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Kill the soft zone! The Panthers are terrible defending third and long

The Carolina Panthers have given us plenty of reasons to be frustrated with our team this year, but one of my biggest frustrations continues to be the defense’s inability to get stops on third and long. My gut has told me the Panthers have been terrible in these situations so I turned to Football Reference to see if the data backs me up.

Well, the data backs me up.

The Panthers have been awful defending third and long this season. When facing 3rd-and-11 or longer, Carolina’s defense has given up first downs 23.8% of the time.