We were fairly sure the Chicago Bears had the edge on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, but after Taylor Doll interviewed Demetri Ravanos of the Panther-centric This Team is Killing Us podcast, we now see it as a lock. Ravanos is still predicting a close contest, but he does not sound confident in his team at all.
Carolina has one of the worst run defenses in the league, and Ravanos feels Chicago should be able to build off last week's solid performance when they ran for 131 yards against the Rams. He also thinks the Panthers are susceptible to passes over the middle of the field, especially slants, and I know every Bears fan would love to see some slants! Hopefully, we will also get a nice game out of Caleb Williams on Sunday against a depleted Carolina defense.
“I’d love to tell you if I knew what to expect from this Panthers defense this season," Ravanos told Doll on her latest Making Monsters podcast, "because Shaq Thompson is out for the year, Josey Jewell is out for the next four games, D.J. Wonnum, who was another free agent acquisition we thought would be back this week, that is not happening… the frustrating thing about this Panthers defense.. they trade away Brian Burns last year, they let Frankie Luvu walk, Derek Brown gets hurt and is gone for the entire season, this is a faceless defense for the most part.”
Veteran quarterback Andy Dalton was given the starting job for the Panthers a couple of weeks ago, and although he's played better than second-year pro Bryce Young, he's not exciting their fanbase.
“I think probably what we saw against the Bengals last week where the team looked good, but they weren’t really a threat in that game," Ravanos said of what he expects from Dalton. "It’s disappointing to be playing a team with no wins, and when they go up just by seven you’re convinced your team has lost."
Carolina's rushing attack behind Chuba Hubbard has picked up since Dalton took over at quarterback, and Hubbard having a big game is their only chance in this one.
"I think it is going to be a matter of can Chuba keep getting enough yards to then force the Bears to pay attention to the run and give Andy Dalton those opportunities to make some of those throws we’ve seen.”
Ravanos also gets into what he's seen from the Bears thus far, and of course, he had to give his thoughts on the 2023 trade between these two franchises. It was a fantastic show, and you can hear it in the embed below.
