Cat Scratch Reader
I gave strong consideration to just publishing a gif of Lucy pulling up the football today. I’m far from the only person who considered that in the Panthers sphere and I’m far from the only fan who feels like that today. Tyler Shough stepped up again, Jaycee Horn fell down again, and Bryce Young failed to make an impact again en route to another momentous loss for the Carolina Panthers.
This is going to be a short section today. The Panthers have lost a league-leading seven consecutive games in which they have been favored, stretching back to 2021. Today sucks, but yesterday isn’t a full picture of who the Carolina Panthers are right now. It is a reminder of what they are rebuilding from, not a condemnation of the rebuilding process they are still very much in.
The kid knows how to get open, he’s quick, and he’s a major contributor in the running game as a blocker. He’s everything you want to see as a wide receiver and should give future Panthers quarterbacks plenty to work with between himself and the recently absent Tetairoa McMillan.
The Panthers finally have both of their tailbacks running with burst and violence behind a relatively healthy offensive line. Dave Canales also seems to have finally sorted out a more effective rotation than “by series.” This is your only source of offensive hope against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who don’t have nearly as stout of a defense, somehow, as the Saints do.
A pre-snap penalty by Smith-Wade erased an early fourth quarter field goal by the Saints and, ultimately, lured them into a turnover on downs. This was going to be a hilarious sequence in a narrow victory right up until the Panthers only gained 11 yards and zero points in the rest of the game against the Saints’ 140 yards and ten points.
Still, this is a silly place and we do celebrate silly things. Everybody give a half-hearted huzzah.
It’s hard to pick favorites here, because boy, howdy, I didn’t like much of anything last night. So let’s pick only on the major things that led to the loss.
Canales has come a long way as a situational play caller since the start of the season, but this was another clear failure of both process, design, and roster. Not going for the field goal in a low scoring game was a mistake. A hand off up the middle was a mistake.
Let’s pretend to accept that a quarterback sneak was not viable with the Panthers quarterback and even further pretend that such a weakness was a contributing factor to the team’s loss, it is just plain stupid to run into the teeth of a bunched up defensive formation in a high leverage situation. If you...
