What exactly did I think they would do? I thought they and their winning record would get exposed and that they would get a royal thrashing by a far superior team. I thought that their rather weak lineup of games so far this season would be exposed for being mostly why they had any wins at all with the one exception being that game vs. Green Bay. I presumed they would get sacked like mad fumble a bunch, and basically look lost out there on the field.
And this is exactly what happened. With a final score of 40-9 I think it is also very easy to presume that had Buffalo not stepped off the gas in the 4th quarter that Buffalo could have won this game by substantially more than they did as well.
I'm not a Panthers hater, they are my favorite team. What I am is a realist and I recognize mediocrity when I see it. Was it nice to have a few wins to keep the home fans attending games? Sure. But I could tell that as soon as they started playing teams with actual talent that Carolina was going to falter.
I think Carolina realized this was the case as well because they didn't even bother fielding starting QB Bryce Young claiming some sort of BS injury. What was probably really going on there was recognizing that the Carolina offensive line was going to crumble like crazy and whoever was getting the snaps was going to get creamed. The Panthers don't want their prime investment getting sacked like crazy and that is also exactly what happened 7 times throughout the entirety of this game.
I can't help but feel a bit bad for Andy Dalton, he has been in the NFL since 2011 and once Cincinnatti let him go back in 2020, he had jumped to 4 different teams who basically treat him as a whipping boy, using him up until he has nothing left to give. I suppose the $4 million a year he gets in return probably helps to ease the pain a bit.
Dalton did OK on the passing side of things while completing 16 out of 24 passes. None of these resulted in touchdowns and the longest gain was 22 yards. Carolina did experience a bit of success with rushing this time around but again, none of it really resulted in good field position. On the single long run of 24 yards this was because Dalton (perhaps, I am not sure about this) read that the defense was preparing for a passing play and pitched it out to Dowdle for a 24 yard gain.
Stat-collectors who didn't watch the game might say "but Chuba Hubbard rushed for a TD!" .... yeah, he did. In the 4th quarter with 5 minutes left in the game when Buffalo was 37 points in the lead. How much effort do you really think they were putting into defense at that point?
This often happens in NFL games: When a team gets ahead by a certain amount they remove their best players and just "rest" the team. They are not going to risk injury to what is bound to be $100 million worth of annual salaries on the field when the chance of a loss is infinitesimally small. One could argue that Carolina was doing the same thing at this point because why struggle to get points when it is basically mathematically impossible for you to pull off a win at that point?
I gotta hand it to Ryan Fitzgerald: Who is likely the hardest-working kicker in the NFL this season. He pulled off a 48-yard field goal because honestly, Carolina just can't get you closer to the end zone than that when playing against a team with a good defense.
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He's a much busier boy than most kickers
Now here's the thing about the next 3 weeks for the Panthers. They might actually win a few of their upcoming games but as far as next week is concerned, I am predicting an absolute blowout vs the Green Bay Packers. They are 5-1-1 on the season, and that 1 loss has come from the most unlikely of places, at the hands of the Carolina Panthers. They will be looking for revenge and to prove to the NFL that this particular fluke loss was exactly that... and they are going to do it in Carolina as well.
In the next couple of weeks following that though, Carolina has a pretty good chance of winning the next 2. The New Orleans Saints, believe it or not, might be one of the only teams in the NFL that are worse than Carolina and at this point in the season with a record of 1-7, their coaching staff may have already packed it in for the season and are actually trying to lose in order to get better draft positioning for next year. Next up is the Falcons who you may recall the Panthers blew out 30-0 in what can only be described as a game where Atlanta appeared to have a team that all had food poisoning. Will Atlanta be looking for revenge? Well, I think they are a better team and we will find out.
The rest of the season following that game though is going to be a real rough time for Carolina who may also have already packed it in realizing that they can't make the playoffs at that point. They have the 49ers, the Rams, the Seahawks, and the Buccaneers twice. Those, mark my words, will all be horrible losses.
A lot lies on the game vs. the Packers next week. If Carolina loses badly, and I suspect they are going to, the management in Charlotte might start looking at mock draft options rather than even attempting to salvage the rest of the season. This will be boring for the fans, but as far as the team's future is concerned, makes perfect sense.
I guess you could say that I am happy that the Panthers are not the worst team in the NFL this year, but they are close. I reckon they are better than only the Saints, the Jets, and the Dolphins and even then, it isn't by much.