The Panthers should have won that game — twice. But Bryce Young’s progress is remarkable
There has been a seismic shift in the Carolina Panthers over the past two weeks, one that is undetectable if you only look at the win-loss column.
In that sense, the Panthers have simply lost two straight heartbreakers, beaten by two walk-off field goals. The latest was a 26-23 home overtime loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday evening — a contest the Panthers really should have won twice but managed to lose instead.
But in another sense, something has happened regarding Bryce Young and the players around him. Something good.
For much of his young career, the Panthers have used a lot of muscle and a lot of brainpower trying to help Young. To put him in situations that aren’t too difficult. To ask him to not commit any turnovers and manage games wisely.
Now the Panthers are actually trusting Young. Asking him to win games, not just manage them. Doing things with him that would seem almost unfathomable when he got benched after only two games this season and got his job back only after a car accident sidelined Andy Dalton. Rather than the team trying to pull Young along for the ride, Young has now turned into the engine on this balky car, trying to get it to the finish line each week. His progress from the beginning of the 2024 season to now has been remarkable, even though his win-loss record (4-19 over his career) still doesn’t show it.
For the most part, Young had another terrific game Sunday. For the second consecutive week, he led Carolina on a had-to-have-it touchdown drive in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. He threw for a season-high 298 yards, completing 26 of 46 passes and scoring both on a superb 10-yard scramble and a beauty of a 25-yard step-up throw to Adam Thielen that put Carolina ahead 23-20 with 30 seconds to go in regulation. He didn’t turn the ball over at all.
For once, Carolina coach Dave Canales wasn’t even asked in his postgame press conference if Young would be the starter next week. It’s obvious that he will be, and that he should be for the rest of the season too, barring an injury.
Now that doesn’t mean Young was perfect. Young should have tried to dive on that Chuba Hubbard fumble in overtime, even though I seriously doubt he would have recovered it. Still, an unsuccessful dive there is the sort of fearless play that wins you more credibility in the locker room and around the league.
Young didn’t really address that lack of a dive after the game, saying it was “just a reaction” not to try to jump on the ball as Tampa Bay recovered the fumble that turned out to be the key play of the game.
That reaction — or rather, the lack of a reaction — undoubtedly gave some Panthers fans a bad flashback to Cam Newton’s decision not to leap on his own fumble in Super Bowl 50.
But let’s not overreact. This fumble was Hubbard’s fault, after all (an irony since Hubbard has been one of the Panthers’ best players all year). Young had worked the Panthers down into field-goal range in overtime, which was his primary job.
And in regulation, Young had marched the Panthers to the go-ahead touchdown, just like he needed to. Carolina should have won the game there, in fact. But the Panthers’ defense played way too soft in the last 30 seconds and Tampa Bay, led by former Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield and wide receiver Mike Evans, quickly got into field-goal range for Chase McLaughlin, who hit a 51-yarder to force OT.
Then, after McLaughlin missed a 55-yard field goal for Tampa Bay (6-6) on the first possession of overtime, Young got the Panthers moving again, only for the team to falter due to Hubbard’s fumble at the Buccaneers’ 30. Tampa Bay quickly capitalized, driving for the winning field goal.
And so the Panthers are 3-9, in last place in the NFC South as usual, and they are 3-9 because they don’t know how to finish games yet. They’re getting closer. But they’re not there, and Sunday was another indication. As well as Young played, he still needs to get the team into the end zone more and get out of the unsettling habit of settling for field goals.
Said Young of why the Panthers lost: “Just finding ways to finish. ... We all have to look in the mirror and see what it is. I mean, we know we’re there. But there aren’t any moral victories. It’s a win or a loss and we didn’t get it done. So I think we all just have a bitter feeling, and we’ve got to get back to it tomorrow and learn from it.”
This was a game that contained multitudes.
There was Adam Thielen’s catch-or-no-catch — ruled a no-catch after a replay review, much to the Panthers’ displeasure — and then Thielen’s amazing left-handed catch in OT. There was the Panthers’ defense intercepting Mayfield twice but then getting shredded for 236 rushing yards. There was rookie running back Jonathon Brooks getting nine touches and looking promising. There were all sorts of weird special-teams plays — several shanked punts, two missed field goals by Carolina’s Eddy Piñeiro (breaking his streak of 41 field goals in a row at home) and the miss by McLaughlin in overtime. There was Carolina special teamer Sam Franklin having to be pulled away from the Bucs locker room after the game in what could have been a dangerous situation.
All of that was the undercard, though, compared to Young and his progress.
The Panthers so badly need their No. 1 overall pick to work out. For the second consecutive week, in a loss, it looked like it might.
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
