Scott Fowler on worse loss

[raleigh-panther]

Was that the worst loss of season for Carolina Panthers? You better believe it

Scott Fowler

[email protected]

29 mins ago

If the Carolina Panthers wanted to stick a pin into Charlotte and deflate the whole city, they certainly did so on Sunday.

The Panthers had suffered some poor losses already this season. Buffalo beat them by 31; New England by 29.

But Sunday’s 17-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints before a dispirited crowd in Bank of America Stadium looked and felt worse than any other loss this season for Carolina. This was a helmet-slamming, boo-raining, turnover-making testament to badly coached and played football by the home team. I’d label this one as the biggest letdown of the season, mainly because of the quality of the opponent.
 

New Orleans came into the game 1-8 and was starting a rookie quarterback who had zero NFL wins. But the Saints outplayed the Panthers so thoroughly — outgaining the Panthers 388-175 — that Carolina was booed off the field at halftime and again in the fourth quarter.

Carolina dropped to 5-5, looking again like the sadly familiar team that has posted losing records every year since 2017. Where were the feel-good Panthers that had upset Green Bay at Lambeau Field a week before? They apparently never got on the plane.

Carolina Panthers made New Orleans rookie quarterback Tyler Shough look like Drew Brees, as he threw for two touchdowns and 282 yards, including monstrous plays of 52 and 62 yards. The Saints decided to stop Rico Dowdle by crowding the box with eight defenders and daring quarterback Bryce Young to beat them.

Young and the Panthers receivers never came close to doing it. Instead, it was Young who looked like the rookie quarterback Sunday — jittery and overwhelmed — and Shough who resembled a veteran.

And it was Panthers coach Dave Canales who seemed unprepared as to how to adjust to a Saints team that challenged the Panthers receivers with one-on-one coverage and completely blanketed them. I forgot starting receiver Xavier Legette (zero receptions, zero yards, zero impact) was even in the game until he was called for a penalty.
 

Carolina only had a single play of 15 yards or longer all day. The 2-15 Panthers of 2023 would have had a decent shot at beating these 2025 Panthers on Sunday.

“Not our brand of football,” Dowdle said.

“It sucks,” Young said.

“I’ve got to do a better job,” Canales said.
 

All true. A week after a win and Dowdle’s 130 rushing yards disguised Carolina’s serious passing game deficiencies against Green Bay, there was nowhere to hide Sunday. Other than rookie Tetairoa McMillan, Young (17-for-25 for 124 yards, no TDs, one interception) seemed disconnected from the entire offense. Young also got fooled by a fake blitz and threw a horrible fourth-quarter interception directly to the Saints’ Alontae Taylor.

“Bad read, bad ball, 100% my fault,” said Young, who came to the sideline and slammed his helmet down after that one.

Young also threw another interception on Carolina’s first and only touchdown drive in the first quarter, but was fortunate to have that one negated by penalty. His botched handoff on a jet sweep to Jimmy Horn Jr. resulted in a turnover inside the New Orleans 20.

Although Young took responsibility for that fumble, Horn said it was actually his fault. “I’ve got to grab the ball,” he said. “I take full accountability for all that.”
 

Both Panthers players with the surname “Horn” were on the wrong side of big plays Sunday. Cornerback Jaycee Horn, in one-on-one coverage with Chris Olave, lost a hand-fighting battle, fell down and allowed Olave to score on a 62-yard catch-and-run. Olave then added insult to injury by jumping into the premium end zone seating alongside Panther fans to celebrate.
 

Said Ekwonu: “We just weren’t locked into the small details. A couple guys spoke about it. Coach (Canales) spoke about it throughout the week. And you can’t get days back. If you have a tough day on Thursday, tough day on Friday, or whatever, you can always look forward. But you can’t get that day back. So that preparation, or lack thereof, is going to add up. And unfortunately, that just cultivated to what we saw today.”
 

Dowdle, who ran for a modest 53 yards on 18 carries, was swarmed on nearly every play and said he was facing a “heavy box” from the first snap of the game.

“They were basically trying to overmatch our personnel,” Dowdle said, noting that the Saints simply brought in one defensive lineman after another as Carolina failed to punish New Orleans with the passing game.
 

Dowdle was asked if he thought the Saints were “hungrier” Sunday. He responded that he didn’t think so, but admitted: “You watch the film, maybe that’s what it might look like.”

In any case, Carolina blew a huge opportunity, losing at home to a 1-8 team in what theoretically should have been the most winnable game the team has left. Of course, these Panthers have defied expectations before, both for better and for worse.
 

But on abysmal days like this one, Canales’ relentless postgame optimism does seem misplaced. The coach seemed determined to take all the blame himself for not putting the Panthers into better offensive plays.
 

Of Bryce Young, Canales said: “I think he’s throwing the ball great.”

Of Legette: “I think X is running fast. He’s doing everything we ask of him.”

Really?

Then how come the Panthers’ final nine drives of the game went punt-punt-punt-punt-end of half-blocked field goal-lost fumble-interception-lost on downs? There’s nothing great about that. That’s not what anyone was asking for, except the Saints.
 

I won’t pick on Canales too much, as this was very much a team loss and he wasn’t the one out there making the turnovers.

But this a Panthers team that needs to stay humble and realize this reality: Even on its best days, it’s barely good enough to win in the NFL.

There can be no letups. No letdowns. And nothing like what we saw Sunday, which was an embarrassment.

[L-TownCat]

Bryce sucks.

[kungfoodude]

34 minutes ago, raleigh-panther said:

But on abysmal days like this one, Canales’ relentless postgame optimism does seem misplaced. The coach seemed determined to take all the blame himself for not putting the Panthers into better offensive plays.
 

Of Bryce Young, Canales said: “I think he’s throwing the ball great.”

Of Legette: “I think X is running fast. He’s doing everything we ask of him.”

Really?

Yeah, this is the type of poo that makes you question everything about DC. He just has this devil may care attitude about it.

[jopie87]

If he thinks Bryce is throwing the ball great, he can leave next year along with him. 

He needs to man the fug up and say that to compete week in and week out he needs to see more from his QB. Coddling him like he's a toddler is a disservice to the entire team.

[Jon Snow]

Canales and Young lost a lot support today. Canales cannot afford to have another game like today. Young is lucky he doesn't have someone better behind him or would have already been benched. 

[Shocker]

He is too nice and we need a stronger personality.  

[CRA]

Scott’s statement about this team sums up Bryce Young perfectly 

Even on its best days, it’s barely good enough to win in the NFL.

[CRA]

5 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

Canales and Young lost a lot support today. Canales cannot afford to have another game like today. Young is lucky he doesn't have someone better behind him or would have already been benched. 

I mean, realistically, the table ahead has scenarios that could easily go much much worse.  Likely will.   Much tougher games ahead. 
 

 

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, CRA said:

I mean, realistically, the table ahead has scenarios that could easily go much much worse.  Likely will.   Much tougher games ahead. 
 

 

Yeah, there's probably several absolute drubbings ahead of us. We dodged one in GB with the weather conditions limiting the passing game and the Packers just not playing well but I doubt we'll keep getting that lucky. The Pats and Bills games are probably more indicative of likely outcomes against good teams.

[raleigh-panther]

I was struck at the Saints DLmen not even engaging the panthers oline several times as they knew

1. it was a pass play

2. Where the play was going

3  which pass lane Young preferred to get hands up to block Young’s pass 

unbelievably smart  

 

[TheBigKat]

Jake Delhomme playoff melt down game

Cam losing to 49ers at home

Panthers losing to Saints for a playoff clinching game at home

then this loss

 

a top 5 defeating loss in BOA history 

[hepcat]

Maybe joking around with Keegan Michael Key and acting like you’ve arrived when you haven’t is a bad idea for the team. Maybe just me I dunno 

[hepcat]

2 minutes ago, TheBigKat said:

Jake Delhomme playoff melt down game

Cam losing to 49ers at home

Panthers losing to Saints for a playoff clinching game at home

then this loss

 

a top 5 defeating loss in BOA history 

This loss won’t go up with 2 playoff games and one loss than directly kept them out of the playoffs, but it probably completely ruined the rest of the season. The schedule is too difficult for them to bounce back from this and exposed how bad the team truly is. Their mentality is paper thin, they have no resolve to win if things don’t immediately work on offense, they can’t adjust, nothing works except Rico Dowdle and now he’s showing some fatigue and when the defense focuses on stopping him they have no answers. Season over. 

[Pantherxtreme]

2 minutes ago, TheBigKat said:

Jake Delhomme playoff melt down game

Cam losing to 49ers at home

Panthers losing to Saints for a playoff clinching game at home

then this loss

 

a top 5 defeating loss in BOA history 

This one is a little more embarrassing to be honest those others were good teams we lost to. 

Having a 1-8 team come smack you around in your home stadium when a win could compel you into the playoff race with the Bucs losing today is unacceptable.