While some may have hoped that it may not happen, most viewed it as inevitable. The Carolina Panthers were going to lose against the Seattle Seahawks, and the division would come down to the final game of the season.
They made a game out of it for 50 stressful minutes behind a herculean effort from both their defense and a roaring crowd at Bank of America stadium. But once Jaycee Horn’s finger tips grazed Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s facemask and the yellow flag hit the turf it felt like all the attention
shifted to Week 18. The wheel’s came off and what should have been a 1 score nail-biter, devolved into a 3 score blowout.
While multiple areas of the team seemed to be ready to meet the moment, one group fell short. If you’ve so much as glanced at the box score of the game you are well aware the output of the Panthers offense was, well, offensive.
Not for nothing, the Seahawks have a dominant defense. Playmakers at every level, an abundance of athleticism and a defensive play caller nothing short of a wunderkind. But, unless it’s 2020 and you’re starting your 5th string receiver at quarterback, it’s hard to make excuses for an NFL team that produced at the level the Panthers offense managed on Sunday.
Sure, Tetairoa McMillan was added to the injury report prior to the game and JT Sanders was injured during his first snap.
Okay. the offensive line allowed pressure the quickest in the NFL despite facing a blitz at the 3rd lowest rate.
Still, that’s not enough reasons for your quarterback and play caller to not manufacture or otherwise find anything downfield. To be clear, I mean literally anything. According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats Young produced the lowest stats in the league in all of the following categories during Week 17:
- Average completed air yards – Young’s -1.5 was the only negative total and 3.6 yards lower than the 2nd worst
- Average intended air yards at – 1.1; 3.1 yards lower than second worst
- Aggressiveness % – only 4.2% of throws were attempted to tight windows
- Longest completed air yards pass – 22 yards
- Average yards to the sticks – 6.7 yards behind the first down marker
- Passer rating – 45.8%
Mind you, this is during a week when Brady Cook, Max Brosmer, Chris Oladokun, Josh Johnson, Quinn Ewers and grandfather Philip Rivers all played significant snaps.
When size is the #1 attribute you seem to value in a receiver and McMillan, Jalen Coker, and Xavier Legette are all playing significant snaps, not finding any 50/50 ball opportunities is hard to justify – especially when nothing else seems to be working.
Is this all a product of Young having a limited arm? Or maybe it’s Canales being too conservative? Could it be the Panthers don’t have receivers able to overcome seeing more man man coverage than expected? Perhaps it’s that the Panthers weapons are not enough of a threat to break tackles underneath to scare teams away from sitting back?
It could be all of the above, or it could be none of the above. Maybe there’s a curse on all those who wear the color ‘process blue’. Who knows. Frankly, blame whomever or whatever you wish. 16 games into the season, it’s unlikely that any major changes will be implemented that could resolve any of the list of issues that have plagued this offense with inconsistency.
With no miracle resolutions to the Panthers up-and-down conundrum before they play an all-or-nothing game for the division title, all that’s left is to hope that the version of the Panthers offense that shows up to that game is not the same one we saw against the Seahawks.
