Panthers vs 49ers: Offensive Preview

Just when the Carolina Panthers were down and out and it looked like Bryce Young’s career was on the ropes, Young and the Panthers went into Atlanta and put forth their best passing display of Young’s career and the entire franchise’s history. Young finished with a Panthers record 448 yards passing. Tetairoa McMillan accounted for 130 of those yards and scored two touchdowns. The pair swept the FedEx Air and Ground Players of the Week awards for their troubles.

That came on the back of an absolutely embarrassing showing against the New Orleans Saints the week prior. The Panthers were only able to put seven points on the board, and it required a questionable Saints penalty wiping out a turnover to even let that drive happen. And that came at home.

So trying to predict what the Panthers are going to look like based on the last two weeks is virtually impossible. Throw in the fact that the game is on Monday Night Football, a setting that we haven’t seen this team in since Week 2 of the 2023 season, and you’ve got a Pandora’s Box of possible outcomes.

On the other side of the field are the San Fransisco 49ers, who are much more familiar with the big stage of primetime games. They’re 7-4 but don’t look quite the same as the 49ers we’ve become accustomed to over the last six or seven years. Their offense has been extremely inefficient on the ground despite having a healthy Christian McCaffrey all season. They’ve made up for that with a passable passing game with a combination of Mac Jones and Brock Purdy throwing to a mangled receiving corps. It’s still been good enough to support an equally mangled defense that’s struggled all season.

The 49ers are 24th in defensive DVOA this season and are allowing 5.7 yards per play, which is 25th in the league. They’ve had moments but are generally struggling to hold teams at or below their averages for the season. They’ve given up over 400 yards of total offense in each of their last two games, but three Cardinals turnovers last week prevented the yardage from converting into points. It’s an exploitable defense with some of their stars out, so the Panthers have a chance to make some noise on Monday Night Football. Here’s how they can do that:

• Ride the momentum from last week and stay aggressive attacking downfield. Bryce Young was the most confident and assertive we’ve seen him since probably the last time he played the Falcons in Atlanta. I know there’s a lot of Internet discourse about the play calling not giving Young a chance to throw the ball, but that hasn’t necessarily been the case. Young has had downfield options on plays all year, but some sort of switch seemed to flip on Sunday where he was more willing to let it fly. Hopefully the universally positive outcomes he got from doing that will give him the confidence to keep doing that...