Rejuvenated Defense Keeping Carolina Panthers in Championship Conversation

Can defense win a championship in Carolina?

In a considerably offensive-minded league that is moving more and more toward passing friendly rule changes and treating both quarterbacks and wide receivers like they need a plastic bubble around them, how is it even possible for a team like Carolina to be in the playoffs, let alone win a playoff game?

We saw the dynamic work firsthand on Wild Card Saturday, as the Panthers trounced the Arizona Cardinals 27-16 in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score indicates. For the night, linebacker Luke Kuechly had 10 total tackles and was fantastic in coverage, while defensive end Charles Johnson played a dominant role with two sacks, two QB hits and a handful of pressures on top of that.

About the dominant performance, cornerback Josh Norman said, "We're stifling right now. We're having fun with each other, and we're really loving this game."

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#Panthers defense allowed 78 total net yards — fewest in an NFL postseason game

— Panthers PR Dept. (@PanthersPR) January 4, 2015"

Overall, the Panthers defense created three turnovers and made life as difficult as possible for the Cardinals and quarterback Ryan Lindley. The Cardinals only managed 78 yards of total offense—an impressive mark for Carolina that defensive end Charles Johnson didn't even realize until reporters told him in the locker room, saying that he was so into the flow of the game it hadn't really hit him. 

Linebacker Luke Kuechly, though, was clear that the stat was a feather in his defense's cap, saying, "It's great. Anytime you can limit a team to less than 100 yards it is a good feeling." However, he also called it a total team effort, giving credit to punter Brad Nortman for pinning Arizona deep and the offense for holding onto the ball. (The Panthers won the time of possession battle 37 minutes to 23.)

With defensive showings like that, it's difficult for one's thoughts not to echo the Panthers player who shouted across the locker room, "I don't give a s--t who we're playing now!"

Let's take a step back and be realistic here.

Even coming off a playoff win, the Panthers went 7-8-1 this season and only made it into the playoff field thanks to an atrocious showing by the entire NFC South. The team they beat is on their third-string passer and has gone 3-4 since starter Carson Palmer went down in November. 

Yet, as Kuechly said, "You never apologize for winning games. Obviously the beginning of the season didn't go our way, but we got into the playoffs and now we won a game. [We] can't be satisfied with just one win."

Safety Tre Boston added, "People tried to downplay [Lindley] during the week. Coach Rivera told us not to fall into that trap."

The hill for the Panthers to climb from here is momentous. 

If the Dallas Cowboys beat the Detroit Lions tomorrow, Carolina has to head to Seattle to play a Seahawks team that has been dominant over the last few months of the season. However, it's also one the Panthers have played closely in recent years (though, in Carolina) and has plenty of offensive issues of its own. 

The Panthers hosted the Seahawks earlier this season during the middle of a seven-game winless streak and were beaten 13-9—hardly a dominant showing on the road for the defending Super Bowl champions. 

If the Cowboys lose, the Panthers get the Green Bay Packers, who beat them 38-17 earlier this season at Lambeau Field, but the Panthers know they're a better team now than they were back then. Linebacker Thomas Davis compared the adversity the Panthers fought through in this playoff game to the way they handled that pressure during the middle of the year. 

Boston put it this way, "We had a rough little patch, but look where we are now." 

That was another theme which permeated the Panthers locker room. They're very honest about where they were earlier in the season. I asked a few of them if they ever thought about the possibility of a playoff win when they were mired in such a bad stretch of the year. Davis was unequivocal, saying, "Absolutely...absolutely. We never lost sight on what our goal was, on what our focus was."

Defensive end Kony Ealy was perhaps a little more realistic, but equally as positive. "I never go too far, so winning one game at a time was my mentality...we were worried about wins and losses, but we were more worried about winning that one game and when we didn't win to get back and prepare for the next week. That's what's gotten us this far."

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The #Panthers defense has allowed only 11.8 PPG and has 18 sacks, 7 INTs and 5 fumble recoveries over last 5 games!!! pic.twitter.com/KT25KSVfvz

— CAR Panthers News (@CarPanthersNews) January 4, 2015"

So, this team is also very conscious of its current five-game winning streak and newly minted playoff success. Almost all of the defensive players had a similar theory as to why that is. 

Davis said, "We have a good feel for each other right now. We have some consistency in the group, and we've played together for a while now." 

Ealy said much of the same. "We're playing better together. We're knowing each others dos and don'ts. We just keep rushing, keep penetrating, keep attacking—that's the key to our defense."

The message was almost identical from safety Roman Harper. "Confidence," he said. "We're just playing better as a team. We're not shooting ourselves in the foot. We're not getting in our own way. When we do that, we give ourselves a chance." 

Nothing drastically different from Kuechly, either. "Look at the beginning of the season. We had a lot of new guys, had to get accustomed to one another. We had to get accustomed to the guys on the back end and they had to get accustomed to us. Now we're all together. We're playing well. The communication is awesome." 

Though this happens with almost every winning team, it was interesting how just about every defensive player picked a different positional group to highlight. Defensive linemen praised the defensive backs and vice versa. Linebackers refused to take credit for their own solid play. 

Norman wasn't going to give all of the credit to the defensive line, but he pointed out how the synergy works. "Look at the back end and look how we're getting hands on guys and allowing the pressure to get there. At the end of the day, we know who huntin'. If we can give them time to hunt, they're out there smelling that shark bait."

Over the next week, a lot of critics and pundits are going to count out the Panthers, but when they have this kind of defensive success, they clearly believe in their chances against anything the NFL throws at them. 

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand by the author. 

Michael Schottey is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Find more of his stuff on his archive page and follow him on Twitter.