Welcome once again to the Hog Molly Report, where winning in the trenches is all that matters. Before we begin, we open with the reciting of our usual motto:

“Big men allow you to compete. We're certainly going to look at the big hog mollies.”

In the spirit of Mr. Gettleman’s words, and the philosophy of building a team from the inside out, my goal will be to watch the hog mollies each game during the season, and give them a grade based on their performance. This week we will look at the gritty victory over the Los Angeles Rams and see where the Meatball Grinders excelled, and how they can improve on some short-comings.

Offensive Hog mollies

*Season average in parentheses

Week 9 Yards per carry: 2.4 (4.1, T-18th NFL)

Third down conversions: 6 out of 15, 40% (41%, 12th NFL)

Sacks given up: 5 (21, T-25th NFL)

Rating: 2 out of 5 Battered Boars

It was an ugly win, there is no doubt about that. The reason it was ugly, was the Panthers patchwork offensive line’s inability to open holes in the running game, and to give Cam a semblance of time in the passing game. The Panthers get two hogs here for gutting out a win while being without Ryan Kalil and Michael Oher, and facing one of the better front sevens in the league. At any other time, this past Sunday’s performance is about as bad a performance as an offensive line can have.

Aaron Donald was an absolute terror, and probably is currently haunting Mike Remmers’ dreams. To be fair to Mike, he does that to a lot of people, much less a guy playing out of position to begin with. In general though, Cam Newton was faced with tight and quickly collapsing pockets with no room at all to escape, resulting in five sacks. The sooner the Panthers can get healthy here, the better.

Defensive Hog mollies

Yards per carry allowed: 3.5 (3.3, T-1st NFL)

3rd Down Conversions allowed: 4 out of 14, 29% (40%, T-18th NFL)

Sacks: 4 total with 3 from DL (24, T-3rd NFL)

Rating: 5 out of 5 Bacon Breakers

On the flip side, the Panthers were able to win ugly thanks to another dominating performance by their defense. The Panthers got to Case Keenum early and often forcing inaccurate throws and an interception. If they couldn’t quite get there before he released the ball, they generally put a hard hit on him, and got inside his head for most of the day. This was a full unit effort, even from guys who didn’t tear up the stat sheet. Star Lotulelei for example made a great case for a second straight hogmolly of the week even though he didn’t directly record a sack.

Both pass rush and run defense were effective as Todd Gurley could not find room to get anything going at all. His YPC total was fairly abyssmal, save a couple of chunk runs, and the Rams simply could not overcome it. The Panthers continue to place at the top of the league in run defense, and it will be difficult to see that changing over the stretch run.

Kelvin Benjamin

5 receptions, 76 yards, 0 touchdowns

Rating: 3 out of 5 Pork Belly Bruisers

The stat-line looks somewhat ho-hum when the box score bros take a look at it, but the reality is that on a day where offense was at a premium, Kelvin Benjamin was a major factor alongside Greg Olsen. With Cam under duress most of the game, he struggled to throw accurate passes, but thanks to Kelvin’s incredible catch radius he was able to make things happen anyway. He nearly made the catch of the day on a high back shoulder throw from Cam in the front corner of the end zone, which I am sure if he were able to set his feet and get a bit more air... he would have had it.

Hog molly of the Week: Mario Addison

Mario Addison continues his nice season by turning in a two sack performance against the Rams. It’s okay to be a one trick pony when you do that trick really well, and credit the coaching staff for utilizing some effective stunts to give Mario the opportunity to make a difference. When the Panther’s pressure packages and constant rotation work the way they draw it up, it is a thing of beauty to watch.