CHARLOTTE, NC (WCCB Charlotte) – To play or not to play, that is the question.
A little play on words off of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but it is the type of questions that Panthers head coach Ron Rivera had to answer on a victory Monday.The 13-0 Panthers have clinched a first round bye and are one win plus an Arizona loss away from having home-field advantage throughout the NFC Playoffs.
“You can’t play scared,” Rivera said during his Monday’s press conference when pressed about playing all-out at the risk of injuries. “We would love to have home-field (advantage) all the way through. The only way to do it is to approach it one game at a time and play to win those games.”
Head Coach Ron Rivera meets with the media on Monday (12.14.15) after defeating Atlanta 38-0 on Sunday (Mike Thomas, WCCB).
The questions come amid the team losing defensive back Bene Benwikere for the season with a fractured leg. Rivera said that he has met with general manager Dave Gettleman about Benwikere’s replacement and it could possibly come from the outside.
The list of guys needing treatment and/or finding their way into the facility on Monday tallied 28 according to Rivera. Tight end Greg Olsen and tailback Jonathan Stewart, both of whom did not play in the second half, were scheduled for precautionary MRIs. Safety Colin Jones and linebacker David Mayo suffered soft tissue injuries.
The dilemma with sitting starters for the Panthers is partially a numbers game. The team has 53 players on the active roster and only 46 can dress for the game. So even if Ron Rivera decided to rest the starters, there are not enough players to keep everyone potentially out of harms way.
“The biggest thing we had to do is be judicious on who we took out,” Rivera said.
And then the other side of the coin–the pride of players who want to make an impact on a game for all four quarters. Defensive end Charles Johnson sent a frustrated tweet out on Sunday after the game expressing his desire to play in the fourth quarter despite the Panthers being ahead 38-0.
“Would I prefer he talked to me? Yes,” Rivera said. “The thing he has to remember is he missed eight weeks. This is his 3rd game back. He needs to get himself into game shape. It will come. The decision that I made, I made them thinking of the long term.”
So, Ron Rivera: Take it game-by-game or think of the long-term playoff picture? Which is it going to be?
“The score was 38-0 in the third quarter, so I had to think about it that way. It goes back to being judicious. I have to think about that part of it when we are in that point in the game. And I’ll do the same thing next week.”
Carolina will play the Giants in East Rutherford on Sunday at 1pm.
