There is just something about this Carolina Panthers franchise. They just seem to keep ruining things for the Detroit Lions.
It might not seem like a big deal. The Lions have only played the Panthers 11 times since the Panthers joined the league in 1995. The Panthers have won eight of those games. That’s not the point though. The point is that the Panthers keep beating the Lions when things are finally looking up for them.
Most recently was the 2022 season when the Lions were on their way to completing a miracle turnaround and making the playoffs, it was the Panthers that foiled that with a 37-23 win.
There’s more examples though. The Panthers prevented the Lions from getting back to .500 with a 20-0 win in 2020, They were one of the losses that prevented the Lions from making the playoffs in 2017 and they were one of the 16 teams the Lions lost to in 2008.
It’s not exactly the Packers or the Cowboys, but it’s a hill that’s stood in the Lions way. On Sunday it can stand in the way again despite the Panthers being arguably the worst team in the NFL.
With a win on Sunday, the Lions could move to 4-1 for the first time since the 1991 season. The Panthers are definitely going to try to stop that from happening. Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell knows that.
“It’s gonna be a dogfight man.” Campbell said. “They’re not going to just come in here and give a win away. They’re coming in here to fight. And that’s why I bring up the point, we know exactly what this is. We’ve been there done that. When you’re scratching and clawing for everything you possibly get, you lost four in a row. I mean, I know exactly what they’re thinking. So we’ll be ready.”
They’ll have to be a lot more ready than they were in 2022. Campbell was asked about that nightmare of a game for the Lions earlier in the week and he placed the blame squarely on himself.
“Yeah, I think honestly, it really wasn’t – look, and I kind of said this, I think I alluded to this when we were – look, I put that on me.” Campbell said “That was not tweaks and defense and – we were not ready. We were not emotionally ready to go I think more than anything because we didn’t necessarily do anything different than we had going in there, we just – man, we got strung out on a couple of things. We got knocked down on a couple of these down blocks that now we open two gaps and your linebacker’s trying to fill two holes and it just – it was a collective. And I felt like it was more of it just didn’t feel like we were ready for the fight.”
Will they be ready for the fight on Sunday? We’re going to see. This might not feel like a test, but it is. Can they overcome another demon, or will they fall once more?