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Seven men won't be dressing for our guys or their team today. We learned on Friday that four players would be out, and we all anxiously hoped that OL Duane Brown's thumb recovers in time for him to make the game.
S Lonnie Ballentine has yet to make his debut for the Texans despite this being the second game of his second season with the team. RB Arian Foster is still dealing with recovering from his groin injury. ILB Mike Mohamed and OG Xavier Su'a-Filo are both dealing with calf issues. Unfortunately, Brown can't go today, so we're shuffling our OL to take account of his absence. This means Derek Newton may start at LG with newly-acquired Chris Clark starting at LT. Jeff Adams moves to RT, so that only Brandon Brooks and Ben Jones stay in the same place as last week. We're not happy about Ryan Mallett making the start behind a makeshift OL but at least the Panthers' D is weakened without Kuechly running things. Also inactive are Jaelen Strong and new OL Oday Aboushi.
For the Panthers, LB Luke Kuechly suffered a concussion during their first game. DT Star Lotulelei is still recovering from a stress reaction in his foot that kept him out of training camp. TE Richie Brockel also missed training camp and their first game with a shoulder issue, while DE Wes Horton was limited in practice throughout the week. OT Daryl Williams was ruled out with a knee injury, and Kuechly failed to emerge from concussion protocol so he'll be missing his first game in the NFL. In the end, Kuechly, Lotulelei, Brockel, Williams, RB Cameron Artis-Payne, S Dean Marlowe and RB Brandon Wegher are inactive for the Cats.
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