The Panthers’ defense has taken major strides this season, especially in recent weeks. Over the three-game win streak (from Week 5-7), the unit has posted 9.0 sacks. The challenge of Allen, perhaps more than anything else he brings to his game, is his ability to buy time. Allen has the second-highest scramble percentage (12 percent), almost qualifying as a quarterback, the most scramble rushing yards (250) of any QB this season, and has scrambled for 83 yards that resulted in a pass.
Linebacker Christian Rozeboom has played Allen in the past and knows you have to fortify yourself physically and mentally to stick with Allen’s receivers.
“There were a couple of times where I was guarding somebody for what felt like forever,” recalled Rozeboom. “And so I turned around, and he’s still got the ball scrambling around.”
Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero admitted it’s hard to fully emulate the skill in practice—”to an extent you can, but obviously, what we’re going to see on Sunday is going to be a way different ability”—so the biggest lesson heading into Sunday is to remember not to stop on any play at any time.
“Our big thing this week is the strain,” continued Evero. “The strain for the guys rushing the quarterback to make sure that, hey, even if you don’t win, we’ve got to continue to fight, we’ve got to continue to strain to stay in our rush lanes. And the people that are covering, they got to continue to strain to stay in coverage and understand that these plays are going to extend a lot longer than they normally do.
“It’s a tribute to his ability as a player, and so we know the task at hand, and there won’t be any surprises on Sunday, and so we just have to be ready.”
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