Putting the fans to sleep: Panthers can’t score once more, lose 17-10 to Tennessee
No-no-no-November.
The Carolina Panthers closed out a winless month Sunday, waiting until three days after Thanksgiving to produce one final turkey.
Carolina’s 17-10 loss to Tennessee in Nashville showcased the usual suspects on the Panthers’ trail to oblivion. Terrible offensive line play, a lack of imagination, a knack for making the simplest of plays look difficult, a few more injuries — all were in evidence as the Panthers dropped to an NFL-worst 1-10 on the season.
Tennessee (4-7) wasn’t a lot better, but the Titans cleared the low bar that is needed to beat Carolina this season by getting to 17 hard-earned points.
The Panthers, whose sole win this season came Oct. 29 vs. Houston, went 0-for-November. And in those four November games, they scored 13, 13, 10 and 10 points — a losing formula in the NFL if there ever was one.
It’s a formula to put your fans to sleep as well — far better to lose games 41-34 than 17-10. At least you entertain people and sell tickets and merchandise with the former outcome. With the latter, which is what the Panthers have right now, you can take a nap for an entire quarter (the fourth quarter Sunday was a 0-0 slugfest) and not miss a thing worth watching, because Carolina’s insipid offense loves to take a nap, too.
Panthers owner David Tepper was among those frustrated after the game in Nashville. Just after leaving the Carolina locker room, Tepper reportedly yelled an expletive as he departed, one that was heard and reported by at least two members of the media. Since Tepper bought the Panthers in the summer of 2018, Carolina has had six straight losing seasons, five head coaches (including interim head coaches) and is 30-63 overall. It has been, to put it mildly, a massive mess.
Down only by one score, the Panthers’ offense had three separate possessions in the fourth quarter in which it could have theoretically tied the game with a touchdown. All three fizzled badly.
The first two never got past midfield. On the third one, Carolina took over with 2:57 to go on its own 20.
The Panthers needed to go 80 yards to tie. They fell 76 yards short.
On second down, rookie quarterback Bryce Young was sacked. On fourth-and-6 from the Carolina 24 at the 2-minute warning, Tennessee sent an all-out blitz and Carolina countered with a flanker screen to DJ Chark, which went for no gain. Young, who checked off to the screen pass in what head coach Frank Reich said was the correct call, bowed his head.
“We just need to coach better and play better,” Reich said afterward.
Reich also pointed out the obvious, that the Panthers’ offensive line has been awful, allowing Young little time. Young was sacked four times Sunday and avoided many more while completing 18 of 31 passes for 194 yards, no TDs and no interceptions.
“Just too many sacks, too many pressures,” Reich said. “And then holding calls. We’ve got to do a better job ... so we can give Bryce more time.”
As it has for large swaths of the season, the Panthers’ defense did its part for most of the day and held the Titans scoreless in the second half. Tennessee’s pile-driving running back, Derrick Henry, did score on two touchdown runs — although one of them was set up by a strip-sack of Young at the Carolina 15 when left tackle Ickey Ekwonu was badly beaten off the edge.
The Panthers’ defense never forced a turnover, which for this team is a necessity because the offense needs short fields to have any chance. But the Carolina defense did force Tennessee to punt seven times and kept it a one-score game for almost the entire afternoon.
Chuba Hubbard scored what was only Carolina’s third rushing touchdown of the entire season in the third quarter, bulling in to the end zone from 5 yards out on fourth-and-2. That sliced the Tennessee lead to 17-10.
With Tennessee completely determined to take No. 1 wide receiver Adam Thielen out of the game by double-teaming him, Young had to resort to other options.
Carolina did find a little success throwing the ball short to Hubbard and running the ball. Young scrambled all over Nashville, keeping plays alive for 10 seconds or more several times, although usually with no good end result. It’s too bad, really, that the Panthers haven’t won at least a few of these one-score games, as the NFC South is having a down year. Every team in the NFC South is under .500, so it was a division ripe for the taking in 2023. Just not by Carolina.
Tennessee punter Ryan Stonehouse was a weapon for the Titans, averaging 53.7 yards on his seven punts and constantly making the Panthers start around their own 10-yard line. Asking this insufficient Carolina offense —and especially its injury-plagued, penalty-ridden, underachieving offensive line — to go 80 or 90 yards is like scaling Everest.
On Sunday, when it mattered, Carolina’s offense got nowhere close to making it happen. Again.
This story was originally published November 26, 2023 at 4:43 PM.
