CHARLOTTE – While head coach Ron Rivera believes the NFL season is a marathon rather than sprint, he certainly wouldn't mind coming out of the starting gate strong.
Rivera and the Panthers don't have a history of that, but with Sunday's season opener at the Jacksonville Jaguars fast approaching, the fifth-year coach has reason to hope that slow starts could be a thing of the past.
"We've been very fortunate in December that we've been able to put things together in the four seasons we've been here, but you also know that for whatever reason we don't tend to do that (in September)," Rivera said.