The Carolina Panthers were riding high after a huge win last week. They defeated the Arizona Cardinals and then eliminated them from the playoffs. Although the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would not have been out, another Panthers win would have made it very difficult to move on.
Unfortunately, the same Panthers from a week ago did not show up on Sunday. This is partly due to a desperate and angry opponent, but also due to an incomprehensible number of significant injuries. Here’s what we learned on Sunday.
Perhaps Chuba Hubbard is much more valuable than his $33.2 million price tag currently indicates. Without him, the Panthers’ offense was one-dimensional, and that might be putting it nicely. Bryce Young did well considering the circumstancesbut this was a poor offensive performance without Hubbard.
The fact that the Panthers didn’t have Jonathon Brooks or Miles Sanders also hurts. Even one of them could have changed the game, as Mike Boone and Raheem Blackshear aren’t NFL-level running backs.
On the positive side, we learned one thing from this match: Young can still handle pressure. On Sunday he was under pressure 63% of the time. That’s Todd Bowles being aggressive and the offensive line struggling without Taylor Moton. Both of Young’s TD passes, including a 40-yard bomb, were against the pressure.
Those two touchdowns were also thrown to Adam Thielen, who continues to show why he is still the best WR on the roster. While Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette may represent the future, the present is all Thielen and not close.
On defense, there really isn’t a positive takeaway. The same logic for Hubbard’s value applies to Jaycee Horn and Josey Jewell. A total of 552 yards of offense for the Bucs wouldn’t be stopped by those two, but they have made a historically terrible unit somewhat bearable at times.
Horn’s agent should point to today when extension talks start, and Jewell looks like one of the more underrated offseason moves from Dan Morgan and company. Both were greatly missed, but especially Jewell. Without Jewell, Trevin Wallace, Claudin Cherilus or Shaq Thompson, the Panthers couldn’t stop a nosebleed.
Even the special teams were dismal. Johnny Hekker had a pretty rough day as most of his kicks bounced off Buccaneers and he was blocked for the nail in the coffin in the third quarter (a duck on the air interrupted this).
It was ugly, but it wasn’t a total surprise. The Panthers were missing someone who accounted for nearly 30% of the offense and two of their best defensemen. A win was always going to be tough against a better team on the road, but the final score of 48-14 should at least teach the team some lessons.
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