No magic wand: Panthers’ offensive players lacking answers after another miserable loss
UPDATE: The Panthers fired head coach and primary offensive play-caller Frank Reich on Monday.
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The lingering claustrophobic feeling brought on by a small visitors’ locker room within the bowels of Nissan Stadium couldn’t hold a candle to the overcast of disappointment hanging over the Panthers’ players inside of it on Sunday.
Just like the space where Carolina’s contributors gathered their belongings after the 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Panthers’ hopes of any sort of in-season turnaround were, yet again, restricted by another listless performance from the offense.
“I think everyone’s got to look themselves in the mirror,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said. “Whether you’re a player, coach, staff — at this point, what is there else to do? You look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘What can I be doing better throughout the week? What can I be doing better on game day? What can I be doing better in preparation?’ And then, you put it all together and try to find a way.
“There’s not just a magic wand at this point. So, obviously, there’s things that we’re doing that we keep doing and keep hurting ourselves, but we can all look ourselves in the mirror and say there’s plays that you left out there and could have done better and could have helped your team.”
The Panthers’ defense did its job in Nashville, limiting the Titans to just 17 points.
Seven of the 17 points were the result of a very short field after rookie quarterback Bryce Young fumbled on the Carolina 15-yard line. It took Tennessee just two plays for running back Derrick Henry to hit pay dirt near the end of the second quarter.
The Titans didn’t score again. They didn’t need to ... because the Panthers’ offense simply can’t score more than 20 points in a game without facing soft coverage in a blowout loss.
“As one of the leaders on the offense, I can say we have to do a better job of complementing the defense as a whole team,” running back Miles Sanders said. “The defense has been playing great ball all year. We’ve been putting them in tough spots all year. They can’t defend everything, so I don’t know, we just got to keep working. That’s all I can really say.”
Through 11 games, head coach Frank Reich — once again the Panthers’ primary offensive play-caller — and his supposed all-star staff on that side of the ball, seemingly have no answers.
The Panthers haven’t scored more than twice in two weeks. The offense hasn’t produced more than 15 points since the Week 7 bye. Young still hasn’t eclipsed 250 passing yards in 10 weeks of NFL action.
“We all feel it,” Young said. “Obviously, it’s difficult. We all don’t feel great. But we just lean on each other in these moments. That’s really all we can do.”
Following the loss to the Titans, Reich stressed the importance of staying in phase and not losing yardage on sacks or penalties. Against Tennessee, the offense was flagged for three holding penalties. Young also took four sacks for losses of 32 yards.
Veteran offense lineman Brett Toth, starting in his first game of the season, was asked to play both guard spots. The team also lost starting left guard Chandler Zavala (knee) and backup guard Cade Mays (ankle) during the game.
The Panthers ultimately played two different players at left guard and three different players at right guard in a tight contest that highlighted the unit’s trouble in the trenches. Toth and right tackle Taylor Moton accounted for two of the three holding calls and the entire line leaked pressure Young’s way throughout the afternoon.
Toth, despite being fairly new to the line, didn’t pass blame on his teammates. Instead, he acknowledged the obvious, despite the built-in parachute notion of playing two different positions in the heat of battle.
“I can’t speak for the offense as a whole, all I can speak for is my performance, and it just wasn’t good enough today,” Toth said. “I’m one of 11, and there’s no way that me focusing on any other position helps the way that I can impact the team. My performance today wasn’t good enough — period.”
As injuries, penalties and profanity — owner David Tepper was reportedly heard saying an expletive as he left the locker room Sunday — pile up, the players in the locker room are pondering what they can do to improve as the schedule evaporates in front of them.
“I really think that being a professional — because this is your job — it’s your job to get better, and we love playing it, it’s the best job in the world, but it’s a job,” tight end Tommy Tremble said. “You’ve got to do your job, and I think just really hone in on the fact that it’s our responsibility to find what we need to improve on and really work at it. Not just say it, we’ve got to do it — week in and week out.
“And that’s why I think stuff will never get old, of saying ‘Let’s get better, let’s keep doing what we’re doing good,’ cause it’s your responsibility as a man and as an entertainer to do that. And so, I think that’s what we really gotta do. We’ve just got to keep working at it.”
And as the Panthers’ locker room and coaching staff digest their fourth consecutive loss, and the team’s 10th defeat overall, questions linger beyond the product on the field.
Reich, his staff and general manager Scott Fitterer and his front-office crew have avoided the chopping block to this point. But with Tepper showing post-game frustration so vividly as the losses mount, it’s fair to wonder when a shoe (or pink slip) will drop.
For now, though, the players are just trying to find something, anything, to cling onto for positivity.
“I love the guys I play with, we all know we can get (expletive) done, and we just haven’t been doing it,” left tackle Ikem Ekwonu said. “It’s obviously frustrating but the relationship stays the same. I love the guys that I come to work with every day.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
