There are not many good words that can be honestly ascribed to the Carolina Panthers abysmal 43-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I’m not going to waste your time searching for them. The Panthers offense looked like their game plan was to see how far they could push a clown car with no wheels. The Panthers defense looked like they couldn’t figure out how to defend the most one-dimensional offense they will ever see. With any luck, they were caught peeking ahead at the Green Bay Packers. An inexcusable
sin is suddenly our greatest hope.
Consistency, as always, is our greatest challenge. The same team this season has given up 258+ yards twice this season (258 against the Bucs and 291 vs Chicago) and held Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs to a combined 116 yards on 31 carries. Bryce Young was keeping statistical company with prime Peyton Manning and Drew Brees before he turned the ball over three times yesterday. Those three turnovers directly led to 11 more points than Young generated during the game.
One game is not a trend and it doesn’t define a season. It can absolutely be cause for concern. All of the goodwill and optimism coming off of a two-week winning streak has now vanished. The Panthers will, once again, need to earn their fans back. The Bucs were low and provided a prime opportunity to for the Panthers to cement their intentions for a winning season. Baker Mayfield could hardly complete a pass downfield and that was what stood between them and their first three game winning streak since the 2021-Sam Darnold season. A win yesterday would have put the team in a strong position atop the NFC South and put them more than one game above .500 for the first time since that 2021 season as well.
Instead, they proved that every game this season is likely to be a struggle. Poor protection—whose future looks worse with Taylor Moton’s fractured fibula—complemented poor run defense and whatever exactly that effort from the Carolina special teams unit was. None of these are flaws that are we can expect the team to snap back from with any immediacy. They will show up in every game to varying extents.
The best news of the weekend is that the NFC South remains so hilariously bad that the Panthers are still in sole possession of first place in the division. At 3-3, all the Panthers have to do for now is beat the Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football. The 3-4 Atlanta Falcons have the opportunity to take the lead with a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa and a Panthers loss while the 2-5 New Orleans Saints are on a bye as they come home from Paris.
This division is chaotic, but that also means it is forgiving. Yesterday was a terrible, demoralizing loss that imperiled our hopes for an NFC South repeat, but it didn’t sink them entirely. There is a lot of season left to play, so let’s all wash the taste of this game out and see what Thursday brings. Deep breaths, everybody. Let’s not burn everything down until it is cold enough outside to be worth it.
