ming about his team's performance Black Deion Jones Jersey , saying he won't tolerate laziness on defense following his team's 31-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.Carolina's eighth-year head coach was upset after watching his normally stingy defense allow Matt Ryan and the Falcons to roll up 442 yards on offense Sunday and score on five of their first seven possessions.The Falcons, playing without starting running back Devonta Freeman, ran for 170 yards and Ryan completed 23 of 28 passes for 272 yards and combined for four TDs. Tevin Coleman ran for 107 yards, snapping Carolina's string of 21 straight games without allowing an opposing running back to run for 100 yards.Rivera described Carolina's problems as part-mental and part-physical. He said Monday that the team struggled with its run fits on defense and "a couple of times (we were) playing behind and playing a little lazy — and we can't accept that."Rivera said the performance was not up to the standard set by former defensive coordinators Sean McDermott and Steve Wilks, both of whom have gone on to become NFL head coaches. The Panthers have consistently been one of the league's top-ranked defenses since Rivera arrived in 2011."We are not going to tolerate it," Rivera said. "We are going to put players out on the field that we believe are doing it our way and playing hard and giving us every opportunity to succeed."Panthers new defensive coordinator Eric Washington, who was promoted from defensive line coach this past offseason, called it a "tough day at the office."When asked about Rivera's comments about the defense being a little lazy, Washington replied, "If that is the way coach characterized it then I will follow suit with that. If we need to play faster, with more effort and more energy than that is what we are going to do."Washington said the Panthers struggled with the Falcons' zone-wide blocking scheme.He pointed to the team's defensive tackles, saying they need to play with better technique and "set the table" for the rest of the defense to make plays.Too often on Sunday Deion Jones Jersey 2019 , middle linebacker Kuechly's path to the ball carrier was hindered by blockers getting to the second line of defense."When we talk about that scheme we emphasize with our defensive tackles they have to play great," Washington said. "That means they have penetrate and get great edges set and allow our linebackers have to play downhill. A couple of times we weren't exactly doing that to the degree we've done it in the past. It created some indecision with the second level of the defenders. It wasn't as clean of a look for those guys."Carolina's Dontari Poe agreed that he and the team's other defensive tackles need to be on their game and play more physical against the Falcons, but wouldn't go as far as to characterize the play of the defense as lazy."We missed some stuff at times, and a couple of times people could have made plays that they didn't," Poe said. "It's just small things we need to fix."Washington's job isn't going to get any easier this week when the Panthers host the Cincinnati Bengals.The Panthers could be without starting cornerback Donte Jackson (hamstring) and safety Da'Norris Searcy (concussion), which means some adjustments in the secondary. Both players left the Atlanta game with injuries.But he's confident the Panthers defense will bounce back."We will shore those things up, and we will be ready to go," Washington said. "You will see the Panthers defense we are all accustomed to seeing." This is not an all-in team, and that’s unlikely to change any time soon."The Saints pushed all their chips to the middle of the table in 2018, trading away huge chunks of draft capital and running up their cap bill yet again in pursuit of a Super Bowl. They came (depending on your perspective) either agonizingly or delightfully close to getting to one, but then they did not.The Saints did this because they sensed they were close, and because they knew that their window with Drew Brees was coming close to closing. After absolutely crushing the 2017 draft class Mohamed Sanu Jersey 2019 , which returned them to relevance after three shaky years, they now find themselves down significant draft capital and reasonably tight on cap space heading into 2019. They should still be good—their moves weren’t all about 2018—but they, like the Rams and their big 2018 splurge, were focused on last year. The Falcons are not necessarily a smarter or better team than the Saints or the Rams—I’m going to pass on describing the recent history of these three teams for the moment—but they are a team that is taking pains not to zero in on the upcoming year. Both Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli come from the New England front office tree, which has always emphasized nailing the draft and making limited, shrewd signings and trades as a way to bolster the roster, and on keeping things flowing. All previous attempts to get the one missing piece have not pushed this team over the top, though obviously Alex Mack came agonizingly close in 2016. They’re looking to bolster The benefits and costs of that kind of decision-making are playing out in real-time. The Falcons have taken pains to keep their very best players and will continue to do so, and they’ve largely acquired those players by focusing on acquiring impact players through the draft. But that in turn chews up considerable cap space, which leaves the team largely unable to make the kind of big splashy free agent signings that helped propel the Rams to the Super Bowl a year ago. As a result, the Falcons should have a good roster for the next few seasons if they don’t suffer any massive regression from key players, but their ability to add impact players is limited unless they draft well. The Saints Black Mohamed Sanu Jersey , with their short term focus, are mortgaging post-Brees flexibility in exchange for help in the here and now, with players like Jared Cook joining up to shore up weaknesses. This is a relevant discussion because there’s a lot of buzz about the Falcons trading up, which I think they may legitimately do this year when they have a small handful of glaring needs and the option to chase elite talents with a top 16 selection and nine picks overall. The Falcons, even if they do make a swap up for an impact player, will continue to build for the next 3-5 years with the expectation that they’ll keep contending as long as Matt Ryan can throw a football. The fact that they’re doing so might keep our teeth on edge for a pivotal 2019 where it appears coaches and front office staff might be in danger of losing their jobs after a down season, but it’s nice to think this team might not be a barren husk 2-3 years down the line, whether or not the current brain trust is.