Bryce Young and the Panthers simply make too many mistakes – Three plays. It literally only took until the third play of the game for Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young to try and make something happen on a pass play in the pocket scrambling, getting the ball knocked out of his hands, and the Arizona Cardinals jumping on the football for a touchdown. Three plays into the game and the Panthers were already in a 7-0 hole with their starting quarterback having committed his fourth turnover of the season. And then on the next drive, Bryce Young gets hit trying to make a throw while rolling out of the pocket leads to an interception, where the Cardinals go down and kick a field goal to make it 10-0. At that point, Bryce Young through 4 ½ quarters had committed five turnovers leading to 20 points for the opposing team. You can’t expect any team to overcome that. Which leads into my second takeaway…
The Panthers don’t do anything to help themselves – Carolina makes life difficult for themselves. Turnovers, poorly timed penalties, giving up big plays in key situations, lack of urgency to start games – but Dave Canales doesn’t have this Carolina Panthers team ready to play games. Canales and the coaching staff must wear that again, as do the players. As stated above, Bryce Young can’t turn the ball over twice to start the game. When trailing 13-3 with the Panthers in a two-minute drill, Bryce Young hits J’Tavion Sanders over the middle for a first-down, except after a review it showed that Sanders didn’t control the ball and the ball hits the ground. So instead of a first-down for the Panthers, they’re punting the ball. Panthers give up a long return, setting the Cardinals up with a short field, and they easily march down the field for a touchdown to make it 20-3 going into halftime. Then to start the second half, the Cardinals moved the ball downfield with ease to make it 27-3. So a drop, bad punt coverage, and soft defense in a matter of minutes turned a 10-point game into a 24-point game. Teams just don’t come back from that. Sure, we can look at how Carolina was able to move the ball some in the second half with Cardinals playing lax on defense, but it’s really window dressing in the grand scheme of things. Granted, the Panthers had a chance to win it late in the game after recovering an onsides kick, but the two-minute offense was abysmal where Bryce Young couldn’t complete a pass, despite being gifted multiple first downs due to penalties.
It's time to have a serious conversation about Xavier Legette – One catch for -2 yards on eight targets. Plus one carry on an end-around for zero yards. That’s it. Legette was complete non-factor in the game. Tetairoa McMillan is a stud. Six catches for 100 yards, including a long of 40 for the rookie out of Arizona. And he continues to make catches that are highlight level plays that don’t even count as catches because the ball is way out of bounds or a penalty was called to negate the play. We all see what McMillan can be, which means opposing teams see it, too. T-Mac is going to draw the attention of the defense with a safety over the top of him and likely drawing the opposing team’s No. 1 corner. Legette has to take advantage of his chances to show he can be a top-2 receiver. He looked like a No. 4 receiver in this game. Hunter Renfrow was good in the redzone with a pair of touchdowns. Brycen Tremayne was much more noticeable in the passing game getting open downfield than Legette. If we’re being honest, when Jalen Coker returns, he’s going to play over Legette if Legette doesn’t turn things around. Coker - undrafted in 2024, and Tremayne – undrafted in 2023, but look like they have a brighter future in Carolina than the No. 32 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Legette has four catches for eight yards on 15 targets this season. FOUR CATCHES FOR EIGHT YARDS. That brings his career total to 507. Which begs the question – did general manager Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales make the wrong choice?