The Panthers suffered a few more injury scares during Sunday’s 38-35 win over the Giants, including one involving quarterback Cam Newton, but that isn’t going to cause them to throttle back against the Falcons in Week 16.
During his Monday press conference, coach Ron Rivera said that he’s not going to think about resting any of the team’s healthy starters when there’s value attached to winning a game. The upcoming game against Atlanta has value to the Panthers because they still need to wrap up home field throughout the NFC playoffs, something that pleases Rivera.
“This next game has value. I like the fact that there is value,” Rivera said.
Should the Panthers lose to the Falcons and the Cardinals beat the Packers, that same value will exist for the regular season finale. Even without the impetus to win this week to put the first seed in their back pocket, this weekend would seem to be a bit early to start taking such heavy precautions against injury when you factor in how much time there will be until Carolina plays their first playoff game.
If the Panthers do win this week, the question will shift to how much value the Panthers place on going undefeated but that’s a question for this time next Monday.
