Carolina Panthers: Week 11 NFL Power Rankings (#29)

Last week: 29 (+0) Record: 2-7 Last week’s loss was only their 2nd loss by more than a touchdown all year. They aren’t to be overlooked the rest of the way. Cam Newton is obviously having a major sophomore slump, but for all of their offensive struggles, they’ve been noticeably improved defensively this year. They’re allowing 3 points per game fewer than they were last year and even more impressive is that they’re doing this with Jon Beason and Chris Gamble out. In fact, since week 6, their first game without those two, they’re allowing just 21.4 points per game, thanks to guys like Luke Kuechly and Greg Hardy breaking out. The rookie Kuechly has really improved over the last few weeks, probably because he moved back to his collegiate position of middle linebacker from the outside, and is now a defensive player of the year candidate. It’ll be interesting to see if his emergence in the middle leads to Jon Beason (owed 6.5 million in 2013) getting cut. The man who gave him that ill ad...