NFL teams
David Newton, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

'Lesson learned' from Atlanta loss has Panthers eyeing division

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera repeatedly defended his late-game strategy in the days following a 19-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 11.

He insisted the conservative strategy to run three times against a stacked defense after quarterback Cam Newton had completed six of his last seven pass attempts for 136 yards and two touchdowns was the right one.

He argued that had Carolina thrown an interception or fumbled, or even an incompletion to stop the clock, he would have been crucified for that. He said the only mistake was that Graham Gano’s 46-yard field goal was wide left, even though the Falcons would have had 1:22 to get in position for a potential game-winning kick.

Perhaps Rivera was caught up in the euphoria of winning two replay challenges in Sunday’s 17-13 victory over Cleveland to set up a rematch with the Falcons for the NFC South title. But upon further review the fourth-year Carolina coach seemingly admitted his conservative approach was a mistake.

His play calling late against the Browns certainly hinted strongly at it.

Faced with second-and-9 from their own 21-yard line with 2:44 remaining, the Panthers (6-8-1) let Newton throw a pass to tight end Ed Dickson that went for 34 yards.

That first down forced the Browns to use their final two timeouts before a 30-yard run by Jonathan Stewart on third-and-5 sealed it.

"You have to be [aggressive]," Rivera said. "Lessons learned. I’m not going to kid myself about that. We could have run it. But again, one of the things we do and do best is when we keep that run-pass, quarterback-keep option alive. I think it creates more things and we’ll continue to do as we go forward."

The Panthers took a similar approach the previous week. Nursing a 19-17 lead against Tampa Bay, quarterback Derek Anderson threw a 12-yard pass to Kelvin Benjamin. Two plays later, the Panthers came back with a 10-yard pass to Benjamin.

They ultimately ran the clock down to 29 seconds before punting.

Perhaps the end of the first Atlanta game was similar to the "Riverboat Ron" moment Rivera had in Week 2 last season. In case you forgot, he settled for a field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-1 deep in Buffalo territory with a chance to run out the clock.

The Bills scored a touchdown in the final seconds for a 24-23 victory.

Carolina players liked the aggressive attitude Rivera had on fourth down the remainder of a 12-4 season. They appeared to like the late-game aggressive attitude shown on Sunday that has them needing a win or tie against the Falcons (6-9) to win the division.

"That last drive, not being able to close and then we missed a field goal," tight end Greg Olsen lamented of the first Atlanta loss. "Then we got it back and got a field goal blocked. So that was kind of a bad loss.

“I think guys are excited to try to redeem ourselves from that one.”

Upon further review, they have that chance because of a lesson learned.

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