard to imagine that the Panthers and Packers play in a shootout tonight. Despite both of these teams excelling in the passing game, they aren’t exactly elite offenses. Both are pretty good at stopping the pass. I think this game is likely to be a slow-starting game with both trying to figure things out. I’d be surprised if it goes over 47.5 for the game, but I think the under in the first half is even more likely. Neither team is a fast-starting team. Give me the under 23.5 for the 1st half.
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