Another painful December? Panthers lose at home to Pittsburgh, yet playoff hopes remain
Well, that was embarrassing.
And familiar.
Given a chance to end the day in first place in the NFC South, the Carolina Panthers floundered, losing 24-16 to Pittsburgh on Sunday before a home stadium in Charlotte that was painted in Steelers black-and-gold.
Carolina (5-9) clinched its fifth straight losing season with the defeat.
“I don’t want anybody in this building talking playoffs,” interim coach Steve Wilks said sternly afterward, and he’s going to have an easier time of that after this one.
Still, in the lousy NFC South, the Panthers haven’t lost their chance after division leader Tampa Bay (6-8) also lost Sunday. If Carolina wins its final three games, the Panthers will be in the playoff field — albeit, with a losing record.
But to do that, the Panthers will have to play far better than they did Sunday. Carolina rushed for only 21 yards as a team — the lowest total in the past decade and fifth-lowest in team history — and allowed Pittsburgh’s offense to go 12-for-16 on third-down conversions. “Third down was horrendous, to say the least,” Wilks said.
So Panthers fans who sacrificed the last Sunday before Christmas for this game, hoping for some seasonal joy, instead felt a more familiar emotion that also often pops up around the holidays: Pain.
Pittsburgh out-physicaled the Panthers, dominating on both sides of the line of scrimmage in exactly the same way that Carolina had dominated for a large part of the past month while going 3-1 in its previous four games.
“I can’t say enough about our big dudes up front and how they controlled it,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
The Steelers decided to sell out against the Panthers’ run game and make Carolina’s pass game beat them, if it could. Despite quarterback Sam Darnold having a decent day, Carolina couldn’t. The Panthers had to settle for three field goals and only dented the end zone once.
“We’re a better team than what we showed today,” said Darnold, who went 14-for-23 for 225 yards, with one TD and no turnovers.
It wasn’t enough, because Pittsburgh was rushing for 156 yards. And when the Steelers needed a throw, they picked on Carolina reserve cornerback Keith Taylor, who gave up one big play after another after subbing in for the injured C.J. Henderson.
The thing is that these Steelers (6-8) aren’t a good team. They’re not going to make the playoffs in the AFC. This is a down year in Pittsburgh.
But even then, Pittsburgh beat the Panthers, as usual.
Once, long ago, the Carolina Panthers actually won an important game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. A young safety named Chad Cota made an end-zone interception that longtime Carolina fans still remember and the Panthers edged Pittsburgh — in 1996.
It’s been 26 years, and Carolina hasn’t beaten the Steelers since.
Afterward, the Panthers were left to ponder what had gone wrong.
“They were more physical than us today, which is not our mantra,” Wilks said.
“Losing at home, no matter what the circumstances, it always sucks,” Darnold said.
“We didn’t do a great job and that starts with me,” Wilks said.
The Panthers dropped to 4-5 under Wilks, who took over after Matt Rhule got fired following a 1-4 start. Carolina had won three home games in a row under Wilks’ leadership.
The best thing that happened to the Panthers Sunday was Tampa Bay blowing a 17-point lead at home Sunday against Cincinnati. The Panthers have three games remaining — at home vs. Detroit on Saturday, followed by road games against Tampa Bay and New Orleans. Win all three and get to 8-9, and the Panthers would win the division (remember, they won the NFC South in 2014 at 7-8-1, so this is somewhat familiar ground). Whichever team wins the NFC South will likely host Dallas in a first-round playoff game.
But very few playoff teams ever give up a 21-play touchdown drive, which brings us to the game’s key march Sunday.
Pittsburgh, up 14-7, got the second-half kickoff and had to start at its own 9 because of a penalty. The Steelers then chewed up the clock for 21 plays and 106 yards — 91 to get into the end zone, plus an additional 15 yards due to a Steelers penalty that Pittsburgh overcame. The drive took nearly 12 minutes, but it felt longer than the wait to see the Christmas lights at McAdenville.
That made it 21-7, and Carolina got no closer than eight points after that. “I thought that really set the tone for the rest of the game,” Tomlin said.
“That is the longest drive I have ever witnessed with my own two eyes,” said Pittsburgh linebacker Alex Highsmith, the former Charlotte 49er who contributed a sack and a forced fumble for the Steelers while playing against the team he rooted for growing up.
Wilks had asked for support this past week and said his team had to “protect the Bank,” referring to Bank of America Stadium. But that bank got robbed Saturday in front of a lot of friendly black-and-gold faces.
At one point in the second half, with the Panthers knocking on the goal-line door, the Steelers defense asked for more noise by waving their hands around.
This is typically a move only a team at home can make. But thousands of Steelers fans waved Terrible Towels and screamed, and sure enough, the Panthers didn’t convert.
Like I said, embarrassing.
This story was originally published December 18, 2022 at 5:51 PM.
