The Carolina Panthers defense regressed to Week 1 levels as they dropped an absolute stinker to the Tamp Bay Buccaneers, 43-13.
First Quarter
The Bucs won the toss and actually elected to take the ball first. They went with a heavy dose of Bucky Irving, and he diced up the Panthers, as is usually the case. He carried the ball eight times and caught another pair of passes. There weren’t any huge plays. The defense just couldn’t get him to the ground without letting him slip away for a few extra yards. He eventually
capped off the drive with a touchdown run. The Panthers went to their lead back to start, but they couldn’t sustain their drive. They quickly had to punt the ball back.
The Bucs spelled Irving with Kenny Gainwell, and he was quite a bit easier to tackle. The Bucs matriculated out to midfield, but Bobby Okereke was able to blow up a third down run to the outside and force a punt. David Moore went back to do his only job, which is to catch the punt. He did not catch the punt. Instead, it bounced off his chest and was recovered by the Bucs. The quarter ended with Tampa Bay inside the five yard line.
Second Quarter
Tre Tucker slipped on a second down carry and then Okereke jumped up to knock away a Mayfield pass on third down. It led to a field goal and 10-0 score.
A few plays into the ensuing Panthers drive, Chuba Hubbard ripped off a big run down the left side, but it was called back for a Tommy Tremble hold. Bryce Young was sacked on each of the next two plays. On the second, the ball popped out and was scooped up by Calijah Kancey for a touchdown. The Panthers were quickly in a 17-0 hole.
The Panthers needed something to inject some life into the offense, and they got it. Hubbard added a couple more nice runs, and that set up Bryce Young to hit Darren Waller over the top for a 50 yard touchdown. The momentum could not have been any more short lived. The extra point was blocked and run back for a two point score. To throw salt in the wound, the Panthers were called for sideline interference on the return.
The next Buccaneers drive looked a lot like the first. They basically opted out of the passing attack. Both backs were able to rip through the Panthers defense and pick up big chunks of yards. Gainwell set up the offense inside the ten. A few plays later, Irving walked in for his second touchdown of the day.
The offense found themselves in the same spot they were in a few minutes prior, needing a big drive to get momentum back on his side. Instead, Bryce Young threw an inaccurate pass and Jalen Coker stumbled, and Young’s pass went straight to Zyon McCollum for an easy interception. It was more of the same after that. Irving and Gainwell kept picking up little chunks of yards to keep the chains moving and milk the rest of the clock. With under ten seconds left, Baker Mayfield drifted backwards to buy enough time to allow Tez Johnson to break away from Akayleb Evans for a wide open touchdown. It was 33-6 in favor of the Bucs going into the half.
Third Quarter
The Panthers got the ball first coming out of the half. The first play resulted in a first down to Tetairoa McMillan. The third was a sack where Rasheed Walker got driven back into Young, and Taylor Moton had his legs landed on in the process. The fourth was another sack where Young had three defenders bearing down on him within about a second.
The defense finally held and forced a punt, that kind of seemed preferable to Tampa. They tallied their third sack in four plays on the first play of the drive. A few plays later, Young threw yet another interception for the Panthers fourth turnover of the game. The Buccaneers seemed content to just lay on the ball and kick a field goal, and that’s what they did.
Bryce Young found John Metchie over the middle for a nice gain, then Chuba Hubbard powered for five yards to get the ball into Tampa Bay territory for the first time in the game. There were six minutes left in the third quarter. They drove all the way inside the ten yard line. They were faced with a 4th and 1, and Young hit Brycen Tremayne in the worst spot—right in the hands. Tremayne dropped the most basic of catches and turned the ball back over to the Bucs.
The Bucs were able to run the ball out from in front of their own end zone to bring the quarter to an end.
Fourth Quarter
Why are you still reading this?
There was no chance of the Panthers making the game worth watching at this point. They couldn’t disrupt the Bucs ground game, so the Bucs just worked the ball down the field and killed the clock. Eventually the dam broke and Tre Tucker broke free for a 46 yard touchdown completely untouched.
Kenny Pickett took over for Young with the game beyond out of hand. He had a nice completion to Mitchell Evans to set up a touchdown run by Anthony Tyus for his first career score.
The backups were able to get a stop, even when the Bucs went for it on 4th and 1. The offense used the opportunity to buff up their penalty numbers with a hold. The drive ended in a turnover on downs, and that effectively ended the game.
Overview
It was a disaster of a game from start to finish. The defense looked like it did in Week 1. The front got no push against the run, so there were few to no opportunities to make stops in the backfield. Instead, just about every Bucs run picked up three to four yards at minimum. They only threw the ball 11 times, which is an abusrdly low number for a team to score 43 points.
Unlike the Bears game, the rest of the team imploded around the defense to contribute to the badness. Dave Canales said it at halftime—everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
If there’s any good news, it’s that the Panthers don’t have time to dwell on this. They have a short week to prepare to face the Packers in Lambeau on Thursday.
