by Dennis Cox
Defense looked like the Panthers defense of last year: With 7:33 left to play in the 2nd quarter, Buffalo Bills running back James Cook rushed 64 yards for a touchdown, which put him at 146 yards on the ground already at that point. The Panthers on defense allowed a total of 131 rushing yards against the Dolphins, Cowboys, and Jets, teams with a combined record of 4-16-1. To the Panthers credit, the Cowboys have one of the top rushers in the NFL in Jevonte Williams, and De’Von Achane with the Dolphins is no slouch either, but the rush defense for the Panthers and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero looked like the 2024 Panthers, and the defense we witnessed at the beginning of the season.
During that three game stretch, the longest run allowed by the Panthers was eight yards. Cook had seven carries of 10-plus yards before the end of the third quarter.
Cook finished with a 19 carries for 216 yards and two touchdowns on an afternoon where he only had three carries go for less than four yards.
Dave Canales is too stubborn with alternating running backs: For the second straight week, Carolina Panthers head coach started Chuba Hubbard at running back over Rico Dowdle, and stuck with the same plan of switching his running backs ever other drive. It’s simply not working. Rico Dowdle averaged 6.8 yards per carry on eight carries, including a 24-yard run in the first half. Chuba Hubbard finished with an average of just 2.8 yards per carry. Yes, Chuba Hubbard scored on a 3-yard run in the 4th quarter, but that was empty calories on an overall underwhelming day.
What’s also perplexing is the lack of feel Canales has for the game. In the third quarter, Andy Dalton was sacked on the first play of a drive where Rico Dowdle was on the field. Dalton fumbled the ball, resulting in a turnover, meaning Dowdle was out there for one play. On the next drive, it was Chuba Hubbard back out on the field. Neither running back can get any sort of momentum, and Canales has single-handedly cooled off a white hot Dowdle. That was the lone offensive play for Dowdle until less than five minutes to play in the game, where he had one carry in the final minutes of the game. As my Panthers Playbook co-host Chris Lea said – that’s irresponsible.
There’s no question Bryce Young was missed: There’s truly no saying if Bryce Young played the game would have been different, but Andy Dalton was brutal. Multiple turnovers, holding on to the ball too long in the pocket, and a lack of mobility plagued Dalton and the Panthers offense. Late in the first half with a chance to get points on the board, Dalton took an inexcusable sack in the red zone with no timeouts on the clock, resulting in a rushed field goal attempt by Ryan Fitzgerald that went wide (though it appeared the clock had hit zero). The loss isn’t 100% on Dalton (see notes about the Panthers defense above), but Dalton didn’t do anything to help. Have we seen Bryce Young turn the ball over multiple times in a game and put his team in a hole? Yes. We’ve seen it several times, including this season. But Young’s mobility and ability to improvise was missed, and the offense had no flow. Dave Canales did say post-game that Bryce Young was close to playing and made progress during the week, but wasn’t fully able to go.