The Carolina Panthers finished Sunday's 12-7 loss to the Seattle Seahawks with three passes that gained more than 10 yards.
It's a grim statistic, and one day later, Panthers coach Ron Rivera was asked a question that had an obvious answer: Is Carolina's approach too conservative?
"Yes it is," Rivera replied at a news conference Monday. "In the inverse, there were a few that were dropped that would have been longer. So there are some things that need to be looked at on both sides in terms of getting the ball vertical.
"And we understand, we looked through it, we talked about it, and those will be the things that we look to do," Rivera added. "We gotta create more of those opportunities."
Panthers offensive coordinator Mike Shula wasn't quite as forthcoming on the team's plans.
"We're going to do what we need to do," Shula said.
Rivera deserves credit for acknowledging the team's game-plan deficiencies. Of course, the bigger question might be how the Panthers plan to fix the problem. Steve Smith isn't exactly a deep burner at this stage of his career. Brandon LaFell, Ted Ginn, Armanti Edwards and Domenik Hixon aren't scaring the tops off defenses, either.
The Panthers chose not to prioritize wide receiver during the offseason. They'll have to find a way to make due with limited resources.
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