Well, they say when it rains, it pours. Despite sunny fall skies in Charlotte in Sunday, we saw a ton of mistakes from the Carolina Panthers in Uptown Charlotte.
Heading into the week, the Carolina Panthers had high hopes of widening the gap in the NFC South standings and taking a commanding lead in the division. All they had to do to accomplish this feat was take down the 1-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home. With the way the Carolina offense had looked all season, this felt far from a difficult task. However, from the opening kick, the Panthers never once looked comfortable and their division rivals took advantage of that.
The Buccaneers returned former Carolina quarterback Baker Mayfield from injury this week and all of a sudden a one win team looked like a Super Bowl contender. At a glance, a 43-13 final score suggests Mayfield came back with a vengeance and racked up passing yards. That was far from the case.
Tampa Bay put up an astounding 43 points with Mayfield having all of 64 passing yards on only 11 pass attempts. The ground game for the Bucs was the puzzle Carolina’s defense just could not solve. The Bucs racked up a jaw-dropping 258 rushing yards on the day led by running back Bucky Irving who went over the century mark on the ground (24 carries, 106 yards).
Everything that could have gone wrong for the Panthers in this contest did just that. Tampa Bay possessed the football for the majority of the game but when Carolina was on offense, it was almost as ugly as the defensive side.'
Bryce Young had been phenomenal all season long, racking up a slew of passing yards while taking care of the football. Sunday, it looked like the clocks went back to 2023. Young threw two head-scratching interceptions and lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown by Tampa Bay.
Young’s offensive line did him no favors either, with the Buccaneers applying pressure all afternoon and recording five sacks on the day.
The one bright spot for the Panthers on Sunday was a 50-yard touchdown pass to tight end Darren Waller early in the second quarter that at the time looked like a momentum gain for Carolina. However, the long touchdown throw was overshadowed by Tampa Bay blocking the extra point attempt and returning it for two points to take a 19-6 lead. From there, the Buccaneers never looked back.
Dave Canales and his staff must get right back to work Monday morning preparing for their next game as Carolina has a tough, short week staring them in the face. Obviously there are a lot of aspects of the Panthers game that need improvement if they want to truly “flush” this blowout loss. Carolina will travel to Green Bay to take on the Packers on Thursday Night Football.
Perhaps Canales should invite Ted Lasso to the locker room to give a speech about having a short memory like a goldfish. Having a short memory is easier said than done but is 100% necessary. Right now, it feels like much of the progress Carolina made this season has been erased by a reminder that this team is still capable of getting blown out. Between this loss and the Week 1 loss against the Bears, the Panthers will have to show more consistency for the rest of the NFL to take them seriously.
