The Panthers defense yesterday was as much the story of their loss to the Falcons as it was the story of their victory over the Cowboys a week ago. Tevin Coleman became the first back in 22 games to rush for over 100 yards against Carolina. Matt Ryan did his best Cam Newton impression to the tune of 2 touchdowns. Luke Kuechly missed a tackle that allowed Tevin Coleman to rush for 27 yards down the Panthers’ sideline http://www.carolinapanthersteamonline.com/daryl-williams-jersey , y’all. That isn’t going to happen every day.The optimistic takeaway from yesterday isn’t that the Panthers held Julio Jones to under 300 yards receiving, its that the Falcons won because the Panthers defense had a one in a million fluke game. Its that the offense is still struggling to figure out how to use its best players — or to best use its players — and yet they were still a few drive-stalling drops away from taking control of that game.Take a step back and look at the coverage leading up to Sunday. We couldn’t stop talking about the injuries to the Panthers offense. Greg Olsen is missing and freshman offensive coordinator Norv Turner was tasked with making a game plan around an offensive line whose healthy members couldn’t get jobs as stunt doubles if Keanu Reeves decided to remake the Replacements. We aren’t talking about that today because they did a serviceable job. That is phenomenal.Newton threw the ball from clean pockets a few more times (read: even once) than I expected. Christian McCaffrey and CJ Anderson had room to run sometimes. The problem was that the same could be said for Ryan and the Falcons. It would have been nice if the Panthers had recorded even a single sack.The defense seemed a step behind the Falcons on every play that the Falcons didn’t run perfectly. The Falcons ran too many plays perfectly. It was not a combination the Panthers were able to beat — except that they were. Newton threw one of the most accurate passes I’ve seen in his career on a Hail Mary attempt that would have seen most passers range between bouncing the ball short of the end zone and sending it way out of bounds. Newton’s ball bounced off of DJ Moore’s arm in the middle of three defenders. If you thoughtMoore caught that ball at first then you are not alone.The only time the offense was truly frustrating was when they spent the opening half racking up false start penalties. I’m looking at you, Torrey Smith. Between those penalties and the drops by your teammates, Newton was once again let down by his team. Punch one more game like that and he gets a free, disappointing lunch at Texas Roadhouse.The trick to remember is that Smith is a veteran. He’ll get that under control. The Panthers don’t come nearly as close in their comeback without a few of his catches. Jarius Wright, Anderson, and Ian Thomas share as much blame as he does.The Panthers were able to beat the Falcons yesterday Youth Ian Thomas Jersey , they just didn’t. The combination of things it took the Falcons to pull off that victory is a rare thing and that’s great news for the Panthers in a division where the Bucs may actually be a team again. The Falcons may have won, but they didn’t look like they could have played much better. The Panthers have obvious leaps and bounds they can take.Division games are always crazy and this one took place in week 2. Teams hardly know who they are at this point. All we know is that the Panthers have displayed, at times, a dominant defense and a competent offense. Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl with only half of that combination. Joe Flacco did too. Do any of you really think Newton is in such a lowly tier as either of those guys? Of course you don’t. Newton’s is averaging more than 65% completions this year. I hear that’s elite.The Panthers have all of the pieces to play meaningful football through January and guys besides that are busy getting healthy to shore up the obvious weaknesses. We know they can play defense. We know Cam Newton is great at more than throwing passes for his receivers to drop. The start of a season is always weird as injuries and realities define the tension between what a team wants to do and what it is capable of doing.For now, the recipe for success in the Carolinas seems pretty simple. Newton needs to keep being himself. Kuechly needs to learn how to tackle. DJ Moore needs to continue his progression from week to week. The Bengals will teach us a lot about the reality of this team and the bye week will come just in time for the Panthers to address that before the rest of the season.Is it time to panic about the Carolina Panthers left guard situation? You’re probably familiar with the old saying, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.”The 2018 Carolina Panthers are apparently trying to create a new saying when it comes to the offensive line: “When you have five left guards Authentic Ryan Kalil Jersey , cross your fingers and pray one of them can become a legitimate starter.”All-Pro left guard Andrew Norwell used to create gaping holes for his running backs to run through during his time in Charlotte. Norwell’s departure has now created a gaping hole on the offensive line that is yet to be filled. While it is still very early to be projecting depth charts for the upcoming season, several fairly credible websites have done just that. Here is the jumble of confusion that is the Panthers left guard situation: Projected Depth ChartsSourceLG1LG2SourceLG1LG2Five sites are predicting three different starters in Tyler Larsen, Amini Silatolu, and Jeremiah Sirles. Throw in Taylor Moton and Greg Van Roten as LG2 on some depth charts, and the Panthers have up to five players in the mix for the job. The natural question is to ask who should start, and why? Here is some basic information on each of the potential starters:LG Player DataPlayerCareer Starts2016 Off. Snaps2017 Off.聽Snaps2017 PFF Grade2017 PFF RankPlayerCareer Starts2016 Off. Snaps2017 Off.聽Snaps2017 PFF Grade2017 PFF RankMy vote goes for Tyler Larsen. He has been competent over the last two seasons filling in at center for the oft-injured Ryan Kalil. At this point “competent” is probably the best the Panthers can hope for at left guard, and Larsen can be just that. From a long-term perspective Authentic Luke Kuechly Jersey , Larsen may be Kalil’s replacement at center after Kalil retires at the end of this season and starting him this season could assist in that important transition. As for LG2 I’d love to see Taylor Moton and Jeremiah Sirles battle it out. Moton has only played 64 offensive snaps in two seasons after being drafted in the second round in 2016. It’s about time the Panthers gave Moton some reps to see if he can live up to the expectations of his lofty draft status. Sirles is new to the Panthers and seems perfectly capable of being a backup if things don’t work out with Moton. I’d put Silatolu and Van Roten clearly behind the other three players mentioned above. Frankly, Silatolu has struggled so much over the years that I was surprised Carolina signed him for the 2018 season. The prospect of him playing meaningful snaps in 2018 is both baffling and terrifying, especially if it comes at Moton’s expense again. Van Roten pretty much is what he is at this point in his career after bouncing around the NFL and CFL since 2012. So, CSR community, who do you think should start at left guard in 2018? Sound off in the poll and comments section below.