Panthers 17 Bucs 3: Panthers Player of the Game fan poll

The Panthers (5-3) broke their two game losing break in sweet fashion by beating division rival Tampa Bay (2-5) on the road. Hence selecting the Panthers PoG will be a little more enjoyable this week.

This week’s list of candidates does not include QB Cam Newton. While you can certainly argue a QB has a hand in every win his performance did not warrant inclusion this week. Newton completed only 18 of 32 passes for 154 yards with an INT and a TD. That’s a QBR of 66. Newton also cannot say it was the offensive line that led to his poor day passing, at least not this week:

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After facing pressure on a league-high 47 dropbacks over the previous two weeks, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was pressured on only four dropbacks against the Buccaneers. He completed one of three passes on those dropbacks for 16 yards and a passer rating of 52.1. When he didn’t face pressure, he completed 17 of 29 passes for 138 yards, one touchdown and one interception. His passer rating of 67.9 when kept clean ranked 19^th out of 22 qualified quarterbacks in Week 8.

We’ve all seen him perform at a much higher level. He did add 44 yards rushing on 11 carries highlighted by a nifty 20 yard dash up the middle. But in the end I decided to focus on other players.

Here are this week’s candidates:

RB Christian McCaffrey

McCaffrey caught 5 of 7 targets for 49 yards but should have had a much bigger day. On several of Newton’s miss fires he missed seeing an open McCaffrey on the outlet pass. I will add McCaffrey did very little the four carries he got.

WR Kelvin Benjamin

KB only caught 3 of 7 targets but he did score from 25 yards out on a nice box out of the CB to ice the game. He makes it look so easy I don’t understand why we don’t run that play more often.

LB Luke Kuechly

Kuechly returned the field after missing a game due to injury and made his presence felt immediately. Luke finished with 8 combined tackles, an INT, a pass defensed and a fumble recovery. Even better was hearing the announcer talking about asking opposing offensive lineman if Kuechly ever calls out the play correctly pre-snap since he is apparently very chatty in this way. The answer was ‘He is always right’. That has to be disheartening as an opposing player when just before the ball is snapped he yells out the correct play call.

DE Julius Peppers

Peppers only logged 2 combined tackles but one was a sack and forced fumble which by the way is a Peppers specialty. It was also the 151 sack of his career putting him in sole possession of fourth place on the all time sack list. That’s as good as any reason to be on this list.

DE Mario Addison

Per PFF Edge Addison had his best game of the season:

Defensive end Mario Addison had his best performance of the season with an overall grade of 80.5. He forced five total pressures and registered a pass rushing productivity of 15.2. Addison hadn’t forced more than three pressures in a game before Week 8.

The game book credited Addison with 5 combined tackles, 1.5 sacks and a tackle for a loss. Addison now has 5.5 sacks on the season.

S Kurt Coleman

Coleman was another starter returning to the line up after missing a couple games with a foot injury. The Panthers were glad to have him back as he led the team with 9 combined tackles and a fumble recovery.

Those are your candidates. Cast your vote below.