Carolina Panthers scored a big win in Week 5 without even playing a game that gives the team a little more cushion
The Carolina Panthers are now firmly in first place of the NFC South coming out of the bye week following the results of Week 5’s games.
The early bye week could not have come at a better time for the Carolina Panthers. The team was riding high into the bye week after a massive home win on Sunday Night Football over the Detroit Lions in Week 4 and needed a week to get properly grounded.
This is still a 2-2 team after the first month of the season and it’s easy to get too much air in your head after a win like that in a primetime game. The Panthers showed a lot of good things, and bad things, throughout those first four weeks to reflect back on.
That’s the benefit of having the early bye week. Head coach Dave Canales can essentially use the first four weeks as basically a preseason after coming out of that stretch .500.
“The early bye week allows us to have that fresh picture of things we thought were going to be good and aren’t, things that are really struggling; we need to move on. We now have an opportunity as a staff over the next couple of days to really dive into what those things are and then get into our game plan preparing for the Eagles,” Canales said.
In the meantime, the Panthers still scored a massive win in Week 5 without even playing a game looking at the rest of the NFL slate.
Carolina Panthers are firmly in first place coming out of Week 5
Heading into the bye week, the Panthers were tied on top of the NFC South standings with the Atlanta Falcons. Both teams were 2-2, but the Panthers held the tie-breaker advantage after winning the head-to-head game back in Week 2.
The Falcons had a chance to leapfrog the Panthers in the divisional standings on Sunday night but couldn’t close out the game in overtime against the Baltimore Ravens, falling to 2-3 on the season. To make things worse for Atlanta, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. suffered a rib injury and will have to undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of his injury. Under Penix, the Falcons looked like a much improved unit in the previous two games compared to the team Carolina dominated in Week 2.
As for the rest of the NFC South, the New Orleans Saints fell to 1-4 after their home loss to the Minnesota Vikings and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally earned their first win of the season on Thursday night against the Dallas Cowboys. This gives Carolina plenty of cushion in the early NFC South race coming out of the bye.
Panthers are also hoping to be a lot healthier coming out of the bye week
The Panthers have been decimated by injuries this season and desperately needed a week off to get some players back on the field. Carolina isn’t expected to be fully healthy coming out of the bye week, but they are hoping to get some reinforcements back.
“The gift of the early bye week, first off, we have a bunch of guys that are nicked up that’s going to buy us a little bit of time to get them back and get them ready,” Canales explained the last time he talked to the media.
Canales is scheduled to meet with the media again later today and will be able to provide some updates on which players the Panthers hope to have back in Week 6. Then, we’ll see the full injury report starting on Wednesday to really get an idea of how this team is looking health-wise coming out of the bye.
