Panthers remain unlucky in one-score games: What we learned from OT loss to Falcons
There is blame to go around following the Panthers’ 37-34 overtime loss to the Falcons.
Most want to credit the officials for yet another one-score Panthers loss.
DJ Moore could’ve just left his helmet on, as he said he theorized about after the game. His euphoric celebration pushed the Panthers’ game-winning extra point back 15 yards.
Eddy Piñeiro missed two opportunities to win. After the game, he said he should’ve made both. Of course, if he made the 48-yard extra point the game would’ve been finished. Or would it have been?
On the first play from scrimmage following the missed extra point, Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota threw a PJ Walker-like heave down the left sideline with 12 seconds to play. The pass was intended for Damiere Byrd. Safety Xaiver Woods was in coverage and made contact with Byrd on the Panthers 20-yard line. Byrd was tracking the ball while Woods failed to turn his head. By rule, Woods should’ve been flagged for defensive pass interference, which would’ve given Atlanta the ball inside the red zone with three seconds left.
Instead, the refs swallowed their whistles and the game went to overtime.
In overtime, Brian Burns missed an opportunity to tackle Mariota in the backfield. He whiffed, and Mariota scampered for 30 yards, which set up kicker Younghoe Koo’s 41-yard game-winner.
Burns declined to talk after the game.
C.J. Henderson looked lost and uninterested in pursuing or tackling Byrd on his go-ahead 47-yard touchdown. He made up for it with his overtime interception. But his Jekyll-and-Hyde performances summarize his season.
Football is the ultimate team sport with a razor-thin margin for error. The game is influenced by chance far more often than coaches, players, fans and analysts care to admit.
The Panthers are 1-3 in one-score games this season. The Vikings, meanwhile, have won their past five games by one score.
Developing and sustaining a winning culture takes time. First-year head coach Brian Daboll and the Giants are a whirlwind story this season. New York is 6-1 in one-score games and 6-2 overall. The Giants lost to the Seahawks this week. It was their first game this season decided by more than one score.
One of those Giants’ wins came against Carolina in Week 2. Point is, give Daboll the same coordinators and quarterback for a few seasons before jumping to conclusions.
Panthers interim coach Steve Wilks, however, does not have time on his side. After the game, Wilks said the season is not finished. In the locker room, Walker and linebacker Frankie Luvu agreed. We’ll know everything we need to know about the Panthers (2-6) after their next two games.
Carolina heads to Cincinnati on Sunday before facing the Falcons on Thursday Night Football to start Week 10.
Here are some more takeaways from Sunday.
PJ Walker was a forgotten man, now Patrick Mahomes shouts him out
For the second straight week, the Panthers’ fourth-string quarterback garnered national attention. Shout outs from ESPN’s Mina Kimes and the Ringer’s Ben Solak are noteworthy but the game’s premier wizard, Patrick Mahomes, deemed Walker’s 62-yard touchdown the year’s best throw.
“That was the first time,” Walker said after the game when asked if he had thrown a ball that far before. “I put it in the air (for DJ). I saw him turn it into a second gear once the ball was in the air. It was his ball or nobody’s. And he made a hell of a catch.”
Hell of a throw, too.
Just two months ago, there was reason to believe the Panthers were going to cut Walker when the team moved from 90 players down to 70 during training camp. Social media made a fuss about Walker starting preseason games instead of rookie Matt Corral.
It’s hard to blame owner David Tepper or general manager Scott Fitterer for chasing Baker Mayfield this offseason. Former head coach Matt Rhule paid the price for that.
Walker is a lesson that quarterback play is not always greener on the other side. Too often a player’s NFL draft position carries their reputation even when the game tape suggests otherwise.
It’s easy, in hindsight, to reach this conclusion as it’s now clear that Walker should’ve been playing ahead of Sam Darnold and Mayfield this entire time.
Panthers were warned not to celebrate
Think back to August when receiver Rashard Higgins (who was a healthy inactive on Sunday) caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield during a hot Panthers training camp practice in Spartanburg, S.C.
Higgins extended the ball forward before crossing the end zone and the team was quickly disciplined via wind sprints for a premature celebration.
Though the punishment from the former Panthers head coach may have seemed excessive, it foreshadowed Moore’s costly mistake.
Rhule memorably said, “We are not a team that extends the ball out.” Patriots coach Bill Belichick preaches the same rhetoric in order to avoid a player fumbling out of the end zone, which is a turnover.
Moore caught his touchdown five yards in the end zone but forgot a lesson Rhule tried teaching him before the season.
Derrick Brown is coming for Aaron Donald
The Rams’ Aaron Donald has been the undisputed champion of interior defensive line play for nearly a decade. He’ll sit on the throne until he retires.
But Panthers defensive tackle Derrick Brown is letting the league know he has next.
Brown had 12 tackles on Sunday, five more than his career-high (seven), which he set two weeks ago against the Rams.
His 12 tackles were the most by a Panthers defensive lineman since 2000, which is the year the stat began to track. He ranks second, at his position, in the league with 40 tackles. Brown is fourth overall on the team in tackles this season.
Multiple times on Sunday the Falcons ran read-option at Brown, who defended multiple runs and erased both the A and B gaps.
During a Week 12 blowout loss to the Dolphins last year, Brown was benched. This season he is proving to be unblockable.
