Lanschaften » Panthers defensive tackle Kawann Short stood smiling

at his locker sporting a new black golf shirt with three letters stitched on that read: G2X.It was a present to the defensive linemen from new coordinator Eric Washington 鈥?a reminder of the motto of this year’s unit.“Getting to the spot https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Captain-Munnerlyn-Jersey , man; getting to the quarterback,” Short said. “It’s the mentality for everybody on defense.”The Panthers’ defense did plenty of that Sunday, sacking quarterback Dak Prescott six times and limiting Dallas to 232 yards in a 16-8 victory over the Cowboys in the season opener.Cam Newton ran for 58 yards and a touchdown, and Luke Kuechly had 13 tackles to lead the Panthers. Short had two sacks and Mario Addison added a game-clinching strip-sack of the Cowboys quarterback with 1:23 left.“They’re great,” Prescott said of Carolina’s defense. “Luke Kuechly is the quarterback of that defense and does a great job of putting them in good position. And they are a sure-tackling team.”The Cowboys, who entered the season looking to replace Dez Bryant and Jason Witten, couldn’t do much against a stingy Carolina defense in the first half. The Panthers limited the Cowboys to 60 yards and four first downs to take a 10-0 lead into the locker room.Prescott finished with just 170 yards passing and Ezekiel Elliott was held to 69 yards rushing and didn’t score until the fourth quarter. Dallas’ leading receiver was Cole Beasley, who had seven catches for 73 yards.Prescott refused to blame the team’s struggles on adjusting to new players 鈥?or on the offense’s lack of reps together in preseason.“We have a lot of great players on this team,” Prescott said. “We’re not talking about guys we used to have or guys that are missing. It’s about the guys on the field and we gave it our all. I promise we will have a better performance next week.”The Panthers seemed in complete control when fullback Alex Armah scored on a 1-yard run early in the fourth quarter to make it 16-0. But Carolina botched the extra point, keeping it a two-possession game and turning the momentum to the Cowboys.Elliott scored on a 4-yard touchdown run on the next drive and Prescott added the 2-point conversion to cut the lead in half.But Carolina stopped Dallas on its final two drives and Addison 鈥?who had 11 sacks last season 鈥?stripped Prescott of the ball and Captain Munnerlyn recovered.“Kawann can’t get a sack without me; I can’t get a sack without him, can’t get one without (Julius) Peppers,” Addison said. “Everybody’s got to do their job.”Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said the Cowboys did a better job of spreading the Panthers out late in the game, but added that penalties were a killer. Dallas was penalized 10 times for 85 yards.OLSEN DOWN AGAIN: Panthers tight end Greg Olsen left in the first half with a foot injury and did not return. He was on the sideline in the second half on crutches with his right foot in the boot.It’s the same foot Olsen broke last season, costing him nine games. Rivera offered no other updates on how long the three-time Pro Bowl selection might be out.NEWTON RUNNING: Just as he did last season, Newton led the Panthers in rushing. He had 52 yards on four carries on the game’s opening drive, but Christian McCaffrey fumbled near the goal line.Newton said new offensive coordinator Norv Turner told him when he arrived that, “I’m going to let you be you https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/David-Mayo-Jersey , baby.”“They challenge you in so many different ways,” Garrett said. “The quarterback runs in the first half were such huge plays for them, converting third downs, down in the red zone. He’s been doing that his whole career. We knew that was something we’d have to somehow contain and control.”GETTING HIS KICKS: Brett Maher, who replaced Dan Bailey 鈥?the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history 鈥?missed a 47-yard field goal in his first career attempt.CHANGING TIMES: For the first time in franchise history, the Panthers painted their team logo at midfield.New owner David Tepper made the decision after purchasing the team from Jerry Richardson in July. The Panthers have always had the NFL “shield” at midfield 鈥?per Richardson’s orders 鈥?since coming into the league as an expansion franchise in 1995.INJURIESCowboys: Defensive end Randy Gregory suffered a concussion in the first half and did not return.Panthers: Along with Olsen, second-team All-Pro right tackle Daryl Williams went down with a knee injury in the fourth quarter and was carted off the field. Williams tore his MCL and dislocated his knee cap in the preseason, but Rivera said this is not the same injury. … Kuechly injured his left knee in the fourth quarter but returned to the game.UP NEXTCowboys: Host the Giants on Sunday night.Panthers: Visit the Falcons on Sunday. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Hog Molly Report, where winning in the trenches is all that matters. Before we begin, we open with the reciting of our usual motto:In the spirit of Mr. Gettleman’s words (regardless of him having moved on) and the philosophy of building a team from the inside out, my goal will be to watch the hog mollies each game during the season and give them a grade based on their performance. This week we will look at the dominant effort in defeating the Baltimore Ravens, where the Carolina Panthers controlled the game and rose to 5-2 on the season. You don’t see wins like Sunday’s without a full team level of execution, so as you’d imagine, the Hog Mollies definitely did their part on offense, while the defensive line did just enough at key moments to keep things in the team’s favor.Offensive Hog MolliesYards per Carry: 4.7, season: 5.1 (2nd, NFL)Yards per Play: 6.1 https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Devin-Funchess-Jersey , season: 5.8 (13th, NFL)Sacks allowed: 0, season: 10 (T-3rd, NFL)Third downs converted: 6 of 12 or 50%, season: 41% (16th, NFL)Rating: 5 out of 5 Good Golly Miss MolliesThe Carolina Panthers continue to keep the train moving on offense, shutting out a Raven’s pass rush that entered the contest with the top overall sack figures in the NFL. Is the offensive line that good? I would say that they are being helped in a number of ways. The only teams better than them as far as sacks allowed are the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints. Those teams feature quarterbacks in Tom Brady and Drew Brees that are experts at movement inside the pocket, and getting the ball out of their hands just in time. Cam Newton has joined that echelon of play this season, and deserves to get more credit for it than he is currently garnering. That shouldn’t take away anything from the line, as you don’t keep your quarterback completely clean on his gumption alone. As with anything, it is a team effort, and the offense is fully synchronized right now.Here are your pressure counts for week eight:Here’s a brief sack report:1st Sack: NONE TO SPEAK OF.How’s that for brevity?Pro Football Focus has Chris Clark graded as our best overall offensive player, and I vehemently disagree with that. Cam Newton was far better than their grade suggests, but did Clark have a case as our best overall lineman in the game? Count on it. While he did have two pressures, he was a major force in Christian McCaffrey’s touchdown run, and he made a few key blocks along the way to spring runners for first downs or to close out the game. Greg Van Roten had a hard day, but the Ravens’ interior line is going to make it tough sledding for anyone.Ryan Kalil continues to give us the best effort he can in his final season https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Mario-Addison-Jersey , and of course the right side of the line is as good as advertised with Taylor Moton continuing his march toward what should be a Pro Bowl bid. If this is just the beginning for the Panthers as they figure out their new offensive system, we may see even brighter days ahead, and that is exciting.Defensive Hog MolliesYards per Carry: 5.6, season: 4.4 (T-17th, NFL)Yards per Play: 5.2, season: 5.7 (19th, NFL)Sacks given: 2 (0 by DL), season: 18 (T-21st, NFL)Third down allowed %: 6 of 12 or 50%, season: 35% (7th, NFL)Rating: 3 out of 5 Mysterious MolliesSunday is a perfect example of why they don’t play these games on paper, and box score analysis if often the worst kind of evil. Three Ravens drives throw off the averages in this one (one in total garbage time) to where you’d think the defense didn’t have a great day. They weren’t perfect, but in football sometimes opportunism is better than consistency. The play of the day on defense is probably Kyle Love rumbling straight through the line and knocking Alex Collins into an alternate dimension where men with massive midsections are the ones modeling underwear, causing a fumble and an easy touchdown for the offense. Does that translate to Kyle Love having an incredible and consistent day? No it doesn’t. Does consistency matter all that much when a single huge effort can get your team seven points? I don’t think it does.So why then does the defensive line get only three out of a possible five hogs? For the exact reason they are the defensive line, and this report serves to evaluate them in a bit of a bubble. Love made a commendable splash play on Sunday, but the line as a whole continues to struggle with the ability to get to the quarterback on a four man rush. Sure, Joe Flacco was feeling the pressure this week Marquis Haynes Jersey , but you gotta believe that Donte Jackson taking him to the woodshed brought out “Footsteps” Flacco more than Julius Peppers almost getting to him several times. Beyond those troubles, gap discipline regressed this week after a notable step forward against the Philadelphia Eagles. Our defensive ends continue to have trouble setting the edge, particularly when Efe Obada or Brian Cox Jr. rotate in.This is not what you want to see out of your defensive ends, failures to set the edge resulting in chunk plays.nextgenstats.nfl.comOnly three defensive linemen registered a SINGLE quarterback hit on Sunday. Dontari Poe, Kawann Short, Julius Peppers. The other four came from Luke Kuechly and the secondary on blitzes. That is not good, and is not a championship caliber effort by the defensive line. If we are serious about winning a Super Bowl this season, I would like to see a move made before the trade deadline to give our pass rush a boost.Hog Molly of the Week: Chris ClarkWhile I feel that Pro Football Focus is indeed a bit over-enthusiastic on his grade this week, that doesn’t change the fact Clark had his best game with the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and against a front that should have given him a lot of trouble. The debate over whether a healthy Matt Kalil will return to a job when he is eligible to do so rages on, and this was a nice bounce back game for Clark who had two rough games prior to this. I stand by my statements made in the past few weeks that I would hate to break up the party the offensive line is currently throwing, and would leave Clark in until Kalil can prove he deserves it. Cohesion and trust cannot be undervalued when talking about offensive line play. There is something to be said, however, that Matt Kalil should be far more rested than the players he lines up against once he makes his return.