Ikem Ekwonu says Panthers’ O-line shares blame in loss to Patriots. Is he right?
Nearly every Carolina Panthers player or coach you stumbled across after the team’s loss Sunday had something in common.
They knew who to blame for the loss to the Patriots.
Themselves.
Third-year quarterback Bryce Young said “it’s on me.” Cornerback Jaycee Horn wondered aloud what he could’ve done differently to have his team ready to play. Head coach Dave Canales admitted that when all three phases flop like they did in the 42-13 loss — from special teams to defense to offense — the loss falls squarely on him, that he’s the “common denominator” in a performance that was “not acceptable.”
Tell all this to Ikem Ekwonu, though, and the starting left tackle will understand but make something else clear: that much of the offense’s struggles stemmed from what he considered to be a poor showing from the offensive line.
“Obviously, I appreciate him doing that,” Ekwonu told The Charlotte Observer when informed of Canales’ self-accountability in particular. “But at the end of the day, it comes down to execution, Xs and Os with the guys you got on the field. And too much miscommunication today. Too much. Right position but wrong technique; right position, wrong something.
“I think that boils down to the guys who are on the field. We just gotta play better. We gotta play better together. We just gotta be a better team. Obviously the head coach gets a lot of (heat). But at the end of the day, you gotta produce with the guys you got on the field, and I feel like we didn’t get that done.”
Such accountability is commendable.
But the question lingers: Is it fair to say all that?
How the Panthers offensive line performed
The Panthers scored 13 points. Only six of those points came when the game was within a margin less than 30. Third-year quarterback Bryce Young didn’t make mistakes, but he also wasn’t remarkable enough to lift his team to competitiveness. Ekwonu suggested postgame that Young was hamstrung by the pockets and looks the offensive line afforded him. Is that right?
Young finished with only one sack for 11 yards, and that one was less a product of miscommunication and more of Patriots defensive lineman Milton Williams beating left guard Damien Lewis, who otherwise had a solid day. According to advanced stats from Pro Football Focus, Young had 2.80 seconds on average to throw on all dropbacks and 11 total pressures generated by the defense, the second-fewest of his season.
In the run game, the offensive line had a quietly decent day, carving pathways for Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle to rumble through. The Panthers notched 129 rushing yards against the Patriots Sunday; the other three games, the Patriots allowed just 64 rushing yards, 61 and 56.
This is what the stats say. And the game film bears such stats out: that the offensive line gave the Panthers a chance to move the ball, again and again. Still, Ekwonu said Sunday after the contest that there were issues along the unit that even the most dutiful observers couldn’t see.
“It was just too many times today, me speaking with the offensive line, we just were not on the same page together,” Ekwonu said. “I felt like that showed on the field. Too many miscommunications, too many missteps. Too many times, we just weren’t on the same page. And with the offensive line, five guys gotta be on the same page to get the ball moving. So I feel like we just take a lot of onus of the sluggishness of the offense.”
Do Panthers offensive line injuries impact things?
You may ask: Was the communication impacted by the rotation of offensive linemen?
Ekwonu admitted “that’s hard to say,” adding, “I don’t think too much, honestly.” Such a reality would be understandable, of course. The unit that was once considered the most stable — the one that returned nine players from 2024 — is now a bit shaky. Pro Bowl guard Robert Hunt is on injured reserve with a biceps injury. So is center Austin Corbett because of a strained MCL. And on Sunday, guard Chandler Zavala went down with a knee injury and didn’t return. Canales opted to go with practice-squad elevation Brandon Walton in the first half before rolling with Brady Christensen thereafter.
It was all fluid. And all difficult, no doubt. And again, a lot of shortcomings came to the fore Sunday. Young was far from perfect, and some of the playcalling was dubious, and Tetairoa McMillan should’ve caught that pass, and the Panthers were thin on receivers after some early injuries, and Drake Maye might actually be great one day, and ...
List all this to Ekwonu, and he’d probably opt for a simpler answer, something he could control.
“I could put a lot of that blame on the offensive line,” he continued. “Just not giving him enough time, not blocking things the right way, and stuff like that. But I think overall, Bryce played the best he could’ve played. I know he’s a competitor, so anytime the game’s not perfect, he’s going to be hard on himself.
“But like I said, I put a lot of that blame on the O-line today.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
