Carolina Panthers DEs well aware they are sackless since Thanksgiving

Carolina Panthers defensive end Kony Ealy knew what the question was before it could be uttered.

Wednesday morning was warm and wet and the Panthers’ second-year defensive end had just finished two hours of practice in the pouring rain.

He hasn’t had a sack since Thanksgiving. The guy in front of him – Jared Allen, the league’s active leader in career sacks – hasn’t sacked the quarterback since Halloween weekend.

The other starting defensive end – Charles Johnson, the second-highest paid player on the team – hasn’t registered a sack since Week 1, before he went on the temporary injured reserve for eight weeks.

“There’s a lot of talent on this D-line. Period,” Ealy said quickly. “And it’s not helping with the ball coming out as fast as it’s been coming out. I mean, all we have to do is keep rushing. Period. That’s it.

“Teams respect our pass rush. That’s why they’re getting the ball out quick. Period.”

Ealy’s tone wasn’t one of anger as much as it was frustration. He knows the defensive ends aren’t getting the quarterback, and he doesn’t need some media member telling him.

Rushing the passer is one of the main tenants of general manager Dave Gettleman’s football philosophy. Get a franchise quarterback and stock up on pass rushers until the cows come home, he has said.

But his top three defensive ends have produced one sack in the past five games.

“We’ve got to affect the quarterback better, no doubt,” defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera has felt the frustration from his defensive ends. He hasn’t shied away from saying he needs more production from that group, but he feels they’ve been close.

“They should be frustrated. They should be upset with themselves. And they’re working to get better,” Rivera said. “I had a great conversation with some of those guys, the biggest thing I told them is you’re pressing. You’re trying to force things to happen. The play doesn’t care who makes it.

“That’s the bottom line. So just go out and play and see what happens. Don’t force things to happen. We’ve got some guys that have a tremendous amount of talent who are just way too close to not be making the plays.”

Rivera and McDermott want their ends to get back to basic fundamentals, something they hinted had been lost in recent weeks.

And sometimes those fundamentals don’t result in sacks, but they do guard against big plays. In the third quarter of last week’s 20-13 loss to Atlanta, fundamental ball would have gone a long way toward stopping a 70-yard touchdown pass.

Defensive end Mario Addison, who has five sacks this year as the team’s fourth defensive end, went wide against the Atlanta left tackle on third-and-13. Addison was washed out of the play, and it allowed quarterback Matt Ryan to move to his left and find Julio Jones downfield for what would be the game-winning touchdown.

Some of the issues could be rooted in rhythm. Ealy earned the starting spot opposite Johnson in training camp, and he had a five-game stretch in the middle of the season with at least one sack.

But Johnson went to the temporary IR early in the season and the Panthers brought in Allen. When Johnson returned to the field on Thanksgiving Day, Allen took over the other starting spot and Ealy returned to backup duties.

“When you bring guys out it does change things,” Rivera said. “What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to find the combination that needs to be out there and get things rolling.”

In the next game in New Orleans, Ealy admitted he was trying to do too much. He had back-to-back neutral zone infraction penalties in the third quarter and was yanked.

Clearly things haven’t been the same for Ealy since the demotion, but Rivera said Ealy has rebounded nicely from the Saints game and even played well against the Falcons even though the statistics don’t show it.

As for Allen, he’s been pressuring the quarterback in recent weeks but has no sacks. He mentioned it has been tough for him to get in a flow because of the Panthers’ philosophy to rotate their ends – something he’s never had to do.

Rivera said he doesn’t anticipate a change to the rotation; it’s a matter of guys just doing their job.

“I can only speak for myself. I’m the harshest critic of myself. You’ve got to get there a little faster,” Allen said. “You’ve got to try to look at effects of the quarterbacks as well. Chuck’s been doing a great job of hitting the quarterback. We’ve gotten some quarterback hits. We’ve gotten some checkdown football. But you know, we’ve got to get there too.

“There’s the whole complement. That’s part of the game. You’ve got to grind through those low times and take advantage of the opportunities when you get them.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2015 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Carolina Panthers DEs well aware they are sackless since Thanksgiving."