Panthers D, special teams played well enough to win. Bryce Young, offense did not
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
Mama told me there’d be days like this.
And the Panthers couldn’t survive one of those days Sunday in Cleveland. The Browns outlasted the Carolina Panthers, 21-18, dropping the Panthers to 1-2 on a day that was costly in many ways.
Read more Her socials disappeared. A cease-and-desist — and ransom notes — followed.
In an ugly, injury-marred game in which the Panthers lost wide receiver Jalen Coker, cornerback Mike Jackson and cornerback Jaycee Horn due to injury, the two teams combined for six field goals and just three touchdowns.
Carolina still led, 18-13, when Bryce Young — fighting an ankle injury all afternoon — hit John Metchie III for the Panthers’ only touchdown of the day with 4:25 left in the game. But the defense then couldn’t stop Deshaun Watson and the Browns, who marched 65 yards in eight plays and converted a two-point pass, too, with 1:48 to go.
The most crucial play on that game-winning drive was a penalty: linebacker Bobby Okereke’s roughing-the-passer flag on Watson, which negated a tipped interception in the end zone by the Panthers that would have all but clinched the game for Carolina.
Okereke was attempting to bat down Watson’s pass rather than hit him, but I thought the flag was legitimate. The veteran linebacker contacted Watson in the head on his follow-through, and that’s something you simply can’t do.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales did not dispute the penalty in his postgame press conference. Of the play, Canales said: “I saw him (Watson) get hit in the head by somebody’s hands. I don’t know who that was (Okereke was the one flagged), but we can’t do that. We have to go lower on the quarterback when the ball’s in the air…. We made the wrong decision in that case.”
Young and the offense would still get the ball back twice more after that, needing a field goal to tie the game or a touchdown to win. But Young, under monstrous pressure all day, threw the ball well short of the sticks on one fourth-and-long and then got picked off when his arm got hit on Carolina’s final effort. Carolina never got past midfield on either of its last two possessions. Canales said the Panthers “didn’t handle the movement well up front,” as the Browns won in the trenches time and again.
As for the lower-body injury he was fighting throughout the game, Young said: “You know we’re all dealing with stuff. It doesn’t have any bearing on the game.”
What went wrong then? In a three-minute news conference, Young had no answers, instead saying on five separate occasions that he hadn’t watched the film yet. It doesn’t take the film to know, though, that Young rarely had a clean pocket and, even when he did, his receivers weren’t doing him a lot of favors by creating separation. Often, he had tumult all around him.
Read more 2 places in NC rank among nation’s biggest ‘boomtowns.’ Why they stand out
Said Cleveland defensive end Jared Verse: ““I told everybody before the game I’m just gonna run through their face.”
Said Cleveland defensive tackle Mason Graham, one of the people often in the Panthers backfield: “Something we preached all week was that we were going to have 60 minutes of hell.”
For most of the game, it felt like hell for the Panthers offense. And for an offense that had been so good for most of the first two weeks, it was a major letdown. Cleveland’s defense figured out a way to play Carolina that a lot of other teams will undoubtedly incorporate — blitz Young constantly, play the wide receivers in man coverage and dare anyone to beat them deep. The Browns obviously didn’t think the Panthers could beat them on the deep ball, and on this day they were right.
Because Carolina doesn’t have a natural speedster on the active roster, that strategy can be very effective. That’s especially true when your No. 2 receiver (Coker), No. 3 receiver (Xavier Legette) and No. 4 receiver (Brycen Tremayne) are injured as they were by the end of the game and your No. 1, Tetairoa McMillan, only managed two catches for 17 yards and was effectively taken out of the game by the Browns’ aggressiveness. Young was trying to win by throwing to David Moore and Metchie at the end, and that’s tough to do.
Still, it’s a mystery why T-Mac was such a non-factor. Canales said the coaching staff had to do a better job of putting McMillan, the 2025 Offensive Rookie of the Year who still hasn’t scored a TD this season, in better position to make plays.
I thought that overall the Panthers defense and special teams played well enough to win. Giving up 21 points is respectable. Young threw for twice as many yards as Watson did (291-144), although Watson did get loose and run for first downs several times.
The Panthers special teams forced the game’s lone turnover while covering a kickoff. Placekicker Ryan Fitzgerald had a terrific day, going 4-for-4 on field goals and keeping Carolina in it.
But on this day, the Panthers offense just couldn’t get it done.
One sliver of good news emerged later in the day, however: because of New Orleans losing at home, the Panthers remain in a three-way tie for first in the NFC South, at 1-2.
Read more Hornets star Knueppel sustains injury before training camp. Here’s the prognosis
This story was originally published September 27, 2026 at 5:15 PM.
