Panthers Analysis: Mistakes by Teddy Bridgewater, offense cost Carolina a loss vs. Bucs
The Panthers’ defense was expected to stumble.
Multiple rookies are seeing significant playing time each week, and with no preseason games, a slow start was almost a given — especially going against Tom Brady in the second game of the year.
But Sunday at the Buccaneers, it was Teddy Bridgewater and the Panthers’ offense, with all of their new weapons, that was unable to get anything going early, scoring zero points and coughing up three turnovers in the first half. The sluggish opening two quarters put the Panthers in a 21-point deficit that proved insurmountable despite the team making a late push to keep the game close.
A large part of that came from Bridgewater failing to find consistency, finishing with three three turnovers (two interceptions, one lost fumble) as the offensive line gave up five sacks en route to a 31-17 loss. The Panthers fell to 0-2 for a second consecutive season with a loss largely created by their own mistakes.
“Obviously disappointed in the result of today. Credit to Tampa, I thought they did a nice job of creating an early lead. I thought it was an ugly football game,” Carolina head coach Matt Rhule said. “Nine penalties, four giveaways and it’s (still) a one-score game in the fourth quarter. We have to have to find a way to overcome that and build off of the the competitive nature that we seem to have. But at the same time, we have got to become a better football team in terms of playing cleaner football.”
If that wasn’t enough, the face of the franchise and team’s leading scorer, running back Christian McCaffrey, suffered an ankle injury on his second touchdown of the day and did not return, missing the final three series.
Without him in the game, the offense was unable to take advantage after getting back within one score of Tampa Bay. This season, the Panthers have scored five touchdowns; McCaffrey has accounted for four of them.
Rhule had no update on the severity of the injury.
But it was mistakes that plagued the Panthers’ offense and led to the loss, not McCaffrey’s late absence. Sunday was the first time since 2015 that Bridgewater had more than one turnover in a game. It was also just the second time in his career that he turned the ball over three-plus times (three interceptions in a 2014 game). His giveaways resulted in 17 Buccaneers points.
“I take supreme pride in taking care of the football,” Bridgewater said. “To have three turnovers today, that’s not the way I play this game.”
The costly mistakes extended far past Bridgewater. The Panthers also had nine penalties that cost them 77 yards. Wide receiver Robby Anderson also lost a fumble. All of that, just one game after the Panthers kept things tight in a season-opening loss to the Raiders and did not have a single turnover.
The errors started on the first drive of the game. After picking up 49 yards quickly on the drive, Bridgewater overthrew McCaffrey on a screen pass, trying to get the ball over the outstretched arms of a pressuring Ndamukong Suh, into the lap of Buccaneers safety Jordan Whitehead. Bridgewater said the pass just got away from him.
Tampa Bay scored a touchdown on the following drive, aided by rookie defensive tackle Derrick Brown gifting the Buccaneers a first down at Carolina’s seven-yard line with a late hit penalty after a successful third-down stop. It was his first of two penalties on third downs that gave Tampa a first down. Bridgewater fumbled the ball two plays into the next drive, and Brady responded with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans on the next snap.
The Panthers also had a missed opportunity in the middle of the second quarter with a third-and-3 on the Buccaneers’ 37-yard line. Bridgewater handed the ball off to running back Mike Davis, who picked up one yard.
The team then elected to try a fake punt with a direct snap to safety Jeremy Chinn, but it was unsuccessful and the Panthers got no points off of a drive that was started by defensive tackle Woodrow Hamilton, brought up from the practice squad for the game, recovering a Brady fumble.
Bridgewater and the offense finally got moving in the third quarter, but by then an almost perfect second half would be needed to make a comeback.
The Panthers first got on the board following a Donte Jackson interception with a 45-yard drive that concluded with a one-yard McCaffrey touchdown. After the Carolina defense forced a quick punt, the offense went on the longest drive of the game by far, — 93 yards and scoring on fourth-and-2 with a seven-yard McCaffrey run — during which he suffered the ankle injury.
The Panthers, down one score, had a chance to get back in the game, but Bridgewater threw his second interception of the day on the following drive — a pass that was behind DJ Moore — ending any real chance the team had of coming back and another example of the offense beating itself.
The Buccaneers then kicked a field goal and took a 10-point lead, putting the game out of reach.
Carolina had a late onside kick attempt that failed and on the following play before running back Leonard Fournette went 46 yards untouched for a game-clinching touchdown.
Bridgewater played much better in the second half overall outside of the interception and finished with a stat-line that is incapable of communicating the impact of the uncharacteristic multiple mistakes by the quarterback. He finished the final two quarters going 22 of 27 for 278 yards with two sacks.
Throughout the game, the Buccaneers’ defense made Bridgewater uncomfortable, registering a total of seven quarterback hits.
“I thought Teddy was under duress too much of the day,” Rhule said. “We knew that they are a pressure-base defense. But too often they were getting their hands on him.”
On the other hand, the Panthers’ defense failed to register a sack for the second straight game and only had one quarterback hit. With the inability to get pressure and the offense continually putting itself out of the game, a comeback was never in the cards.
“You never want to lose any game, but what really hurts is the fact that you have a chance to come back and tie the game up and eventually win the game without those turnovers,” running back Mike Davis said. “I just think we just gotta clean up the turnovers and penalties and we can keep this thing rolling.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2020 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Panthers Analysis: Mistakes by Teddy Bridgewater, offense cost Carolina a loss vs. Bucs."
