Both the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers look increasingly likely to miss the playoffs a year after contesting Super Bowl 50. The Panthers in particular have gone downhill in a big way, fading to 6-8 a year after a 15-1 regular season.
Linebacker Luke Kuechly, however, disputes that that’s down to some sort of “Super Bowl hangover.”
“Super Bowl hangover? False,” Kuechly told Morgan Fogarty of WCCB. “We lost a couple games close. I wouldn’t necessarily call it because of hangover. The game can go either way based on a few plays and we just need to make those plays going forward and the last few weeks, like I’ve said, we’ve been able to make those plays. I wouldn’t associate it with a hangover. I think that implies a lack of care, lack of effort, lack of preparation, lack of concentrating on the now and we don’t have any of that. I think guys are very focused, I think guys came into the season with a mission to get back to the Super Bowl.
“Like I said, the games don’t always go your way and I think ‘hangover’ implies a wrong thing and doesn’t necessarily characterize our team and what we’re about and how hard we work and how we prepare. So I think the word ‘hangover’ is false. You can say what you want, but our team is very driven to succeed and Coach Rivera heads that whole thing up. We just gotta make a few more plays. I don’t think it’s anything to do with a lack of effort, a lack of preparation, a lack of care, it’s just we gotta make a couple more plays.”
There are definitely some reasons the Panthers have struggled. Cam Newton has failed to hit the MVP-level heights that he did in 2015, and the acrimonious loss of their star cornerback didn’t help matters either. Kuechly is right that it probably isn’t effort. The team simply isn’t as good.
