The Lions play their next three games at home at climate-controlled Ford Field. They go to Arizona the following week.So it made perfect sense that the Lions would hold Thursday’s practice outside in the snow.Or at least it made perfect sense to coach Matt Patricia https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Da_Norris-Searcy-Jersey , who wore shorts on the 33-degree day.“If I was the coach, you know what we鈥檇 be doing,” cornerback Darius Slay said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.The Lions have an indoor practice facility, which former coach Jim Caldwell preferred when it rained or snowed. Patricia obviously has other ideas.Detroit’s only two cold-weather games come later in December with trips to Buffalo and Green Bay.The Panthers Greg Van Roten Color Rush Jersey , who play at Detroit on Sunday, canceled practice Thursday because of heavy rain in Charlotte. They do not have an indoor practice facility.Which begs the question: How does an NFL team not have an indoor practice facility? Most major college football teams have indoor practice facilities as do many Texas high school football teams. 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 https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com , over his career, thrown an interception on 2.7% of his passing attempts. He did not throw one at all on Sunday. Instead of taking that extraordinary risk, the Panthers elected to keep the ball safely on the ground and ultimately handed the Cowboys an opportunity to tie the game in the final minutes.Running the ball wasn’t necessarily the problem. The problem was that the coaching staff made an obvious running situation even more obvious and easier to defend by putting heavy personnel on the field. The Panthers first 9 drives averaged 6.2 plays and used an average of 3 minutes and 12 seconds of game clock, and only two of those drives were 3 and outs. Had the Panthers continued to run their normal offense, it’s likely they would have picked up at least 1 first down and never let the Dallas offense back onto the field.Instead Carolina Panthers Customized Jerseys , they went jumbo. They put 2 backs and 2 tight ends on the field and split a single receiver out wide. With only 1 receiver on the field, the Cowboys were able to deploy their base 4-3 defense and had 9 defenders in the box at the time of the snap.Some math for you: the Panthers had 10 players “in the box” and 1 split out wide. One of the players in the box was quarterback Cam Newton, who would eventually hand the ball to CJ Anderson, another player in the box. That left 8 Panthers to block 9 Cowboys at the line of scrimmage. You won’t win many plays like that. The Cowboys unsurprisingly blew up the play in the backfield.One play. Negative 1 yard. Three seconds off the clock. Timeout.Second down was more of the same. One Panthers receiver out wide and nine Cowboys within 5 yards of the ball at the snap. No gain. Three more seconds off the clock. Timeout.The Panthers tried to pass on third down out of desperation, and the Cowboys were able to force Newton to scramble for a single yard Carolina Panthers T-Shirts , bringing up 4th down and forcing the Panthers to punt just 13 seconds after they took possession of the ball. By trying to play it safe and milk clock, the Panthers gave the ball back to the Cowboys with a timeout and nearly two minutes to mount a comeback.It shouldn’t have to be said, but here we are: Putting your money on Mario Addison getting a strip-sack over Cam Newton throwing for a first down is a bad bet.