David Newton, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Blame the D for not giving Panthers a chance in first quarter

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The forecast didn't call for snow during the Green Bay Packers' 38-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday at Lambeau Field, but there was a snowball effect.

It started on the fifth play. The Packers faced third-and-12 from their 28.

Offsides. Third-and-7.

Offsides. Third-and-2, negating an interception.

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers then scrambled for 3 yards and a first down. He then completed a pass in the flat to Jordy Nelson, who slipped away from cornerback Antoine Cason and easily avoided safety Roman Harper.

Fifty-nine yards later, touchdown.

It snowballed from there. The defense that finished second in the NFL a season ago made one mistake after another. There were too many men on the field, giving the Packers a first down on their second possession, which seven plays later turned into a touchdown.

Safety Thomas DeCoud was called for unnecessary roughness -- leading with his helmet -- following a 14-yard reception on Green Bay's next possession. Two plays later, another touchdown.

Less than 12 minutes into the game the Packers were up 21-0 with 172 yards of total offense.

"I don't think the defense gave us an opportunity to win in the first quarter, and I am disappointed," said Carolina coach Ron Rivera, stating the obvious.

It steadily got worse. The snowball kept rolling until it turned into a bona fide avalanche.

When all was said and done, the Panthers (3-3-1) allowed 37 or more points for the fourth time in five games. Rodgers finished with as many touchdown passes as incompletions (three). It began in the first quarter, when he was 10-for-11 for 132 yards and three touchdowns.

The Carolina defense was so bad it seems wrong to keep comparing it to last season's unit.

The 2013 defense gave up 241 points in 16 games. This group already has given up 195 in seven games.

That's 15.06 points per game a season ago, and 27.85 points a game this season.

At this rate, Carolina will give up 445 points.

There are only so many times Rivera and players can blame this on gap control and trying to do too much. There are only so many times they can say what happened was "self-inflicted," as Rivera did to begin his postgame news conference.

There is something fundamentally wrong, even though Rivera said the unit is good enough to compete.

"They should be," he said. "We have six out of seven guys back from our front [seven]. We have a couple of veteran safeties that are capable, and you would like to believe that our corners can do the job. We'll find out."

They haven't done their job. There is no sign they will.

Not that the offense was much better on this overcast day. The first three drives ended in three-and-outs and the first five ended in punts. Carolina had only 5 yards of total offense in the first quarter.

But the defense never gave the offense a chance to overcome its slow start because it couldn't get out of the way of its own mistakes.

"We've got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot," DeCoud said.

There are no excuses for the offsides penalties. The Panthers practiced for Rodgers' hard count all week with noise.

There is no excuse for having 12 men on the field.

But what's just as alarming as the mental errors are the missed tackles. A team that was one of the league's best a season ago looks no better than a college team, at times letting the ball carrier get past the first or second defender.

This one got so bad that middle linebacker Luke Kuechly, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, was ejected for making contact with an official late in the third quarter.

"We had them exactly where you want them on the first drive," Kuechly said. "Sack. Drop them back, third down and 12.

"A good offense like them, you get them three-off on that first drive it throws a little momentum for us."

Instead, it snowballed the other way.

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