Cat Scratch Reader
First Quarter
The Panthers got the ball first in front of a rocking Bank of America stadium. They started the game with an ineffective run up the middle. They were quickly faced with a 4th and 1. They tried to get Bryce Young in space on a rollout, but the Rams covered everything up and knocked away his pass to Tommy Tremble. All it took was three passes to Puka Nacua, and the Rams were up 7-0.
The Panthers quickly went 3 and out again. Young had Tetairoa McMillan open down the sideline on third down, but he badly overthrew it. Sam Martin downed the Rams beautifully inside the 10. Another catch and run by Nacua gave them some room, but the Panthers held up against three runs on the next three plays and forced a punt right back.
A blown up weird looking play action play backed the Panthers up near their own goal line. It looked like Young was about to take a safety, but he was able to offload a pass Tommy Tremble at the last moment. He followed that with a completion to Jalen Coker to pick up an unlikely first down. They picked up another pair of first downs on passes to Tremble and McMillan to get across midfield, but that was the end of the success for the time being. Young threw a ball into traffic that was closer to two Rams than it was to any Panther. It was deflected and intercepted. An unnecessary roughness penalty at the end of the play added insult to injury. A few nice runs and a lot more Puka, including some broken tackles on a bubble screen for a touchdown, made the score 14-0.
Second Quarter
The offense responded. Young found Coker on a scramble drill then hit McMillan with consecutive passes for good gains that took Carolina into the red zone. A pass interference in the end zone set the Panthers up on the one, where Chuba Hubbard was able to punch it in.
The defense gave the Rams some problems on the next drive, and it looked like the momentum may have swung to the home team. But Matthew Stafford found Tyler Higbee running wide open down the seam as Nick Scott stood with his feet planted to the turf. That put the Rams in field goal range, where the Carolina defense tightened up this time and forced a field goal after Mike Jackson was able to force Davante Adams to land out of bounds on what would have been a long completion.
The Panthers quickly went three and out after the field goal. Young tried and awkward little flip to Hubbard, who was trying to leak out of the backfield, but the back couldn’t pull it in. The ball fell to the ground with all kinds of open field in front of Hubbard.
The defense was able to force a 3 and out right back after Stafford overthrew Adams on third down, but the...
