{"id":11226,"date":"2016-01-21T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/panthers-struggling-with-keeping-leads-closing-out-games\/"},"modified":"2016-01-21T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:00:39","slug":"panthers-struggling-with-keeping-leads-closing-out-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/panthers-struggling-with-keeping-leads-closing-out-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers struggling with keeping leads, closing out games"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C.<\/strong> \u2014 The Carolina Panthers problem hasn\u2019t been building big leads this season, it has been keeping them.<\/p>\n

Four times the Panthers have led by 17 points or more in the second half, only to watch an opponent storm back. All four games the Panthers have escaped with wins, but far too often it has been too close for comfort.<\/p>\n

Coach Ron Rivera said he\u2019s \u201cconcerned\u201d about his team\u2019s struggles closing out games, but refused to dwell on it as the Panthers stepped up preparations for Sunday\u2019s NFC championship game against the Arizona Cardinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest, I get it, I understand,\u201d Rivera said after the Panthers nearly squandered a 31-point halftime lead last weekend but held on to beat the Seattle Seahawks 31-24 in the divisional playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, shoot, we won those football games and look at who we played against. If this was someone that was 2-14 that did this to us, then I\u2019d be really concerned. But it wasn\u2019t. Am I concerned? Yeah. But are these things correctable and fixable? Most certainly. Let\u2019s stay focused on what we did \u2014 we won the football game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday wasn\u2019t the first time the Panthers have flirted with an epic collapse.<\/p>\n

Carolina surrendered a 17-point fourth quarter lead in Week 8 to Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts, falling behind by a field goal in overtime before rallying to win 29-26.<\/p>\n

The following week against Green Bay a 23-point fourth quarter lead dwindled to eight before Thomas Davis sealed the win with a pick in the end zone in the final two minutes.<\/p>\n

And in late December the Panthers seemed to be cruising to an easy win against the New York Giants before a 28-point lead slipped away. It took a late drive by Cam Newton and a winning field goal by Graham Gano as time expired for the Panthers to slip away with a win.<\/p>\n

Rivera said the common denominator in those four games was facing a top-tier quarterback, referring to Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck and Eli Manning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get a big lead like that, one of the things is you have to learn to not relax,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cYou have to learn to continue to attack. It is one of those things that we most certainly as coaches have to make sure we are putting them in the right positon to do those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a large lead isn\u2019t easy on either coordinator.<\/p>\n

Offensively, teams are expected to run time off the clock. Defensively, you can\u2019t give up the big play.<\/p>\n

That tends to lend itself to a conservative mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fine line in keeping it wide open and also trying to call plays that are really good that also will keep the clock moving,\u201d offensive coordinator Mike Shula said.<\/p>\n

Newton said the Panthers too often have \u201clet the foot off the throttle\u201d and lacked a killer instinct against Seattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur philosophy, at times, was just to play keep-away,\u201d Newton said Sunday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

He knows the Panthers can\u2019t afford to take the same approach if they get in a similar position Sunday against the high-powered Cardinals, who have the league\u2019s top-ranked offense.<\/p>\n

Regardless, tight end Greg Olsen said playing with a big lead is never easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are up 31-0 and you don\u2019t want to give them life, you want don\u2019t want to give them a spark,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cYou want to continue to keep your aggression and all of that, but it\u2019s hard. You also don\u2019t want to do anything silly and take a big chance and give up a big play.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL website: http:\/\/www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 The Carolina Panthers problem hasn\u2019t been building big leads this season, it has been keeping them. Four times the Panthers have led by 17 points or more in the second half, only to watch an opponent storm back. All four games the Panthers have escaped with wins, but far too often it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11226"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}