Thursday night’s Panthers-Packers matchup has all the makings of a yellow-flag slog.
It’s not just that Carolina and Green Bay are meeting in Week 8 on primetime. It’s that both teams have spent this season piling up penalties at a rate few clubs can match, and they’re doing it with Scott Novak’s crew on the assignment. That matters, because Novak’s group has been the most trigger-happy officiating crew in the league.
Carolina enters the game leading the NFL in penalty yards per game at 79.2. Green Bay is right behind at 78. The flags keep coming, too: the Packers are second in penalties called at 10.4 per game, while the Panthers sit fifth at 9.8.
Novak’s crew has been throwing nearly 23 flags per game, which is two more than any other officiating team. Those calls are adding up to 186 penalty yards per game, 25 more than the next closest crew and more than 65 above the league average.
Panthers coach Dave Canales already addressed the issue after Carolina was hit with a franchise-record 149 penalty yards in a Week 6 win over the Eagles.
“We have to clean that up,” Canales said. “We’ve got to do better with our hands in different situations, particularly if you’re not at the point of attack of a play.
We’ve got to be smarter. We’ve got to be cleaner.”
That warning feels especially relevant with Thursday night’s setup. The Panthers and Packers are both coming off painful divisional losses - Carolina was blown out by Tampa Bay, and Green Bay fell on a last-second field goal to Detroit.
Sportsbooks had Green Bay as a 3.5-point favorite Thursday morning. That’s a far cry from the 13.5-point line when the Packers were upset by Carolina at Lambeau Field in 2025.
Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. EST on Prime.
In Other News...
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The Panthers have spent the weeks leading up to the trade deadline looking for help at cornerback after injuries hit Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson, and the market has already started to come into focus. ESPN has tied Carolina to a pair of possible targets in Riq Woolen and Donte Jackson, giving the team at least a couple of paths to patch up a position group that has suddenly become a concern.
Woolen would bring the bigger upside if Carolina wanted to swing for impact, even if there are obvious questions attached to his play. Jackson, meanwhile, would offer a more familiar kind of solution and could help stabilize the spot sooner rather than later. Either way, the Panthers appear to have a real deadline decision to make if they want to keep the secondary from becoming an even bigger issue. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Secondary Just Took Another Hit Before Jordan Love Test
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Panthers Secondary Suddenly Faces A Brutal Test In Green Bay
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Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson are on injured reserve, while Akayleb Evans is sidelined with injuries, and the challenge does not stop there. The Panthers will also be without pass rusher Jaelan Phillips and left guard Damien Lewis, adding more pressure to a short-handed group that is about to be tested under the lights against the Packers. [Read more 🡒]