Analysis: Until Teddy Bridgewater learns how to win, the Panthers are stuck
It was an all-too-familiar situation for the Carolina Panthers. One that has almost become routine.
Down five points, the offense got the ball back with 2:48 remaining and a chance to win the game.
But that chance never came close to having an opportunity to turn into reality for the same reasons the Panthers have fallen short all year long. The drive started with a special teams penalty and ended with a pass that didn’t have a chance to result in a first down.
An inability to get out of their own way triumphed again, resulting in a 32-27 loss to the Denver Broncos. The Panthers fell to 4-9.
“We’re a team that for us to win we have to do everything right, and we have to play really well and we just played OK,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said. “We didn’t do everything right and so, we had a chance to win, but we didn’t come away with the win like I feel like we should have. ... Too much beating ourselves to win the game.”
It doesn’t all fall on one player or one aspect of the game — the Panthers put themselves in a tough position in a variety of ways — but being able to trust a player with the ball in his hands with the game on the line is a signature of the best franchise quarterbacks.
And Teddy Bridgewater has yet to do so. In seven of nine losses this year, the offense has had the ball with a chance to win or tie the score in the final minutes, but came up short. For a team that keeps losing and improving its chances of picking in the top 10 of the NFL draft with an opportunity to pick a quarterback, continuing to fall just short is noteworthy.
When asked if he felt like Bridgewater was the quarterback to lead the Panthers going forward as the program is rebuilt, Rhule did not hesitate.
“Absolutely. But I don’t think he’s gonna be successful in (a two-minute drill) if he gets sacked on the first play,” Rhule said. “I don’t think he’s going to be successful if we have drops. I think that all of us have to continue to work together to improve.”
After a strong defensive series prior to the final fourth-quarter drive, the Panthers got the ball back, but defensive back Natrell Jamerson was called for his second special teams penalty of the day — offensive holding — that moved the offense back from having the ball at the 50-yard line to the 27.
The drive started with a sack — Bridgewater’s fourth of the day — that resulted in a loss of 6 yards, a short pass to Pharoh Cooper and then an incompletion that was in the direction of Cooper, but sailed far above his head prior to the two-minute warning. Rhule said after the game that he had not wanted to run that play prior to the clock hitting 2:00.
“Obviously that play, I did not want to a run a play before the two-minute (warning),” Rhule said. “Just unfortunately we ran one right before the two-minute that ... wasn’t what we wanted. So I have to get that corrected.”
Bridgewater said that he had seen the Broncos’ defenders more casually moving around and thought they could “steal” a first down. The decision to run a play left the Panthers in a fourth-down situation with two minutes remaining on the clock. A 1-yard pass to Curtis Samuel on fourth-and-8 ended the game well short of the sticks, but Bridgewater said he felt that was his best option. There was good coverage largely all around the field.
“I would have liked to get the ball past the first down. As I was stepping up in the pocket, (I) basically saw Curtis pop, the defense ran a stunt and I just figured to get the ball out, that’s better than taking a sack right there,” Bridgewater said on the decision. “They played a good coverage on that play as well. So I think for me, it’s one of those deals where it’s like, man, take a sack right here. It’s even worse than just trying to give our guys a chance.”
This wasn’t a game that came down to just the final play. Bridgewater had a strong end to the game that started in the third quarter and involved multiple streaks of completed passes, including 16 straight. He finished the game 30-of-40 passing (75%) for 283 yards and a rushing touchdown without leading receiver DJ Moore (COVID-19 list) and Christian McCaffrey (thigh) to throw to.
But it was the slow offensive start and taking questionable sacks, including one just before halftime, that hurt the offense early. The Panthers had 88 net yards in the first half compared to the Broncos’ 137.
They went into halftime with Bridgewater as the leading rusher and running back Mike Davis as the leading receiver. The only reason they had points on the board was because the defense set them up with the ball at Denver’s 3-yard line following a Jeremy Chinn forced fumble on Drew Lock and Efe Obada’s return of it.
“We have to take some ownership in this as well and be accountable and understand that the coach’s job is to get us to Sunday; it’s our job to go out there and execute on Sundays and you watch us in the first half, we didn’t do anything,” Bridgewater said. “We had our defense on the field too long, we were committing penalties, moving ourselves back, negative plays — when you do those types of things, that’s not coaching, that’s on us as players.”
In the second half, the Panthers finally got wide receivers Robby Anderson and Samuel more involved. Samuel was only targeted once and did not have a single reception in the first two quarters. In the second half, he caught seven passes for 68 yards and the Panthers scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, finally taking advantage of the Broncos’ limited secondary that was hampered by injuries.
In the fourth quarter of seven-point losses this year, Bridgewater has completed only 65.7% of his passes for one touchdown, two interceptions and has been sacked three times. The one touchdown came in Week 1 and was the only one they have scored in such situations. Bridgewater averaged 8.8 yards per attempt, has thrown for 10 first downs and had just three completions of 25-plus yards, two of which came in the first two games of the year.
It’s difficult to evaluate a quarterback without some of his best weapons around him. Bridgewater has played well at times and yet also made questionable decisions all year with an often-stagnant offense.
Correcting longstanding issues, especially with the two-minute offense, hasn’t happened. But 13 games in, this is the body of the work the Panthers will go into the offseason with.
This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 4:30 PM.
