Welcome to the newest weekly feature here at Cat Scratch Reader. Ron Rivera has a long and celebrated history of being aggressively conservative in games, despite his old “Riverboat” gambler nickname. He plays not to lose. He turtles up. If that seems absolutely daft to you — if you think NFL teams should play to win, for example — then this is the place for you.
Against the Cowboys, the Panthers made the choice to “burn clock” in the traditional way and minimize the risk of Cam Newton turning the ball over by throwing an interception. Newton has, over his career, thrown an interception on 2.