The Carolina Panthers took another beating on Sunday in front of the home crowd. There’s not a more accurate way to put it and concerns rightfully started to heat back up about the defense that allowed another 200+ yard day on the ground with 40+ points.

Unfortunately, that’s become far too common under defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and something that’s gone on for multiple years with different levels of talent on that side of the ball. Fans have every right to be frustrated and demand changes.

In reality, the Panthers have another game to turn around and play on Thursday against the Green Bay Packers and an offensive fully capable of putting up points in a hurry. So, while fans want drastic changes to be made, head coach Dave Canales pointed toward things the team can actually address this week.

Concerns about Ejiro Evero are warranted, but nothing can be done right now

Canales has backed this scheme and his defensive coordinator many times now and maybe it comes to a point where something changes, but that’s not going to happen this week. The plan now is figuring out what went wrong from a preparation and execution standpoint and correcting it as soon as possible before Thursday night. And that’s going to be a bit harder given the time crunch.

“That’s what we’re focused on,” Canales told reporters on Monday. “As a staff – with our players as well – is as we’re going into this week, while we can’t necessarily just take all of those clips and talk all that time looking at the game, we can certainly look at the Packers and what they might try to do to emulate some of the things that were successful. And have a plan, and be ready for that.”

For the Packers, it won’t be hard to come up with a plan. The Buccaneers gashed the Panthers in the run game with counters and really didn’t have to throw the ball. The Packers could lean into that with the run game and force the Panthers to stop it while also having the deep threat in the passing game to watch out for with Jordan Love.

“The adjustments and the things we need to do, I don’t want to air that out,” Canales added. “Just understanding that we got to do it. We have to execute it well together, we gotta coach it better, collectively. We got to have that plan so that when it becomes the same type of concepts, that our players feel prepared and ready to attack. Let’s take this run out of it and they’re going to have to go to these other ones. That’s what we’ve been working through and talking through.”

Personnel will certainly play a role based on Monday’s practice

One big loss the Panthers were missing last week was edge rusher Jaelan Phillips, who could have helped with defending those counters. Phillips is still a long-shot but is pushing to come back in Week 8, although he did not practice on Monday.

Another player that missed practice was cornerback Akayleb Evans, who struggled mightily in coverage and run support on Sunday. The Panthers are already thin at the position without Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson, leaving Chau Smith-Wade and Corey Thornton as options to consider turning to against Christian Watson and Matthew Golden.

“The thing we have to evaluate is who gives us the best opportunity to win outside,” Canales explained. “To be at the corner spot, exclusively, without the flexibility knowing that we have guys that are doing that role for us pretty well right now.”

Essentially, the Panthers need someone to step up over the next three days to show they can play outside at a starting level. Unless Evans is able to ramp back up.

There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of things to address, and not a lot of time. That doesn’t bode well at all for this unit. But, at least it’ll give us a clear picture on what this staff is actually made of and an opportunity to respond.