Carolina Panthers flash early, then flicker out in 42-21 loss to Miami Dolphins
The Carolina Panthers showed the world exactly the team they hoped they could be on Sunday.
It was gorgeous. It was stunning. It was ... brief.
Once the second quarter started, the game turned into what everyone thought it would be in the first place, and Miami ended up whipping Carolina, 42-21.
But Carolina led 14-0 after an extraordinary first quarter, moving the ball at will and stifling the NFL’s No. 1 offense. By halftime, though, Miami led 21-14 and it got worse after that, as the Panthers (0-6) stumbled to another loss and showed once again why they remain the NFL’s only winless team. Only the Panthers’ 0-7 start in 1998 — the season in which Kerry Collins left the team and Dom Capers ultimately got fired — was worse than this one.
At least the Panthers know they won’t lose next Sunday, though — they have a bye.
Still, Carolina’s dominance against the Dolphins was unexpected fun while it lasted.
In that first quarter, the Panthers gave a hint of what the future could look like. Chuba Hubbard ran for one touchdown, Bryce Young threw for another to Adam Thielen and the Panthers’ patchwork defense held Miami to a three-and-out on each of its first two possessions.
But Miami, a team that resembles the NFL’s version of the “Showtime” L.A. Lakers of the 1980s, soared to a 21-point second quarter while holding the Panthers scoreless. The Dolphins flipped the game just as gracefully as Tyreek Hill did a backflip with a cell phone in his left hand after scoring on a 41-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Hill received a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for that, but he was more upset that the video he filmed didn’t totally work out. When informed that the video stopped about halfway through the flip, Hill said that fact was “very hurtful.”
By then, that was about all that was hurting the Dolphins. Order had been restored and the Dolphins (5-1) were scoring left and right. Hill (six catches, 163 yards, one TD) would leave the game for a few minutes later, but only because he was cramping because he had run so far with yet another long catch, of 47 yards.
Said Hill later: “Man, I got an IV at the beginning of the game, halftime, then I had to come in and get one for that, too, though. I had to at least have six bags today, which is crazy.”
Panthers coach Frank Reich was in no mood to take the early 14-0 lead as a consolation prize after the game. “Obviously, you lose by three touchdowns, so nothing feels good about it,” Reich said. “Nothing.”
Losses come in different varieties, though, and this wasn’t the worst type. The Panthers played a team that will make the playoffs this season and hung in there until at least midway through the third quarter, flashing on offense in the way everyone hoped they would after using the No. 1 overall pick on Young before flickering out.
On a sunny, 87-degree day in South Florida, the Panthers at least made Miami work for it. Thielen had another 100-yard receiving day.
“Probably what’s most frustrating right now is we know what we can do,” Thielen said. “You saw a glimpse today of what we can do.... I thought those two possessions we scored because of our running game. And we need that moving forward, because when we can run the ball, we’re dangerous.”
When he had time, Young looked fairly sharp. And the Panthers showed some spunk, down to their veteran punter Johnny Hekker, who head-butted a Dolphin and drew a penalty for it after the Dolphin flopped to the ground.
Long before the Hekker head butt and the flop, of course — which drew a “Down goes Frazier!” riff from CBS announcer Kevin Harlan on TV — the Panthers were in a lot of trouble. Carolina’s defense was mostly no match for Miami after those first two drives. The Panthers didn’t allow Miami to score 70 points, like Denver did earlier this season, but it did allow Tua Tagovailoa to throw three TD passes and running back Raheem Mostert to score three times.
Miami scored 35 unanswered points to go from 14-0 down to 35-14 up before Panthers cornerback Troy Hill surprised everyone by intercepting Miami backup quarterback Mike White and going 61 yards for a pick-6 touchdown with 4:26 to go. That cut the Miami lead to 35-21, but the Dolphins recovered the onside kick and later scored one more TD for the final margin.
After the game, Young seemed upset with the outcome — maybe even a little more than he has in previous games. He had zero turnovers in this game — the first time he had a turnover-free NFL game — but he also couldn’t get the Panthers offense into the end zone after the first quarter. “Obviously, it’s tough,” Young said. “It’s tough.... We’re all competitors. It sucks where we’re at.... We’re in a tough place. But there’s no locker room I’d rather be here with... in terms of digging ourselves out of this.”
After the game, Tagovailoa and Young shared an embrace. The two both played quarterback at Alabama and are friends. Said Tagovailoa: “The conversation that I felt like if I was on the other side of the ball, I would want someone to tell me. I think he’s doing a tremendous job.... I just told him to keep the press, the naysayers, other people, that’s just external factors. They’re going to say what they’re going to say. But you continue to believe in yourself, you continue to do the right things, you’re going to go far.”
This story was originally published October 15, 2023 at 5:23 PM.
