The Carolina Panthers had a difficult, difficult game last Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It’s the kind of loss that smacks you right across the mouth and has much as the Panthers would love to turn the page and forget about it, you can’t.

That’s the kind of loss where you have to take a full reset and fully evaluate what went wrong to create a plan for how things can get better. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they don’t have that kind of time. In two days, the Panthers will be back in action taking on the Green Bay Packers, who will likely lean into that same exact script.

“It’s focus, it’s intentionality, it’s an understanding that all of the little things matter,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said on Tuesday. “It all comes down to fundamental football and that’s controllable. That’s something that we can certainly focus on… It’s humbling and it returns us to a focus about what matters.”

Focus now turns to the Green Bay Packers and cleaning up the run defense

The biggest area the Panthers need to improve going into Thursday night’s game in Green Bay is the run defense. Carolina allowed over 250+ yards on the ground for the second time this season and it made it impossible to get anything going in that game.

This is a matchup where a moveable object meets an unmovable force. Going into this game, the Panthers have allowed a league-high 153.2 rushing yards per game while the Packers have averaged a league-low 59.9 rushing yards per game. The real difference-maker is going to be running back Josh Jacobs, who returned for the Packers last week.

“The way that I’ve seen it is teams typically don’t just go completely away from what they’ve been doing schematically, and the things that you do just get better when you get your great players back,” Canales explained. “Josh Jacobs is a fantastic runner. Showed his ability out of the backfield on the perimeter… These are things that he can bring to this offense that’s already an explosive offense with a lot of speed outside.”

In his return game, Jacobs rushed for just 36 yards on 11 carries, which doesn’t seem as daunting as Canales explained. So, I spoke with our A to Z Sports Green Bay writer Wendell Ferreira to get more insight on how Jacobs looked last week.

“On the surface, the rushing numbers don’t jump off the page. Jacobs had 11 carries for only 36 yards, a 3.3 yards-per-carry average. MarShawn Lloyd had the same average on his six carries, finishing with 20 yards. Jacobs also had a costly drop on the final drive. Based on that alone, it would seem fair to say the veteran didn’t add much to the running game. That’s not what actually happened.

The gap between Jacobs and Lloyd shows up quickly in the advanced data. Jacobs averaged 2.73 yards after contact per attempt, compared to 1.50 for Lloyd. Neither back had a designed run of 15 or more yards. Green Bay was 22nd in rush EPA in Week 7, up from 32nd through Weeks 1 to 6. Jacobs was also far more productive as a receiver. He generated 2.75 yards per route run against 1.36 from Lloyd.

The run block is still questionable at best, but Jacobs has the potential to generate more than what the offensive line gives him.”

Yards after contact is how Josh Jacobs can hurt this defense

The biggest thing that hurt the Panthers last week against the Buccaneers when it came to defending the run was tackling. The Panthers could not bring down the runners last week. Carolina’s defense had seven combined missed tackles and allowed 156 yards after contact. It was inexcusable and it’s not something that will slide against Josh Jacobs.

As Ferreira noted, Jacobs was the team’s most efficient back last week when it came to generating yards after contact. In fact, since 2020, Jacobs ranks third in the NFL with 6,689 yards after contact.

“We have get up there and team tackle him and make sure we’re maintaining leverage,” Canales said. “And everybody’s got to run to the ball because he will, at times, make that first person miss. Making sure we show up together is critical.”

If the Panthers play how they played last week, Thursday is going to be a long night and it’s going to be a big game for Jacobs back at home. They’ve got to tackle better this week and focusing on the fundamentals is the right start early in the week.

Panthers have been here before, now they need to do it again

This game is very similar to how the Panthers-Packers game went last season for Carolina. The Panthers were coming off a 40-9 loss in which they allowed 245 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. The following game they had to play on the road in Green Bay. Yet, they managed to pull off the upset.

Not only that, Carolina held Jacobs to 87 yards on 17 carries. They’ve been here before, they just have to do it again.

“To me, what was so important about that win was, it was an example of our guys playing together and playing a style,” Canales said.

That’s something the Panthers will have to do on Thursday if they want to win this game. Since last season, the Panthers are 8-3 coming off a loss (including that win in Green Bay). So again, they’ve been here before, it’s just a matter of doing it again.