Cat Scratch Reader
The Carolina Panthers were victims of their own mistakes and some questionable refereeing as they lost a pseudo playoff game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Bucs got the ball first and scored against little resistance. Bucky Irving ripped off a few nice runs before Baker Mayfield found holes in the Carolina defense both as a scrambler and a passer. He found a wide open Cade Otton up the seam to open the scoring just a few minutes into the game. The Panthers responded by gaining 15 yards on a Tampa Bay penalty then doing nothing before punting.
The second Bucs drive looked a lot like the first, though they met a little bit more resistance from the Carolina defense. A silly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Mike Jackson aided the drive, but it stalled out in the red zone and ended in a Chase McLaughlin field goal.
The first quarter ended with the Panthers in opposing territory after a Bryce Young completion to Brycen Tremayne.
Young threw a low ball to Tetairoa McMillan, who got his hands on the ball but couldn’t reel it in on third down. Sam Martin’s punt was downed on the five.
The defense continued to get progressively better. After a couple of shaky passes by Baker Mayfield, he didn’t see Christian Rozeboom shading underneath an in breaking route. He ran it back inside the 20. A couple plays later, Young found Tommy Tremble completely uncovered in the flat. He strolled in to the end zone to make the score 10-7.
Tre Tucker fumbled the ensuing kickoff after Maema Njongmeta got his hand on the football, but Tampa Bay was able to jump on it. The defense had a couple chances to get off the field on third downs early in the drive, but they couldn’t make tackles to get off the field. Some Buccaneers self sabotage eventually helped end the drive. Mayfield knocked over Tucker on a handoff then lost the ball trying to throw a pass to set up third and long that the Bucs simply ran a draw on.
The Panthers had one more chance to score before the half and moved the ball out around midfield by the two minute warning. On the second play after that, Young threw a ball late and behind McMillan and it was intercepted. The Buccaneers had time to put together a touchdown drive, but they called it very conservatively and played for a field goal from the start. The half ended with the Bucs up 13-7.
The Panthers took possession to start the second half and matriculated into Bucs’ territory. They picked up a 4th and short along the way with a strong run from Chuba Hubbard, and a long completion from Young to McMillan moved the Panthers into scoring range. There, they were victimized by a brutal officiating mistake. Young tried to check the ball down to Dowdle and clearly threw the ball backwards to get...
