Its the culmination of an impressive post-bye return to form from this Carolina pass rush. In just about every pass rush category I can find, the Panthers have drastically improved during the final five weeks. They have almost as many sacks in the five games since the bye (17) as they did in their 11 games beforehand (23), increasing their sack rate from 5.4 percent to 8.9 percent in the process. Before the bye, they pressured quarterbacks on just 22.0 percent of dropbacks, the fifth-worst rate in the league per ESPN Stats & Information. Since they returned from their bye, the Panthers 32.5 percent pressure rate is the second-best in football, trailing only the Cardinals.
Thats been part of the drastic improvement in Carolinas pass defense, which was 30th in QBR and 25th in passer rating before the bye and fifth-best in both categories afterward. Its also only part of the solution, as the Panthers have also finally found a secondary that works. Carolina has been forced to shuffle through spare parts to piece together a secondary in each of Ron Riveras years with the team, and after losing three starters from last years surprisingly effective unit, its no surprise the Panthers had problems finding a workable secondary this season.
