The Packers Are Laying The Beatdown Of The Season On The Panthers

Carolina-Green Bay is into the third quarter, and the Panthers are just about flatlining. Green Bay went up 21-0 in the first quarter, and have it at 35-3 in the third. Short of the miraculous, this is already one of the blowouts out of the season.

By the Advanced Football Analytics Win Probability chart, the Packers had a 92 percent chance of winning with 3:05 left in the first quarter. This is obvious in that a team that goes up 21 in the first quarter is a good bet to win, but even as blowouts go, it's pretty uncommon.

My arbitrary measure for a good and proper mollywhopping is when a team takes ahold of a 90+ percent Win Probability in the first quarter and never lets its opponent climb back over it. The Packers let the Panthers climb back to 12 percent midway through the third, but that doesn't really matter in the larger scheme of blowout.

The Packers sprinting out to their advantage so early in the first even beats the previous blowout of the year, the Falcons smashing the Bucs 56-14. The Falcons reached the 90 percent mark with 3:11 left—and the Bucs suck. The Panthers are actually a viable NFL team.

So make no mistake, even if Green Bay doesn't crack the 50-point mark today, it will still have laid just about the heaviest beatdown of the season.

Update: Yeah, I'm a moron and was thinking of the wrong Bucs blowout. The Ravens smashed them two weeks ago with this mess:

So, worst beating that does not involve the Bucs.