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New Orleans Saints: What we learned about the NFC South on Sunday

By Jason Reed

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - NOVEMBER 22: Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons and Drew Brees #9 of the New Orleans Saints shake hands at the end of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on November 22, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - NOVEMBER 22: Matt Ryan #2 of the Atlanta Falcons and Drew Brees #9 of the New Orleans Saints shake hands at the end of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on November 22, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) – New Orleans Saints
(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) – New Orleans Saints /

The Carolina Panthers will go as far as Christian McCaffrey can drag them

On paper, the Carolina Panthers had a very solid loss in Week 1. The team was hosting the defending NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams and only lost by three points. And in fact, for the most part, the Rams were really lucky in this game as the Panthers made countless mistakes to let LA back in the game.

Carolina is not going to make that many mistakes every week, so they can be assured that they will play cleaner games. If this was a cleaner game, the Panthers absolutely would have beaten the Rams.

But the only reason that the Panthers were in that position was because of Christian McCaffrey, who literally did everything for the team. McCaffrey was sensational but he really was their only consistently productive weapon, which was a problem.

McCaffrey ran the ball 19 times for 128 yards and two touchdowns to go alongside 10 receptions for 81 yards. He was breaking tackles, making guys miss and even caught a pass early on that was not even meant for him.

Cam Netwon was okay in this game but he did not prove that his arm is healthy in this game as he did not open it up much.

With just a decent Cam Newton, the Panthers do not really have much offensive firepower. Their defense is good enough to let the team hang in games, but the offense is going to struggle to hang in every single week when McCaffrey is the only piece making a difference.

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