The Carolina Panthers sorely missed Bryce Young and suffered catastrophic failures on both sides of the ball in an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Bills.
First Quarter
The Panthers got the ball first and unceremoniously went three and out. The Bills got the game started in full with one of their trademark opening drives. Josh Allen completed one pass, but the drive was mostly the James Cook show. He picked up yards in moderate chunks before giving way to Ty Johnson. The defense was able to stiffen up there
and Trevin Wallace got home on a blitz to sack Josh Allen and force a field goal.
The second attempt at possessing the football went a little better. The offense matriculated down the field and nearly scored with a Rico Dowdle run on third down around midfield, but he was run down from behind after stumbling through the line. A couple plays later, Andy Dalton was caught from behind trying to scramble and lost the ball.
A couple big plays had the Bills in Panthers territory as the first quarter drew to a close.
Second Quarter
The Bills started the second quarter in the shadow of the Panthers’ goalpost, but a reckless play by Josh Allen took them the wrong way. He dipped dived ducked and dodged backwards until it was him versus four Panthers lineman. He still tried to escape, but Nic Scourton dragged him down to force another field goal.
Dalton found Tetairoa McMillan for a chunk play to move the Panthers across midfield. A few more modest plays moved the offense into field goal range, but the drive ended when Dalton missed an open Jimmy Horn on an corner route. Ryan Fitzgerald split the uprights on his field goal attempt.
The Bills stayed leaning on the run, but they were able to pop a good one. James Cook burst through the middle and there were no defenders past the second level, leaving Cook to run a one man race for a 64 yard touchdown.
The Panthers had another unceremonious punt, and then the Bills did the same as the Panthers took away all of Allen’s options in the passing game. Carolina got the ball back with a chance to score before the half, but Dalton threw a screen pass right to AJ Epenesa, who plays for the Bills. He ran it back to the one yard line which set up a Josh Allen quarterback sneak.
They had one more chance to score before the half, and they almost did. Almost. A couple of solid intermediate passes moved the Panthers into Bills territory then a Joey Bosa tripping penalty set Carolina up inside the 10. On third down with no timeouts, Dalton inexplicably took a sack after about five seconds of looking for a wide receiver, and the clock ran out as the Panthers scurried to get the field goal unit on the field.
Third Quarter
The Bills hit the Panthers with another quick strike on the first drive of the second half. Allen hit Khalil Shakir on a quick stop route. Nick Scott badly missed the tackle, and that sent Shakir off to the races for the Bills second long touchdown of the game.
In response, Dalton took another bad sack then Austin Corbett’s snap hit Chuba Hubbard in the arm on third down. So another punt. James Cook gashed the defense again, crossed 200 yards rushing, and punched in yet another touchdown to put the Bills up 30.
Now it was time for Andy Dalton to shine. Or not. He hesitated on another pass play, got hit, and fumbled again. Allen scored his second rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak a few plays later.
Fourth Quarter
A nice catch and run by McMillan got the ensuing drive in motion. He almost scored a few plays later but was brought down at the one. Chuba Hubbard got the honors and drove through the line for a touchdown, that was followed by a missed extra point.
That was essentially the game if it wasn’t over long before that. The teams took turns trying to not get hurt for the rest of the game.
Overall Outlook
Andy Dalton looked old. He couldn’t evade pressure of any kind and was knocked over by the slightest content. He wasn’t trusting his eyes and might have had more pump fakes than pass completions. It was a brutal outing for the veteran and is surely going to make the return of Bryce Young a welcome sight.
The defense wasn’t the unit that it had been against weak offenses in recent games. James Cook set a career high in rushing yards and had all sorts of room. To their credit, they did keep Josh Allen in check, but that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
The Panthers will try to figure things out next week against at the Packers.
