The Carolina Panthers bounced back from a dreadful showing against the Bills to beat down the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-17.
First Quarter
The Panthers won the toss and took the ball first to give their first team offense a chance to redeem themselves after last week’s struggles. To their credit, they did improve by getting one first down on their first drive. That came on a pass interference where Bryce Young attacked a mismatch that Tetairoa McMillan had against a linebacker. The drive would stall there, but it set
up a brilliant punt from Sam Martin.
The Jaguars called three straight run plays that Carolina stopped to get the ball right back. That set up a scoring drive. Jonathon Brooks picked up a big chunk on his first carry of the drive, then Young found Tommy Tremble for another nice gain. Two completions to McMillan set the Panthers up on the one, and Brooks was able to punch it in from there.
The Jaguars answered with a very similar drive of their own. They marched down the field, but the defense stepped up in the red zone. Princely Umanmielen and Pat Jones combined to force a sack on Nick Mullens and force a field goal.
Second Quarter
The first string got pulled after their good work. The second string didn’t carry the momentum with their first drive. They went three and out, but the defense held up their end and forced the same out the Jaguars. Kenny Pickett was able to lead a scoring drive on the next possession. Jimmy Horn Jr. ripped off a 39 yard run to make up the most of it. Pickett made a nice throw to David Moore on a deep out, but it was called back for a hold. That effectively ended the drive, and Ryan Fitzgerald banged home the field goal attempt.
On the third play of the ensuing Jaguars drive, quarterback Carter Bradley committed one of the cardinal sins of quarterbacking. He threw off his back foot across his body into the middle of the field, and that allowed Chau Smith-Wade to dive in for a highlight interception. Pickett found Horn inside the ten, then AJ Dillon ran it home for the touchdown.
The Jaguars were able to put together another scoring drive. A couple of decent gains and a defensive penalty got them into Panthers territory, but inaccurate throws and lack of play making from the wide receivers stymied the drive in the red zone and forced another field goal.
The Panthers tried to steal another score. A roughing the passer gained 15 yards. Jimmy Horn couldn’t reel in a tough catch in traffic then David Moore dropped a slant route, meaning Fitzgerald was counted on to make a 61 yard field goal. Clearly he did lots of leg work in the offseason, because he knocked it through without issue.
Third Quarter
DeVonta Smith knocked the ball free from DeeJay Dallas to end what was a promising Jaguars drive. Pickett connected with John Metchie III a number of times to move the Panthers into scoring range. The drive stalled out at the border of the red zone, and Fitzgerald badly pulled the short field goal.
The Jaguars went three straight runs again, and Elijah Garcia blew up the third down run to force a punt. Metchie made a risky pickup on a punt and almost fumbled but was fortunate to be ruled down by contact. The Pickett to Metchie connection came back to carry the Panthers down the field with some help from Anthony Tyus. On third down from the 16, Pickett threw a contested ball to Roc Taylor, who reeled it in for the touchdown.
Fourth Quarter
Joey Aguilar hit a few deep passes to work deep into Panthers territory. But once again, the defense stiffened up with their back against the wall. They nearly picked off a pass, then Jackson Kuwatch blew up a draw on 3rd and 10 to force a field goal.
Kyle Trask took over at quarterback and led a quality scoring drive in response. He made a couple nice throws in the interymediate area of the field while Anthony Tyus had another couple of bulldozing runs. A 17 yard pass to Casey Washington got the Panthers into the red zone. Two plays later, Washington caught a pass off a curl route, shrugged off a defender, then cruised into the end zone to put the Panthers up 34-9.
Aguilar led another touchdown drive in garbage time but no one really cared. The game technically went into a weather delay at the two minute warning, but the teams elected to just end the game there.
Overview
It was a total 180 from last week’s performance against the Bills. The offense looked crisp. Bryce Young completed some passes down the field and Jonathon Brooks was able to find a little bit of space to operate. The defense limited what was largely the Jaguars second team offense, but it was still nice to see them have success. We got to see good performances from depth guys like John Metchie and Casey Washington out wide and several defenders took turns stringing together a couple of stops. There wasn’t much to complain about, and it seemed like everyone came out of the game healthy. That’s about all you can ask for in a preseason game.
The Panthers will wrap up the preseason next week at home against the Texans.
