Our offense vs their defense:There is absolutely no way in hell that their defense is prepared to shut down the passing game we have installed. Their personnel simply can not do enough to stop us consistently. If any of our big three receivers get one on one coverage, it's a no brainer. Throw the ball in their direction and let them do what they excel at- making the contested catch. They obviously can't double up on all three guys (Jackson, Evans, Jenkins) so their only hope is to play zone. The great thing about that, is that zone coverage will be easy to exploit with our backs and with short passes and screens. We've all heard 'speed in space'. We will likely see a good bit of that Sunday. Against their front 7, we should do a fairly admirable job of running the ball. They can't afford to stack the box with 8, or bring extra defenders to blitz, because that would leave one of our receivers in a great position to make a big play should we pass. We'll get some good looks running, and with just enough time to pass, the play action could be deadly. I don't put much stock into their secondary. They run a good scheme, but Lovie already has that defense figured out. In the end, Carolina can stop the run, and we can throw up jump balls all day (catching most of them) or they can put a premium on stopping our paul bunyan-esque pass catchers, and Martin will run up and down the field for 100+. But either way, we will find success against them. And we should be able to score at least two touchdowns and a field goal or two.Their offense vs our defense:Cam is still Cam. Hurt ribs or not. The problem for the Panthers, is our defense is a lot better than any Bucs defense he has played against in the past. Can they run the ball against us? Probably not. Our squad is easily a top 10, if not top 3 run defense. Which is to say, as long as David and McCoy are healthy, there won't be any room for their backs to move the football. All of their success is going to have to come from the passing attack. The issue with that, is they don't have any reliable receivers outside of Greg Olsen who is getting up their in age and has probably taken a step back as far as speed and athleticism. Kelvin doesn't worry me. I think Vernor could shut him down, so could Banks for that matter. So if we shut down the run game, and Barron takes out Olsen, and Banks or Vernor neutralize Benjamin, what option does Carolina have left? Their only sliver of hope is for Cam to run around for thirty seconds each play, and make something magical happen. But magic isn't real. Our defense is. Carolina may get lucky and score off a McCown pick or fumble. But their offense will be about as useless as ours was in 2011. And that's saying something. Final score:Carolina 10Tampa Bay 24
