Six things we hated about the Carolina Panthers’ 32-27 loss to the Denver Broncos

The Carolina Panthers did a lot of ugly things on a gorgeous afternoon Sunday in Charlotte. Here are six things I hated in the Panthers’ 32-27 home loss to Denver:

Teddy Bridgewater taking sacks

This has been a problem all season — Carolina’s quarterback hates to throw the ball away.

Bridgewater almost has too much confidence in his legs. When his first couple of reads aren’t open, he holds-holds-holds the ball, trying to make something happen. But Bridgewater isn’t Cam Newton circa 2015, and too often he instead ends up with a huge loss. This is how Carolina’s two-minute drive at the end of the first half short-circuited, and this is partly why Carolina is 4-9.

To be fair, Bridgewater had a much better second half, when Carolina’s offense was far better and its defense was far worse. Still, in a game when the Panthers needed to score in the 30s, they couldn’t. And then, on Carolina’s final drive with plenty of time remaining, Bridgewater took another key sack on first down and couldn’t get it done in the clutch — again.

The Panthers now have seven one-score losses this season. Panthers coach Matt Rhule said after the game he still had confidence in Bridgewater.

Clock/game management

You can’t take a delay-of-game penalty on third-and-goal from the Denver 7 with 5:27 to go. You just can’t.

But the Panthers did, down 25-17, pushing themselves into third-and-goal from the Broncos’ 12. A short completion then meant Carolina could either go for a potentially tying TD on fourth-and-goal from the 8 or take a short field goal.

Later, on Carolina’s final drive, the Panthers hurried to get off a third-and-8 play just before the two-minute warning. “I did not want that play run,” Rhule said.

“I agree with coach,” Bridgewater said, adding that it was his decision to run the play because he thought the defense was “kind of milling around” and that he now regretted it.

Rhule said he would have preferred Carolina take the two-minute timeout to talk about the third-down play. Then on fourth down, Bridgewater threw about a 1-yard pass on fourth-and-8, on a ball Rhule said he expected to be thrown “past the sticks.”

Rasul Douglas and the deep balls

The Panthers’ most consistent cornerback this season, Douglas had a difficult game. He appeared to allow two long touchdown passes, both to KJ Hamler, and both because he got beaten deep (however, Rhule said on the second TD that the Panthers were in Cover-3 and Douglas should have had deep help). On the first Hamler TD, a 37-yarder, Douglas couldn’t seem to pick between press coverage and really deep coverage, and instead played about 5 yards off Hamler, didn’t touch him and stumbled to boot.

Costly penalties

On Denver’s first offensive TD drive, the Panthers had two terrible penalties — one that was justified, one that wasn’t. The Broncos never would have scored the go-ahead touchdown without them.

On the first, Carolina forced an incompletion by hurrying Denver quarterback Drew Lock on third-and-8. But Carolina defensive end Brian Burns ran into Lock and — although it appeared Burns tried to slow up — he landed on Lock on the follow-through of his rush. Rhule hated the call. I thought it was incorrect. But it was called roughing the passer.

Then, on second-and-goal from Carolina’s 4, linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr. mashed Denver’s Melvin Gordon for no gain. Then Carter stood over Gordon and flexed, though, and that’s a taunting call every time. The Panthers also should have started their final drive around midfield but ended up back at the 27 due to a holding penalty on Natrell Jamerson on Denver’s final punt.

Wasting Jeremy Chinn

The Panthers’ most exciting defensive player did it again, coming up the “A” gap for a sack of Lock that caused a fumble, which was recovered by teammate Efe Obada and returned 54 yards. That set up Carolina at the Denver 3, and Mike Davis quickly scored.

But Chinn, who should win Defensive Rookie of the Year if voters are paying attention, made this play in another losing effort. The same thing happened when Chinn scored two defensive TDs in 10 seconds against Minnesota. Carolina lost anyway.

Poor punt coverage

On Carolina’s first punt of the game, Joe Charlton boomed the ball 56 yards. Trenton Cannon, playing the gunner position, got there fast and looked like he would tackle Diontae Spencer almost as he caught the ball. But Cannon seemed to hesitate, perhaps worried about arriving too early and getting penalized as he did against Minnesota on another punt return. That’s all Spencer needed. He cut left, away from Cannon, found a seam and outran everybody for 83 yards and the game’s first score.

The Panthers have made a number of special-teams mistakes this season. The coverage on that play was one of the worst.

This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 4:08 PM.

Scott Fowler

The Charlotte Observer

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Columnist Scott Fowler has written for The Charlotte Observer since 1994 and has earned 26 APSE awards for his sportswriting. He hosted The Observer’s podcast “Carruth,” which Sports Illustrated once named “Podcast of the Year.” Fowler also conceived and hosted the online series and podcast “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” which featured 1-on-1 interviews with NC and SC sports icons and was turned into a book. He occasionally writes about non-sports subjects, such as the 5-part series “9/11/74,” which chronicled the forgotten plane crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 1974. Support my work with a digital subscription