Teddy Bridgewater’s fumble at goal line symbolizes a Panthers season of almosts
If you had to choose one play to symbolize 2020 for the Panthers, there would be a long list of possible nominees.
But if I had to pick one, it came Saturday night in Carolina’s 24-16 loss to Green Bay, when quarterback Teddy Bridgewater tried to leap over the line of scrimmage on first-and-goal at the Packers 1.
The quarterback instead had the ball batted away as he thrust it forward on an awkward jump in which he attempted to break the plane of the goal line. A Green Bay cornerback returned Bridgewater’s fumble 48 yards.
And although the play only occurred midway through the second quarter and the Panthers defense tried to keep it close, it was that play that largely ruined the night for Carolina.
When you are playing a team as good as Green Bay, you absolutely have to score a TD every time when you have first-and-goal from the 1. The fumble “obviously was a killer,” as Carolina coach Matt Rhule said.
The fact that there would be so many potential nominees for a season-long symbol of futility — you could find several in just the Minnesota game, when Jeremy Chinn scored two TDs in 10 seconds and Carolina still lost — speaks to the Panthers’ 4-10 record.
Bad teams do things like this, all the time. But the fumble was so “emblematic,” to use Rhule’s word, that it is worth exploring in more depth.
It wasn’t a good play call to begin with, as this seemed to be another case of offensive coordinator Joe Brady trying to get too cute after the Panthers had just successfully pounded the ball downfield with their running backs.
And Brady will get too cute. Remember Week 1, when Brady called for a handoff to fullback Alex Armah instead of Christian McCaffrey on fourth-and-1 on the game’s critical play? That didn’t work either.
But at worst, this play call should have been harmless, netting no gain or a 1-yard loss. Bridgewater just needed to dive low, and maybe find a gap to shimmy into if he could. If not, he could have gone to second down and tried something else.
Instead, he tried to improvise.
“I heard the guys from the other team calling out the sneak,” Bridgewater said. “So I thought they were going to go low. So I was going to try to go over the top. But of all the times that I’ve run the sneak, I’ve always just followed the wedge. And I can’t get to that moment and do anything different.”
Said Rhule, who would add later he picked up this philosophy from Joe Paterno when Rhule played under Paterno at Penn State: “We don’t reach the ball across the goal line until fourth down. You know, it’s just kind of a principle. We don’t do it. You know, we never do it.”
Bridgewater said repeatedly in his postgame interview session that he made a mistake in the heat of the moment.
Said Bridgewater: “I guarantee if I ever have to run a quarterback sneak again for the rest of my career, I’ll probably make sure I never reach the ball over the top. Unless it’s fourth down.”
It’s not as if leaping over the top is a cardinal sin in the NFL. Cam Newton did it all the time in Carolina. He also reached the ball out toward the goal line on any down, at any time, no matter how many defenders were around.
But Newton is also the best short-yardage rushing QB in NFL history, so Ron Rivera was fine with it. New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees is also a master of the leap over the top, which he often does at a fast tempo before the defense is thoroughly set. (Rhule pointed out Brees scored on a leap over the top against the Panthers this season but almost had the ball batted out himself).
The way Brees often does it was exactly the way the Panthers tried to do it Saturday — fast tempo, no substitutions and over the top. And there went the ball the other way. It was the football equivalent of a chase-down block against the backboard that sets up a dunk at the other end. It’s deflating in about 20 different ways.
After that play, the Panthers actually played well. They got down 21-3, came back to 24-16 thanks to some inspired defensive play (five sacks of Aaron Rodgers!) and some unorthodox late-game clock management by Rhule that worked out perfectly. Carolina got the ball back one more time at the end of the game with a chance to tie.
But then, Carolina’s badness struck again. Carolina nearly blocked the Green Bay punt, but instead got a holding penalty on the return.
Then, on the first play from his own 20, needing to go 80 yards in 55 seconds, Bridgewater was immediately set upon by the Packers’ pass rush. He intentionally grounded the ball, and that was that. The score ended up 24-16, which was also exactly the same score Carolina lost by in Green Bay 13 months ago in a snowstorm.
Bridgewater is now 0-for-8 this season in two-minute situations where Carolina needs points to tie or win the game. But people won’t remember the anti-climactic end of this game.
What they will remember is the fumble, when the Panthers and Bridgewater tried to soar high, like they have tried to so often in 2020, only to get the stuffing knocked out of them once again.
This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 6:30 AM.
