Panthers Lead NFL Odds for MNF Showdown vs Colts

As the Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers come together on Monday Night Football this week, we see a pair of teams that are going in different directions. The Panthers are one of the league’s remaining undefeated teams with a 6-0 record, reason why the enter the game as -6 point favs in the NFL odds, while the Colts are 3-4 – with a two-game losing streak.

Monday Night Football Colts vs Panthers Game Info

Waiting for kickoff like…#INDvsCAR pic.twitter.com/MwVoUy6JEN

— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) November 2, 2015

Why are the Panthers on such a streak? Their defense is top-notch, and Cam Newton is playing well enough. He doesn’t have a lot of weapons around him to catch the ball, because Ted Ginn and Philly Brown are his main targets. Jonathan Stewart finally seems to be getting a bit of a spark in the running game, as he picked up 125 yards against the Eagles last week. This is not one of the elite offenses, but it is enough to keep Carolina competitive while the defense wreaks havoc. Many people thought the Colts would be legitimate Super Bowl contenders after they picked up some big free agents in the offseason, but they have fallen flat. Quarterback Andrew Luck has been one of the biggest disappointments, throwing nine picks in his five starts. There may be something to the rumor that he has a rib injury to go along with that shoulder injury that kept him out for two games, but the Colts need the old Luck if they want to make the playoffs, let alone make another deep run.

This means that head coach Chuck Pagano is on the hot seat. His struggles with general manager Ryan Grigson are becoming louder with each passing week, and his contract ends at the end of this season. There have been no signs that the Colts plan to bring him back. He might even find himself out of the job during the bye in Week 10 if they can’t pick up a win or two between now and then. The Colts are benefiting from the fact that the AFC South is terrible. The Colts are still in first place – and they could win the division and only win six games, which would be an NFL first. That wouldn’t be enough by itself to keep Pagano in Indy, but what if the Colts got hot in the playoffs?

Right now, Football Outsiders has the Colts with a 59.2% chance to make the playoffs – because they are in the AFC South. No other teams under .500 have playoff odds over 50%. The Colts are #26 in rushing yards per game, which is not what they thought they were getting out of Frank Gore. They signed Ahmad Bradshaw recently to provide the running game with insurance, so expect to see him more on passing downs. The defense has been awful, surrendering a league-worst 408 yards per game. This is why the team has started games in holes and had to be in comeback mode most of the time – which is why Luck has made so many mistakes. Grigson failed to shore up the defense, which makes blaming the bad play on Pagano more than a little unfair. The Panthers are #6 in interception rate, #6 in points permitted per game and #8 in passing yards per game. They have not allowed more than 23 points in any game – this is a unit that is dominating, week in and week out.