Perfect way to head into the bye

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What a difference a week makes. Optimism has returned as the sunrise seems to be a tad brighter this morning. I keep saying it takes four or five games at the start of the season to get a handle on a team. With the Panthers, it may take a tad longer.

When you consider the state of the NFC South and hopefully the return of a few injured players in the near future, there remains a strong hope of playing meaningful games as November/December rolls around.

Curiosity question: With the trend of going for it on fourth downs all across the NFL and colleges, what is Canales’s philosophy; i.e., is his decision based more on analytics or a gut feeling depending on the flow of the game? Keep Pounding. — Tom, Trent Woods, NC

It takes a lot longer than four or five. Just as you can’t assume the low points are forever, you can’t bank on the good stuff continuing for months at a time. But yes, things have normalized here to the point that expecting them to be in the mix in this division is a reasonable position.

As for the fourth-down question, I found it interesting enough that I asked Canales in his Monday press conference, “How much is data and how much is vibes?”

His response was lengthy, because this is something they’ve put a lot of thought into.

“I would say it starts off with the obvious ones based on field position,” he began. “Do you really want this short punt? Is this a little too far to try this field goal? When you’re in that plus territory area, we love being in that area to know I can give Brad, hey, if it’s fourth and this much or less, you’re going; we’ve got four downs. It helps the play caller plan out third down.

“So it’s partly that, but then the other part of it is, once you get out of like the 70-80 percent, yeah, we’re going, once you get into the more 50/50 zone, to me, that’s where it matters what happened the play before. It matters the rhythm that we’re in, it matters how the opponent is doing on offense. Are they having successful long drives? We can’t really sit here and let them burn another six to eight minutes. Let’s go steal another possession right now on fourth down; keep ourselves on the field so we don’t have to wait.

“I think we only had four possessions in the first half. Whenever it starts to play out like that, then I get a little bit more aggressive with our group for fourth down, knowing we can’t punt this ball and just wait for the next time we’re going to get the ball. So, there’s all those.

“And then there’s a specific: who are we counting on for this next down? There was a play in Cleveland. And I knew from the menu that we had that Jalen Coker was going to be one of our featured guys on the fourth down while he had just run down the field on a shot play, 30, 40 yards down the field. You got to jog that guy all the way back, and now this is one of the most critical plays, and I know the next play up for this area is designed for him. That’s where the play caller and myself, we have to say it might not be in our best interest to take one of those 50-50 opportunities that way. So a lot of those things come into play. And there’s a feel. But you’ve also got to trust what’s the best thing that gives you the best chance to win.”

That’s a long way of saying it depends on the situation, but you lean toward going by the book on either end of the bell curve, allowing you to go vibes in the middle.