Panthers’ Olsen rips own team as a ‘collective failure’ after 38-6 beatdown by Colts
The word “fail” is harsh. Pro athletes don’t like to use it. Too stark. Too black-and-white.
But in a remarkably brutal five-minute session with reporters Sunday following Carolina’s 38-6 loss to Indianapolis, Panthers tight end Greg Olsen used some variation of the word “fail” 14 times when describing the Carolina franchise and those who work for it.
In Olsen’s view, the Panthers’ failure in 2019 is systematic. Top to bottom. Utter and complete. And after watching Sunday’s monstrosity, it’s hard to disagree.
Here’s a sampling of Olsen’s quotes:
▪ “This is about as rock-bottom as it gets.”
▪ “So many times, guys want to come in here (to the locker room) and lie to everybody and give token cliché talks. That s--- is out the window. We have failed. I failed. Every guy in this locker room has failed. Everyone associated with the product that is put on the field on a weekly and seasonal basis has failed.”
▪ “Right now, I’m not sure what our plan is, you know? … We want to win now, but we want to build for the future. It’s a really tough way to operate. Players are under-performing. ... It’s a very collective failure organizationally … Our fans deserve better. A lot of guys in this locker room deserve better. Coaches that have been around here deserve better.”
▪ “In 13 years, I’ve never been a part of what these last weeks have been like. It’s just s---. We took a lot of pride in building this thing the right way. … And we failed. We’ve failed collectively. And that’s a tough pill to swallow if you’re riding this thing out.”
Olsen didn’t point fingers at any particular player, nor directly at general manager Marty Hurney, interim head coach Perry Fewell or owner David Tepper. But the 13-year tight end was obviously furious after Carolina (5-10) lost its seventh straight game, in a way that was far different from your run-of-the-mill losing locker-room quotes.
It made you wonder about Olsen’s future at Carolina — he’s got one year left on his contract, but he’s also the team’s oldest player. He also was one of those most upset by the firing of head coach Ron Rivera. He’ll play somewhere in 2020, I think, but will it be in Charlotte?
This game was best symbolized by Panthers defensive tackle Vernon Butler, who not only got ejected from the game and flipped a middle finger at Colts’ fans on his walk off the field, but he didn’t even punch the right guy. Butler had meant to hit No. 64, not No. 84.
“I apologize,” Butler said later, but by then it was too late to salvage anything from a sordid afternoon.
Tepper has to be angry
Tepper came to Indianapolis and saw the debacle firsthand. His emotions were a whole lot different than they had been five days ago in Charlotte, when Tepper did an Elvis Presley imitation during a celebratory news conference once Charlotte got awarded Major League Soccer’s 30th franchise.
That soccer team hasn’t lost yet, and it will be in a honeymoon period until 2021. The Panthers, though? They have turned from bad to worse to truly awful, and I would imagine Tepper is just as mad as Olsen is. This is the second year in a row where the Panthers have lost seven games in a row in the second half of the season. It’s gotten to where Sundays in November and December are something to dread.
Somehow, long ago, the Panthers won five games this season. That’s mostly hard to imagine.
The only time it isn’t hard to imagine is when Christian McCaffrey has the ball in his hands. McCaffrey once again was a rare bright spot for the Panthers on Sunday. He caught an extraordinary 15 passes — the most any Carolina player has caught in any single game.
And yet that stat is damning in itself — the Panthers have to get their receivers more involved. They didn’t score a single touchdown Sunday in part because not a single Carolina receiver even got to 20 yards receiving (DJ Moore went out in the first quarter with a concussion, and Curtis Samuel has just never had the big year everyone predicted for him during training camp).
Are they wearing out McCaffrey?
Said Panthers safety Tre Boston of McCaffrey: “What he’s doing is spectacular. ... Christian is a highlight of what’s going on, because if we didn’t have him? I can only imagine.”
But, Boston continued, throwing it into the flat and telling McCaffrey to make something happen isn’t a great long-term strategy.
“You want to know how the Patriots are good?” Boston said. “Because they look downfield, and if they don’t have it, they check it down to those running backs. It can’t be our first option — just break the huddle, go to Christian. It’s tough on him. That’s when you guys (reporters) get to wondering about longevity.”
These days, with the Panthers, you wonder about everything. Other than McCaffrey, linebackers Luke Kuechly and Shaq Thompson, Moore and a few others, no one is safe.
As Olsen said: “Right now, I’m not sure what our plan is.”
I’m not either. In the meantime, avert your eyes.
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 7:52 PM.
