The Carolina Panthers left Lumen Field on Sunday with some bothered ears, some bruised egos and their third loss of the season.
Let’s examine the three biggest takeaways from their 37-27 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks:
They're alive!
So, it turns out the Panthers can chuck it a bit.
After mustering up all of 266 team passing yards between their first two games, the offense came to life with 334 on Sunday. Backup Andy Dalton headed the outburst, completing 34 of his 58 throws (a career-high) for 361 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Joining in on the box score party were the team’s top two wideouts—Adam Thielen and DJ Chark. Thielen went for 145 yards and a score while Chark reeled in four balls for 86 yards and a 47-yard visit to the end zone.
But, while encouraging, let’s keep this performance in context. Not only did those numbers come against a depleted (and not good) Seattle secondary, but it also came at the cost of their balance—as they rushed for only 44 yards on 14 carries. Plus, averaging 6.2 yards per passing attempt isn’t really ideal.
And, no, this production is not a total indictment on rookie Bryce Young—who sat out with an ankle injury. So let’s not go there just yet, folks.
The little things
After the loss, head coach Frank Reich, quarterback Andy Dalton and wide receiver Adam Thielen all stressed that the team is too good to be this bad. But you wouldn’t know it by all the little things they got wrong on Sunday.
Their circus of errors was headlined by their noise-induced eight false start penalties, with seven coming courtesy of a rattled offensive line. There were also a few plays that may have caused some fans to bang their heads against the nearest wall—including a drop by running back Miles Sanders in the third quarter that could’ve gone for a 37-yard touchdown reception and the 2-point conversion by Seattle in the fourth quarter where quarterback Geno Smith had what felt like an hour to run one side of the field and throw across his body for the completion from the other.
Quite frankly, the Panthers are very much what their record says they are.
Adding injury to injury
The Panthers already came in to Week 3 with a who’s who of injuries. To some extent or another, they’ll be without cornerback Jaycee Horn (hamstring), left guard Brady Christensen (biceps) and linebacker Shaq Thompson (fibula) for most of the season.
And unfortunately, the list stacked up. Reich confirmed the following injuries during his postgame presser:
- WR Jonathan Mingo (concussion)
- S Xavier Woods (hamstring)
- LB Frankie Luvu (hip pointer)
- CB CJ Henderson (ankle)
Reich did not specify on the details of each issue, so we don’t know the extent of any those setbacks to this point. But these latest developments are, obviously, not great considering the lack of depth up and down the depth chart.
