Grading Panthers vs. Saints: Bryce Young and crew have horrible outing as passing offense
The Panthers’ offensive ineptitude reached new heights Sunday at Caesars Superdome, as the New Orleans Saints (6-7) defeated Carolina (1-12) in a listless 28-6 NFC South car wreck of a game.
With interim head coach Chris Tabor overseeing the product for a second consecutive game, the Panthers decided to be aggressive on offense, and time and time again, they paid for that approach with major letdowns. Despite the best efforts of the defense, Tabor’s special teams group and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown’s unit routinely came up empty.
Rookie quarterback Bryce Young completed just three passes in the first half as the Panthers went for an “air it out” approach. Young failed to connect with his weapons, and the strong performance of the run game was ultimately wasted by poor play-calling and execution from a passing standpoint. On special teams, punter Johnny Hekker fumbled, which led to a Saints touchdown, and kicker Eddy Piñeiro missed a 41-yard field goal.
The Panthers played from behind the entire game, and every time they created some momentum, another mishap cursed the unit to miserable returns. With four games to go, the Panthers still have plenty of room for embarrassment down the stretch.
Here is a look at how the Panthers graded out against the Saints:
Panthers’ rushing offense
Chuba Hubbard got off to an excellent start against New Orleans. Following up on last week’s 104-yard performance, Hubbard picked up 36 yards on his first nine carries, picking up three first downs in the process. Hubbard did a nice job on one-cut runs, making one man miss and putting his helmet down and powering forward. He was the anchor for the majority of the offense’s success early on.
The Panthers also got creative ahead of the snap with “pony” personnel, using speed backs, Miles Sanders and Raheem Blackshear, in concert to create some deception in the backfield. Pony personnel is used with two backs to create mismatches against the defense without spreading the field with receivers. The plays had limited success, but showed a desire to switch things up and break tendencies.
The Panthers finished the first half with 106 rushing yards, with 32 coming from Young on scrambles.
Sanders exploded for a 48-yard run to set up the Panthers’ second score of the afternoon. The former Philadelphia Eagles running back juked and cut through several defenders on his way to the 1-yard line in the middle of the third quarter. Unfortunately for Carolina, the Panthers couldn’t capitalize with a touchdown. Instead, they settled for a 29-yard field goal.
Sanders continued to show signs of speed on the ground in the fourth quarter. He picked up six yards on a run and nearly broke away, but a 15-yard personal foul penalty on the Saints for tripping allowed him to make up for the shorter carry. Sanders then picked up nine yards on the next two carries. Sanders then ran a toss to the mark for a third-down conversion.
Hubbard finished with 87 rushing yards on 23 carries, while Sanders contributed 74 rushing yards on 10 carries. The entire offense gained 193 rushing yards on the ground.
Grade: B+.
Panthers’ passing offense
The Panthers were aggressive as a passing offense early on. While Young wasn’t able to connect with wideout Jonathan Mingo and tight end Stephen Sullivan on downfield strikes on the opening drive, the Panthers continued to let Young throw deep. He eventually connected with wideout DJ Chark for a 18-yard gain on the second drive.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, Young tried to throw the ball in a crowded pocket on the next play and had the ball deflected out of his hand. The ball spun in the air and was collected by linebacker Pete Werner. While the turnover was initially ruled an interception, it was later corrected and changed to a fumble and recovery by Werner. Luckily for Young, the defense responded with an immediate three-and-out.
Young and the pass game continued to struggle as receivers didn’t get open with consistency and the quarterback had a few misfires. He kept targeting wideouts downfield, but to no avail. Young missed Mingo twice down the field on bomb attempts at the end of the first half.
Young finished the first half with just 29 passing yards on a 20% completion percentage.
The passing game continued to struggle in the third quarter. Young failed to connect with his receivers consistently due to various miscues. The ineptitude of the pass attack forced the Panthers to settle for a field goal in the third quarter, despite having a first-and-goal opportunity from the 1-yard line.
Young was able to connect with wideout Adam Thielen on a 32-yard gain at the end of the third quarter to put the Panthers in scoring territory again. Mingo and tight end Tommy Tremble did an excellent job blocking for Young on the blindside, as the rookie quarterback launched the ball to Thielen, who broke wide open down the field. The Panthers weren’t able to take advantage because of a third-down sack in the red zone. That led to a missed 41-yard field goal.
Every time the Panthers seemed to be getting some momentum, the pass game would squander it. Young tried to connect with Blackshear on a quick shotgun pass on fourth-and-1 from the Saints’ 37-yard line. Blackshear slipped coming back to the ball, which was on target, the play failed without a catch. It led to another turnover on downs for the Carolina.
Young, while trailing by more than 20 points, was able to pad his numbers a bit with meaningless passing offense. He completed 13 of 36 passes (36.1%) for 137 yards in the game. The rookie was hit eight times and sacked four times. He hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in three weeks.
Thielen was Young’s top target, hauling in five catches for 74 yards off seven targets. Chark added 26 yards on two catches off four targets.
Grade: F.
Panthers’ rushing defense
After allowing 33 rushing yards on just five carries in the opening series, the Panthers defense continued to struggle against the run throughout the first half.
Jamaal Williams and Alvin Kamara ran down the front seven’s collect throat, picking up big chunk gains with consistently. In fact, Williams and Kamara were basically the only elements of success for the Saints’ offense in the first quarter, producing 63 rushing yards on just 10 combined carries. Kamara kicked off the second quarter with a 9-yard tote to the end zone for the game’s first touchdown.
Eventually, the defense settled down and limited the ground attack. With the Saints becoming one-dimensional on offense, the front seven was able to swarm against ball-carriers. The Saints finished with 97 rushing yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.
Grade: B-.
Panthers’ passing defense
Carolina limited Carr as a passer throughout the first half. While Carr stuck to mostly short throws, he was forced into an “intentional grounding” penalty in the first quarter due to pressure from the defense front. The Panthers hadn’t gotten a lot of pressure in their first 12 game, but Derrick Brown, Frankie Luvu, Yetur Gross-Matos and Brian Burns all got in Carr’s face early on Sunday.
Speaking of Brown, he made a massive play at the end of the second quarter, batting up a ball by Carr and picking it off for the turnover. The interception stopped the Saints’ first half momentum.
Carr was limited to just 41 passing yards and an interception on a 66.7% completion percentage. He was hit four times — without taking a sack — in the first half.
Carr continued to work with the short-pass strategy in the third quarter. However, his lone deep shot was broken up by cornerback Jaycee Horn on a 50-yard target to wideout Chris Olave. Horn caught up to the ball and knocked it out of the air to prevent a massive gain.
Carr eventually let the ball rip with an 8-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. He connected with former Wake Forest wideout A.T. Perry for a 43-yard gain. The completion more than doubled Carr’s passing yard numbers that preceded the big play. The play put the Saints at the Carolina 19-yard line late in the game. Carr then hit tight end Jimmy Graham on a 12-yard pass on third down. The Saints finished that drive with a 7-yard touchdown strike from Carr to Olave.
Carr completed 18 of 26 passes for 119 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Most of that yardage and the two touchdowns didn’t come until midway through the fourth quarter.
Grade: B.
Panthers’ special teams
Kicker Eddy Piñeiro put the Panthers on the board in the second quarter with a 47-yard field goal attempt. While the Panthers were playing in a dome, Saints kicker Blake Grupe missed a chip shot attempt earlier in the game. Piñeiro hit a 29-yard attempt in the third quarter as well. He missed a 41-yard attempt in the fourth quarter.
Punter Johnny Hekker had a punt knocked out of his hands by free rusher — ultimately ruled a forced fumble — in the second quarter. The Saints collected the ball and returned it for an 8-yard touchdown. It was Hekker’s third attempt of the game. The turnover-turned-touchdown put the Saints up, 14-3, late in the first half. Special teams standout Sam Franklin was then called for “unnecessary roughness” on the follow-up kickoff, which put the Panthers’ heels pointing toward their own end zone.
Grade: F.
Overall grade
If you didn’t watch the game and just looked at the final score, you’d think this was a complete team loss. It wasn’t.
For the second consecutive week, the defense did all it could to keep the Panthers in the game through three quarters and the unit eventually faltered when it became clear the offense just couldn’t do anything to close the gap. Adding to the odds against Carolina was a missed field goal and a lost fumble for a touchdown on special teams.
The Panthers deserve all the heat they get. This is the worst team in the league, and just like in the standings, it’s not very close with who is behind them.
Overall Grade: D.
This story was originally published December 10, 2023 at 4:16 PM.
