Panthers’ offensive grades vs. Titans: Reich and Young’s unit continues to look inept
The Panthers’ mundane operation on offense, once again, squandered their opportunity to come up with any sort of season momentum in a 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Nissan Stadium.
With Bryce Young, Frank Reich and everyone else in the organization needing good things to happen, the crew in Process Blue laid another egg on the offensive side of the ball. The defense, despite some minor hiccups, did its part, holding rookie quarterback Will Levis to 185 passing yards and three scoring drives. But for the third consecutive game, the Panthers couldn’t score more than twice on offense.
The Panthers (1-10) haven’t scored more than 15 points since the Week 7 bye. Despite flipping the play-calling duties twice over the past five weeks, the Panthers have been limited to 12.2 points per game during that stretch.
Against the now 4-7 Titans, with Reich calling plays, they somehow managed to sink below that standard for a second consecutive week.
Here is how the offense graded out:
Play-calling
The Panthers tried to switch things up early on in this one. Reich called regular under-center plays, and for the most part, those plays worked. Carolina also did a nice job with play-action, as they started the game with a designed roll-out throw from Young to rookie wideout Jonathan Mingo for 22 yards.
The wheels fell off during the first series of the game when Reich called what looked like a toss-option play from under-center, which the Titans sniffed out immediately. The play, a toss to running back Miles Sanders, lost 8 yards and forced the Panthers to punt near mid-field.
On the second drive, Reich did a nice job of mixing up concepts as he became aggressive with the play-calling. He offered up a nice blend of run and pass, and the unit benefited from a holding play on a failed third down pass. Reich trusted his offense on fourth-and-3 in enemy territory, and that faith paid off with an absolute bullet strike by Young to tight end Stephen Sullivan over the middle. The catch was challenged but stood. The catch led to a 50-yard field goal by kicker Eddy Piñeiro.
Reich used some pre-snap movement in this one, moving around “weapons” in the backfield ahead of the play. Returner/receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette was specifically used in that role on a pair of plays to begin the second half. The problem with using pre-snap motion with Smith-Marsette is that he hadn’t touched the ball on offense before the game.
The Panthers did utilize a mix of 12 and 11 personnel to some varying success. The 12 personnel looks gave some added punch in the run game, as expected, because tight ends Tommy Tremble and Ian Thomas did nice jobs with seal blocks.
Reich made a couple of calls — like a second-and-10 run on a must-have drive in the fourth — that were head-scratchers. The opening-series blunder on third-down was a first-half momentum squash.
The Panthers had four drives begin well within their 20-yard line, so Reich’s play-calling creativity, in fairness, was a bit diluted. He did a nice job of marrying the run and pass and staying balanced, but the overall operation lacked explosive plays. The Panthers had three explosive passing plays on the day, with one being the result of a dump off to a running back. Young had a pair of deep shots that worked out with Mingo and a couple of intermediate connections with wideout DJ Chark.
Reich retook play-calling in Week 11. Since that revival, the offense has produced just 10 points in both games. Whether Reich was creative or not on Sunday, the end result was a mess. The defense did its job, and the offense coughed up a turnover that led to seven points — the difference in the game — and only produced two scoring drives. The head coach, who was adamant about retaking control of the offense, is more than partially to blame for that.
His play-calling on the final two series of the game were awful and the results followed suit.
GRADE: D
Quarterback
Young had a legitimate mixed-bag performance in the first half. While he made a pair of special throws on fourth- and third-down conversions in the second quarter, he also fumbled away a possession in his own territory on a strip-sack. That turnover led to a quick seven points for Tennessee.
Young also had a pair of far off the mark throws that impacted drives, with one nearly being picked off in the middle of the field. Young did a nice job showing some mobility, picking up a third-down conversion on an excellent scramble against pressure, but he was asked to run around too often because of mediocre blocking. And while Young’s protection wasn’t particularly good, he also had his fair share of mistakes early on, too.
Young finished the first half with a 64.6 pass rating. He completed 8 of 16 passes for 80 yards and had a fumble lost.
The rookie quarterback did a nice job of bouncing back a bit to start the second half. He benefited from a defensive holding penalty on third down and then picked up momentum. He completed a couple of quick passes and tossed a downfield strike to Mingo that drew another holding penalty. He also picked up yardage with his legs, converting an early-drive third-down conversion on the ground. His check-down toss to running back Chuba Hubbard for 25 yards got the Panthers on cusp of the end zone. Hubbard eventually scored a touchdown on that drive.
Young was forced to continue scramble a lot in the second half. While he continued to show elusiveness, he struggled to create regular yardage after the plays broke down. Those breakdowns weren’t his fault, but he was unable to capitalize on his own maneuvering.
Young made a pair of impressive tosses on a failed drive in the fourth quarter. He connected with Mingo on a beautiful pass for a gain of 25 yards. He later went back to Chark for a gain of 19.
Young finished with 18 completions on 31 throws for 194 yards. He lost a fumble, but ran for 23 yards on three carries. He had a 76.5 passer rating.
GRADE: C
Running back
The Panthers stuck to the run in the first half. While the previously mentioned failed toss play left a lot to be desired, the Panthers kept pounding the rock consistently. Hubbard did a nice job of attacking gaps, while Sanders showed some shiftiness in the box. The pair combined for 24 yards on 12 carries in the first half, but that total was largely watered down by the 8-yard loss on the first series.
During the first drive of the second half, Hubbard really anchored the success for the offense, catching a check-down pass for 25 yards and rushing for a 5-yard touchdown.
Hubbard finished with 19 touches for 92 total yards and a rushing touchdown. Sanders ended up with 28 yards on 15 carries.
The running back rushing yard total was 73. The duo averaged just 2.5 yards per carry. But Hubbard’s pass game prowess raised the performance.
GRADE: C
Wide receivers/tight ends
The Panthers don’t know how to run scramble drills effectively — that’s become evident. Young consistently got pushed out of the pocket and couldn’t find an open receiver.
While Young connected with Sullivan and Chark on excellent passes for extra downs, the pass-catching crew had trouble creating separation and making plays, especially with pressure barreling down. Young targeted seven different receivers in the first half and came up eight completions for 80 yards.
Adam Thielen, Young’s typical favorite target, was held to just one catch for 2 yards on two targets through three quarters.
Mingo led the receivers and tight ends with four catches for 60 yards on six targets.
GRADE: D
Offensive line
The Panthers started rookie Chandler Zavala at left guard — for a sixth time — and Brett Toth at right guard — for the first time. Zavala suffered a knee injury in the first half and was replaced by Cade Mays. Toth moved to left guard and Mays came in at right guard.
The Panthers’ offensive line has been through a lot of change and has paid the price for a lack of chemistry. Young was consistently forced to move out of the pocket and use his elusiveness to stay out of harm’s way. He threw away a trio of passes and had a couple more land off the mark.
But Young was only hit once in the first half and took just one sack. Young’s sack-fumble was largely due to an early breakdown from left tackle Ickey Ekwonu on the left side, as pass rusher Arden Key quickly sneaked behind the quarterback for the turnover-creating play.
The Panthers later lost Mays on a play that saw Titans defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons bulldoze his way into Young for a sack on first down. He was replaced by rookie Nash Jensen, who was the third player to play right guard on the afternoon. In fairness to the line, Young held the ball probably longer than he should have.
While one of the sacks was the result of a poor pickup by Sanders, the offense surrendered four sacks and six QB hits. Still, Young was forced to maneuver around the pocket consistently, throwing balls away or misfiring as a result of plays that weren’t sacks.
GRADE: D-
Overall offense
There were moments of upside and encouragement, but few and far between were there actual spots of grandeur. This offense is broken, shattered like a mirror that will bring bad luck to anyone in front of it, including the Panthers’ defense, evidently. It doesn’t matter who is calling this offense because it is just a complete disaster. Maybe that’ll allow some to avoid getting the finger pointed at them. It shouldn’t, though.
OVERALL GRADE: D
This story was originally published November 26, 2023 at 4:52 PM.
