Another year, another week 1 loss for the Carolina Panthers. Fans were hopeful that things could get turned around for the Panthers in a year where they are coming off of a playoff berth and a very promising offense and defense. With a ton of money spent during the offseason, mostly on the defense, it is valid to have hope for this next season, and there is still reason for hope and optimism, but things are going to have to change after a 59-37 defeat at the hands of Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears.
I do want to start with the positives, as I feel there were many. First of all, the connection between Bryce Young and Jalen Coker was incredible. Coker looks faster, and still has the same great hands that he is known for. This allowed Coker to get open more often down the field and hopefully this continues throughout the season so Bryce has a consistent downfield option. Coker had a career day, getting 8 receptions for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns, one of those touchdowns being a 51 yard dime from Bryce Young. There is a real possibility that Jalen Coker becomes WR1b instead of WR2… He is that good. Bryce Young also played great, putting up 361 yards and 3 touchdowns as well as 1 rushing touchdown. This is the first time he has played well in week 1, a refreshing departure from the usual week 1 stinkers that we have become accustomed to. He did throw 1 pick where he didn’t set hit feet, resulting in a ball that was a tad behind his receiver, but this was right before halftime and didn’t affect the game overall. I know this is just one game, but his career EPA/dropback sits around -0.1, his EPA in this game was a +0.27. I have always been a Bryce believer, but I think he has absolutely cemented himself as deserving of a long term contract. Jonathan Brooks, while on limited snaps, made a difference. There still seems to be some growing pains with him, evidenced by him running a wheel route when Bryce expected a comeback, resulting in an incompletion. But his impact in the pass game and a change of pace back was noticeable. He only had one catch, but that catch went for 48 yards on a beautiful throw to Brooks who was streaking down the field. With more playing time, hopefully that kind of play becomes more regular for the Panthers offense. Putting up 37 points, it’s hard to put any blame on them, but there certainly were some miscues.
Xavier Legette was… forgettable. He only had 2 targets, which he completely dropped one of them trying to do the body catch that fans groan at. His other target also ended in an incompletion. Tetairoa McMillan, while have 5 receptions for 75 yards, had one big mistake where he caught a pass over the middle and then fumbled the ball away while getting taken to the ground. This killed any kind of momentum the Panthers thought they had and cemented their loss. T-Mac needs to be more dominant and really show his physicality, which I felt he lacked a bit in week 1. I do believe that the offensive line played okay. There wasn’t too much pressure, but the Bears defensive line is nothing incredible, so we will see if they continue to hold up against better defenses, with a focus on the tackles (Walker, Freeling).
Now for the defense. With 59 points given up and over 500 yards of offense for the Bears, there really aren’t too many positives to take away from this game. Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson continue to blanket receivers, as the Bears refused to throw at them all game. The linebacker play as a whole looked better than last year with the additions of Devin Lloyd and Bobby Okereke.
The issues were plenty. There was a lot of undisciplined football, with Derrick Brown getting two separate crushing penalties. One a roughing the passer call where it would have been 3rd and 20, and it ended in a Bears touchdown. He also had an offsides penalty called that negated a big man interception from Bobby Brown at the goal line. Which, guess what, resulted in a Bears touchdown. Like Dave Canales said, the Bears have a good enough offense, they don’t need to get more opportunities. Will Lee III was also getting exposed all day. While he did have the fumble recovery at the beginning of the game (right place, right time), he allowed 5 receptions for 95 yards and got mossed by Rome Odunze after blowing a coverage. Lee was good in man, what he was known for at Texas A&M, but he needs to adapt to the zone heavy scheme that Evero runs, or he might be looking at less snaps. Another player that had a rough day was Princely Umanmielan. While he did have a sack, he played extremely undisciplined football. He struggled to keep contain, on multiple plays he thought he had a free shot at a sack, resulting in Caleb Williams rolling out of the pocket and getting large gains on the ground. He also struggled in the run game, struggling to fill holes and negate the lanes that got opened by the Bears o-line. The Panthers defense is going to sorely miss Nic Scourton this season, and I can’t wait for Pat Jones to come back from injury so we can get more experience opposite of Jaelen Phillips.
The special teams also looked out of sorts. Jimmy Horn Jr muffed a punt that he should not have even attempted to catch, there were consistent good returns by the Bears, and there were multiple punts that were not up to par. One of the biggest things that the Panthers are lacking is a punt returner. I do not feel comfortable with Jimmy Horn returning punts, and Trevor Etienne is on IR, who returned kicks last year. If there is another week of poor return play, I would argue to bring up David Moore to the 53 man roster to return punts, as he has experience with this and is a veteran.
A loss like this never feels good. It is only week 1 though, and there should be no cause to panic. Looking ahead, the Panthers are going into Atlanta week 2 and then facing the Browns in week 3, both games that I believe the Panthers should win. The defense is not going to give up 59 points every week, and they will not face a psycho coach like Ben Johnson every week (see his quote about what he expects from his offense). If this offense can play consistently great every week, this team will win a lot of games and most likely be division winners for the second year in a row. The defense needs to be better, but even if the defense is average like last year, this is a playoff team. I am very happy my mental health is on the shoulders of a historically bad franchise, heres to another NFL season!
