Monday Night Football features an NFC South matchup as the Carolina Panthers (6-7) host the New Orleans Saints (11-2) with the goal of snapping their five-game losing streak to try to keep their slim postseason chances alive.
With the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins both winning on Sunday there’s even more pressure on the Panthers to pull a huge upset against a Saints team that owns the best record in the NFL.
The Panthers, who have lost three in a row against the Saints, seemed to hit rock bottom last week when they lost 26-20 to the Cleveland Browns in Ohio. That defeat came just one week after losing 24-17 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Florida. That’s back-to-back losses to teams that have an 11-16 combined record.
This game will feature two new school running backs in Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara who get to showcase their skills under the lights of primetime television. These two are very versatile backs that can run, catch it, and in general, make plays everywhere on the field.
The way their teams use them puts opposing defenses in a bind to try and stop them not only because of their skills but because of the weapons playing next to them.
Kamara, second in the NFL with 15 total touchdowns, is undoubtedly their most offensive weapon outside of Drew Brees. Kamara’s versatility allows them to exploit perimeter mismatches and contributes to making the Saints offense really difficult to defend. If Kamara touches the ball around 16 times on Monday, you can expect the Saints to win this game.
As for McCaffrey he excels catching the football out of the backfield for the Panthers and his numbers reflect that as he leads all NFL running backs with 86 receptions this season.
McCaffrey’s very talented and dynamic as he can run through tackles and make people miss to keep moving the chains. He is a key contributor every week and if the Panthers are going to have a chance in this game the Panthers should make sure that Cam Newton keeps feeding him so he can have a big game.
The Panthers are struggling on both sides of the ball. Defensively they’re allowing too many big plays, and on offense, Cam Newton seems to have lost his superpowers as they have failed to score more than 20 points in three of their last four games.
Look for Drew Brees to have a big game against the Panthers’ secondary. The Saints will score fast and often and the Panthers won’t be able to keep up.
Prediction: Saints 31 – 20 Panthers
