Who shined brightest for the Carolina Panthers under the Monday night lights? We have a few of those, as well as some who . . . um . . . didn’t.
Here are the studs and duds from the 20-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints:
Stud: WR Adam Thielen
Carolina’s passing game was anemic for the second straight outing. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
Let’s just start by giving some flowers to 33-year-old Adam Thielen, who led all Panthers pass catchers with 54 yards and a touchdown off seven grabs. He also reeled in the successful two-point conversion following the team’s lone visit to the end zone.
Dud: Every other Panthers WR
Wideouts not named Adam Thielen combined for 41 yards on four receptions. If you want a breakdown with each receiver . . .
- Jonathan Mingo: three catches, 26 yards
- DJ Chark: one catch, 15 yards
- Terrace Marshall Jr.: Zilch
- Laviska Shenault Jr.: Nada
Once again, it’s clear—given the amount of times quarterback Bryce Young was seemingly left hanging—that his wide receivers are having a tough time gaining separation.
Stud: K Eddy Piñeiro
Hey, somebody had to do most of the scoring.
Piñeiro accounted for nine of the 17 points on the night—booting through field goals of 52 yards, 54 yards and 36 yards. With those makes, “Steady Eddy” has now made 23 straight 3-pointers.
Dud: QB Bryce Young
It’s hard to really get on Young for this one, especially with the “help” that he’s been given. Plus, his performance will probably look a lot better on the All-22 tape than it did in the box score.
But that box score gave us just 153 yards, one touchdown and a lost fumble—and that doesn’t look good through any set of eyes. The growing pains continued for the rookie on Monday night.
Stud: LB Frankie Luvu
Luvu was not Luvu-like last week, missing four tackles in the Week 1 loss to Atlanta. But he bounced back in a big way against New Orleans, recording a game-high nine tackles and 2.0 sacks.
We’ll also dish out some props to safety Xavier Woods, who laid the wood with eight tackles of his own.
Dud: HC Frank Reich
As much as Reich didn’t want to admit it after the game, his play-calling left a bit to be desired.
Sure, his receivers probably didn’t have the best outings of their careers and his offensive line was starting two inexperienced hog mollies within its interior. That, however, isn’t an excuse for the amount of time it seemingly took for the plays to get in and the lack of downfield shots.
So far, the flavor of the month is vanilla.
