I mentioned this in another thread. We desperately miss Herbie in yardage. Without him, we are getting dominated in the tackle, held up and worked over for the first 1-2 tackles. This makes the next 2 hit ups inefficient, as we are playing off the back foot.
This is how Panthers are so dominant. They play transition football. The back 5 work it out of the defensive end and allow the forwards (generally speaking) time to rest. A good kick follows and then aggressive defence from the middles, getting off the line quick.
We replicated that last year to some extent and it gave our key attacking weapons so much space. This year, we have no ability to get us on that front foot early with dominant runs and quick play the balls.
That right there, is the crux of all our problems. If we fix that, we will dominate again. We only need 1-2 in our back 5 who can get us on the front foot.
Skelton will help, if true.