Things started out well tonight at Lambeau Field for the Carolina Panthers, who forced a fumble on the game's opening kickoff. They only got three points out of it, though—and it was mostly downhill from there.
In the end, they lost to the Green Bay Packers by a score of 27-19, which makes it sound much closer than it actually was. So, who had the greatest hands in the defeat?
Here are your studs and duds from a spooky-bad Thursday night loss . . .
Dud: QB Bryce Young
Amazon opened their broadcast with Blue Oyster Cult's 1976 hit "Don't Fear the Reaper," and the Packers defense certainly didn't have to. For the second straight week, Young went to pieces under pressure, looking nothing like the confident and decisive quarterback he was early this season in the same
situations.
Young responded poorly to the rush, running himself into sacks and releasing the ball at bad angles. He led one strong scoring drive in the fourth quarter—but it was too little, too late.
The fourth-year passer finished the evening having completed 23 of his 41 throws for 209 yards, one touchdown, one interception and a 68.0 passer rating.
Dud: Offensive line
While Young had a pretty awful game, it's tough to be too harsh on him given the fact that his offensive line gave him about as much protection as a bathing suit against Jason Vorhees weilding a machete.
Left tackle Rasheed Walker probably deserves his own dud in pass blocking and another for penalties, but this was a total group failure from start to finish. In the end, the Panthers gave up six sacks, nine quarterback hits and 22 pressures of Young.
Stud: RB Chuba Hubbard
Overall, there was very little to like on offense tonight. One big exception to the rule was Hubbard.
The run blocking wasn't a whole lot better than the pass protection and Hubbard managed exactly one explosive run all night, but he still put up 81 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, plus 39 more yards on seven receptions. Considering the offensive line of the living dead that he has to work with, that's pretty impressive production.
Stud: CB Marco Wilson
Making his 2026 debut in place of the injured Akayleb Evans, Wilson acquitted himself very well in coverage against Green Bay's tough wide receiver corps. Wilson led the team with five tackles at halftime and posted two nice pass breakups as well—including one in the clutch.
Perhaps the Panthers have stumbled onto something here.
Stud: Peanut punches
Starting with the opening play of the evening, the Panthers showed a lot more aggressiveness against ball carriers than we had previously seen this season.
They forced fumbles against wideout Christian Watson and returner Coleman Owen that they recovered. Outside linebacker Patrick Jones II nearly had another, but it came a split-second before running back Josh Jacobs' knee was down.
Stud: Run defense
What happens when a moveable object meets a stoppable force? Apparently, the object wins, or at least it did this time.
In the highly-anticipated matchup between the Panthers' league-worst run defense and the Packers' league-worst rushing offense, the former came out on top. Up front Lee Hunter, Tershawn Wharton and Derrick Brown helped shut down the run—helping limit Green Bay to just 66 yards on the ground at 2.5 yards per carry.
Dud: Pass rush
While Young was running for his life like a teen scream queen, Packers quarterback Jordan Love was absolutely unbothered in the pocket. Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero's pass rush fell completely flat in this one.
As a team, the Panthers somehow managed zero sacks and zero quarterback hits in the entire game. That helped Love get into a great rhythm, and he finished with 288 yards and three touchdowns.
Stud: S Zakee Wheatley
With all the money the Panthers have put into their front seven and all the draft capital they've used to upgrade this unit, their most consistent defender this season may be rookie safety Zakee Wheatley, a Day 3 pick out of Penn State.
Yet again, Wheatley made an outsized impact tonight—posting seven tackles to go with a slick interception early in the fourth quarter.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Studs and duds from Panthers' Week 8 loss to Packers
