There’s no such thing as a moral victory, right? That’s what people like to say, but I think that mindset misses a lot of nuance that can be useful when assessing the state of the team and what could be expected going forward. The Carolina Panthers lost at home to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. They didn’t put up as many points, but they outgained the Broncos and averaged more yards per play. The run defense that had been embarrassingly bad at times this season limited Denver to 3.0 yards per carry
and got in the backfield on a number of plays. Bryce Young through for 276 and Chuba Hubbard averaged nearly five yards per carry. On a play to play basis, the team played well enough to win. However, untimely penalties and the flukiest of interceptions massively swung the momentum of the game in the Broncos favor, and the Panthers ultimately couldn’t overcome that. That brings us to our question…
Was Sunday’s loss to the Broncos a moral victory?
MY TAKE: I think so. The Panthers needed to show some life after disastrous outings in their last two games. The beginning of the game looked like another disaster was incoming, but the team righted the ship in the second quarter and more than held their own. The Broncos have had a weird season, but they are 6-2 and in contention for the top seed in the AFC. They’ve also got some rabbit’s foot black magic voodoo going on where they keep snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. The Panthers seemed to be victimized by that in a way yesterday. The interception was one of the flukiest I’ve ever seen, to the point where the player that intercepted the pass didn’t even realize he had an interception. There also should have been a pass interference on the play, but the officiating crew that was spamming pass interference calls all day somehow missed that one.
Otherwise, the Panthers’ undoing was a result of penalties largely from the practice squad players that are currently occupying the starting cornerback spots. And even then, I thought at least a couple of them were questionable flags. The parts of the defense that you’d want to look improved under a new defensive coordinator did look better. The offense had a good day against a very good Broncos defense. Bryce Young looked like the version of himself we saw earlier in the season and posted a season high 86.5 QBR.
The schedule lightens up significantly in the next month or so. If the Panthers play like they did today minus the penalties, they can post a good record in that stretch of games. So while the result of yesterday’s game was bitterly disappointing, I think there were enough positives to take away that we can feel good about what this team is capable of going forward.
