Carolina is just two wins away from finishing the regular season 16-0 after knocking off the Giants on Sunday.

Their record may be perfect, but like every team in the league, the Panthers have flaws. If Carolina loses a game this season — they play the Falcons and Buccaneers before the playoffs begin — here are some reasons why it will happen:

1. THEY HAVE TO BLITZ TO GET PRESSURE

Sack numbers can be deceiving. Carolina ranks fourth in the NFL with 40 sacks, but the team’s defensive line has not been as dominant as that number suggests. Defensive tackle Kawann Short is the only pass rusher who consistently pushes the pocket.

Defensive ends Jared Allen and Charles Johnson are not the players they once were. Situational pass rushers Mario Addison and Kony Ealy are hit or miss. And tackles Star Loutelei and Dwan Edwards are run stoppers, first and foremost.

When Carolina’s defense was at its peak – during the 2013 season when it led the league in sacks – Johnson and Greg Hardy led a front-four capable of consistently getting to the quarterback, allowing seven defenders to drop in coverage.

Now Hardy is in Dallas being a “leader” or whatever, and Johnson’s days as an impact player are over, putting the onus on defensive coordinator Sean McDermott to produce pressure with scheme.

Carolina is blitzing more than it ever has in the Ron Rivera era. That takes linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis out of coverage, where they are at their best. It also puts more pressure on a secondary that lacks depth.

2. THEIR SECONDARY IS THIN

Outside of Josh Norman, Carolina is trotting out a secondary full of castaways. Safety Kurt Coleman has found himself in the right place at the right time for his six interceptions but remains a liability in coverage. There isn’t a tight end in the league strong safety Roman Harper can run with. Charles Tillman is literally playing on a partially torn ACL. And those are the starters.

Carolina picked up Cortland Finnegan off the couch to play nickel corner. Behind him is converted safety Colin Jones, who is basically an anthropomorphic tackling dummy.

This is what happened when Finnegan attempted to cover Beckham in the slot:

Bene Benwikere had done a fine job as a starting corner, but the secondary was so depleted he was forced to play with the Panthers up 38-0 against Atlanta and suffered a season-ending leg injury in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers do not play a lot of man coverage. They simply do not have the athleticism in the secondary to do so. Top-tier quarterbacks feast on zone coverage. Especially when they have time to sit back in the pocket and diagnose the coverage. And if the defense has to blitz to get to the QB, the voids in those zones only get bigger with fewer men in coverage.

Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers moved the ball easily against the Panthers defense. Guys like Carson Palmer, Tom Brady and Russell Wilson — who is playing as well as he ever has — should be able to do the same.

3. THE OFFENSE RELIES ON BIG PLAYS

Carolina leads the league in scoring, but this is not an elite offense on a per-drive basis. Cam Newton isn’t the most accurate quarterback and Ted Ginn Jr. and Devin Funchess are boom or bust when the ball is thrown their way. That leads to an inefficient passing game.

Unlike most teams in this era of dinking and dunking, the Panthers have built an offense around the run game and downfield passing. You won’t see long drives sustained by short passing plays like you do with other top offenses. More than 20% of the team’s offensive drives end in a three-and-out, per Football Outsiders.

If Carolina’s running game isn’t working, the offense will move in fits and starts. That could be problematic against Seattle and Arizona – both rank in the top four in run defense. And both teams feature top secondaries capable of limiting big plays in the passing game.

4. COACHING DECISIONS ARE STILL A CONCERN

Ron Rivera is one of the league’s top coaches. His staff develops young players. He’s done an excellent job adapting his philosophy around the players he has. And he’s pushing all the right buttons with this year’s team.

That said, he’s not exactly Bill Belichick when it comes to situational football. Clock management is among the biggest concerns and has been throughout Rivera’s tenure in Carolina.

On Sunday, there was a bizarre sequence before the game-winning field goal. The Panthers got into field goal range on a Newton scramble. The clock was running, and instead of using the remaining timeout, Rivera had his team spike the ball with just enough time to kick the field goal. It was a needless risk to snap the ball, which could have resulted in a fumble or even a penalty, when calling a timeout would have yielded the same result.

It may seem like a small issue. But those small mistakes get magnified in the postseason.

There’s also the issue of Carolina not finishing off teams when up big. The Panthers have nearly blown three second-half leads of 17 or more. They survived overtime against the Colts, needed a red-zone interception to hold off the Packers and blew a 28 point lead against the Giants before Graham Gano bailed them out with the game-winning kick.

There’s no obvious reason the Panthers are giving up these leads. It could be the players letting up too early. Or maybe it’s the coaching staff sitting on the lead and playing conservatively. Either way, it’s an issue Rivera needs to solve.

In last year’s NFC Championship, we saw a conservative coach blow a big lead. Don’t be shocked if it happens again.