Sunday’s contest between the Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns fit the mold of the unfortunate stereotypes these two franchises have been given over the years. The Browns came out on top by a score of 21-18.
This was a low scoring affair without a lot of excitement that took place, especially in the first half. So when the fourth quarter rolled around and the score was 10-9, it was anyone’s ball game.
Early in the 4th quarter, Panthers kicker Ryan Fitzgerald nailed his fourth field goal of the game from 37 yards out to give Carolina the 12-10 advantage. The Browns and Andre Szmyt responded with a field goal of their own five minutes later and re-claimed the lead.
On the day, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young still threw for nearly 300 yards (291 to be exact) with key pieces like Xavier Leggette missing from the offense. His lone touchdown pass came in a timely manner, finding John Metchie III in the end zone for an eight yard touchdown reception to make the score 18-13. Carolina went for two to try and extend the lead to seven but the attempt was unsuccessful.
With 4:25 left in regulation, it was up to the beaten up Panthers’ defense to hold on and secure the road win. However, without the impact of players like LB Devin Lloyd and S Nick Scott, the combination of pass rush and coverage down field was minimal. Browns QB Deshaun Watson was able to escape pressure when it did show up and move the chains with his legs. Extending plays like Watson did also provided receivers more time to get free resulting in big gains.
Carolina’s defense collapsed, allowing Watson to put together an eight play, 65 yard drive in just over two and a half minutes that resulted in a 14-yard touchdown pass to Harold Fannin Jr. Cleveland was successful on their two point conversion attempt to make it a three point game, 21-18, Browns.
With 1:48 left on the clock and three time outs, Young and the Carolina offense found themselves in familiar territory from a year ago. The “Cardiac Cats” as many refer to the Panthers, seem to have a knack for coming back in late game situations. This was not the case on Sunday. Carolina’s offensive line could not hold up and give Young the time needed to get long shots open down field and the Cleveland defense dropped their secondary back to avoid giving up big gains.
After punting the ball back to Cleveland with 1:27 left in the game, Carolina’s defense came up with a big three and out series that gave them the ball back but this time with no timeouts remaining.
The first play of the drive was an 11-yard gain on a pass to Darren Waller. Later in the drive, Young found Brycen Tremmayne for another 20-yard gain, taking them all the way to the Carolina 42 yard-line. At this point, it looked like Carolina would get the chance to at the very least attempt a long field goal to send it into overtime.
These dreams were crushed when on third down from their own 42, Young was under pressure and his pass attempt downfield was tipped and resulted in an interception. Cleveland took over, took a knee and celebrated a hard-fought win.
The Panthers have now fallen to 1-2 on the year, like most of the NFC South. It appears early on, yet again, no one wants to take over the division as all teams in the NFC South were defeated on Sunday. This loss for Carolain was pretty deflating as they head into the toughest stretch of their schedule this year. Their next five games are against the following opponents: Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers, and Denver Broncos.
The Panthers hope to get healthy over the next week and be back at full strength before hosting the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football on October 4th.
