For Bryce Young and the Panthers offense, that was an embarrassing performance
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The Carolina Panthers played their offensive starters for three series on Saturday, and the result was an utter flop.
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Should you be worried? Absolutely. It was a performance that provoked angst rather than hope, as quarterback Bryce Young and his crew went three-and-out and punted three straight times in what ended up as a dispiriting, 29-14 exhibition loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Yes, the Carolina Panthers were missing their two big offensive guards inside.
Yes, there was a key penalty that negated what would have been a first down. Yes, Buffalo is a darn good team and has been for years.
Still, this was embarrassing.
After the third consecutive three-and-out ended with Young getting sacked, former Panther QB Jake Delhomme spoke for a lot of fans on the TV broadcast.
“There’s really nothing happening,” Delhomme said. “You know, you want to see a first down and that’s three three-and-outs. It’s tough.”
Carolina looked like the JV against the varsity, especially on the line of scrimmage.
“The story was in the trenches,” Carolina head coach Dave Canales said afterward. “It was the run game, the line of scrimmage, those types of things.”
While rookie right tackle Monroe Freeling held up pretty well, Panthers reserve guards Chandler Zavala and Brady Christensen got beaten up inside. (Rob Hunt and Damien Lewis were out with nagging injuries.) Center Luke Fortner messed up what would have been a first-down pass getting caught downfield after Young had fooled the defense — but apparently Fortner, too — on a run-pass option.
And Young himself also didn’t look like what we’ve seen in training camp, where the fourth-year QB has made one play after another on the run and looked better than I’ve ever seen him before.
“First group goes out there, really couldn’t get anything going with the run game,” Canales said Saturday after the game, in which Carolina trailed by double digits for almost the entire afternoon. “Saw some disadvantageous looks on 2nd-and-long, some different things like that.”
Well, sorta, but not exactly. That was the story of the first drive, when Jonathon Brooks had no chance on a first-down run and got stuffed for no gain to make it second-and-10 and put the Panthers behind the chains.
But on the first-team offense’s final two drives, the first play actually worked well. Brooks caught a pass in the flat for 9 yards to make it 2nd-and-1 on Drive 2. But that was followed by Brooks losing a yard — again, he was met before the line of scrimmage — and Young throwing incomplete in Tommy Tremble’s general direction.
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On Drive 3, Brooks (starting for Chuba Hubbard, out with a hamstring injury) had his one good run of the day. His 6-yarder made it 2nd-and-4. But from there came the Fortner penalty, and soon thereafter the drive ended as Young was swallowed up for a third-down sack.
So the bottom line is the Panthers had a 2nd-and-1 and a 2nd-and-4 and couldn’t make a first down on either series.
The ineffectual nature of it all brought up some bad memories of Young in his rookie season of 2023, when he was under pressure the whole season and too often not making the great plays he’s now capable of even when he had a clean pocket.
Said Young on Saturday to reporters after the game: “Obviously not the start we wanted, not the drives we wanted. … It’s part of the process, you know — a lot of moving parts. Wasn’t able to execute today. It sucks.”
Buffalo QB Josh Allen, meanwhile, was lighting up Carolina’s defense in his own brief action. If the game had continued, with first string vs. first string, it had all the hallmarks of being similar to Buffalo’s 40-9 rout over Carolina in Charlotte last October.
Andy Dalton quarterbacked that game and was completely overmatched. It was the only game Young missed all season due to injury.
But Young looked overmatched, too, in brief action Saturday: Canales removed the offensive starters after only nine plays early in the second quarter.
The head coach had hoped to give them “20ish” plays, he said, but he also had in his mind that they would only get to play three series. Given that they had no extended drives, nine plays was all they got.
All of this must be taken in moderation. It’s preseason. Cam Newton sometimes looked terrible for entire preseasons.
But it also puts more of an emphasis on the next preseason game, which is at Jacksonville on Friday. You already know the Panthers likely won’t play Young in exhibition No. 4, which is Aug. 28 vs. Houston at home, due to the risk of injury.
Young didn’t play in last week’s Pro Football Hall of Fame game, either. So now we’re left with only one more chance for live competition for Young and company, hopefully with the two starting guards back to help him out and with Tetairoa McMillan, Coker and Xavier Legette at least combining for a few receptions. (Together, they officially had zero on Saturday.)
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So what, me worry?
A little bit, yes.
That was far from the end of the world, or even the end of the season.
But it was worrisome.
