The Carolina Panthers got crushed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was an ugly game and a reminder, perhaps, of how far this team still has to go. It's best to forget about this one, but before we do, here are the most important things to remember.
The offensive line is a disaster
The Panthers invested a ton up front on offense. They spent big on guards Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt. They signed Rasheed Walker and drafted Monroe Freeling. Yet, the offensive line is a mess. It's been bad all year.
Losing Taylor Moton for a second time is a huge blow because he's the only offensive linemen (with the exception of Damien Lewis) who seems capable of doing his job. It's a disaster, and the Panthers invested way too much for that to be the case.
Organizational failure
The Panthers lost this game from the top down. You can blame almost everyone for this loss. Dan Morgan refuses to address injury depth issues. Dave Canales hardly ever has this team prepared to play.
Ejiro Evero cannot adjust. Brad Idzik may be innocent, but the offense was pretty bad, too. Some of that is not on him, but he certainly did the team no favors. From the top down, the Panthers failed today.
This is not likely to happen again
Yes, this was an ugly one. It's one that's best to forget about as soon as they review the film this week. Just move on and try to put it behind you. What should help is that this is not really a repeatable thing. The Panthers had a perfect concoction of things going wrong that just won't happen again.
The run defense was horrible. The pass protection was bad. Bryce Young was off. The special teams was horrific. Will all of those things happen in the same game again? It's unlikely. Today was just a perfect storm of bad things.
The Panthers just aren't ready to make the leap
To Carolina's credit, last week was one of those games that allowed the Panthers to claim that they've "arrived." Winning winnable road games to get out to a good start is what good teams do. The Panthers did that, but that wasn't the final opportunity.
Division games matter a lot, even when one team is far behind the other. The Panthers had yet another chance to prove they've made the leap, and they just didn't look ready to do it. It's unfortunate in a very winnable division.
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