What Matt Rhule said about losing his kicker and what went wrong in Panthers’ loss

Panthers coach Matt Rhule said losing kicker Zane Gonzalez moments before kickoff abruptly altered their offensive game plan and contributed to Carolina’s 31-14 loss to Buffalo.

Gonzalez suffered a quad injury while warming up and was quickly ruled out. Without a place kicker, the Panthers were forced to go for it five times on fourth down and only converted one try.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t start off by thanking (Brandon) Zylstra for stepping up and kicking off and just kind of doing whatever he could to help the team after Zane’s injury in pregame.” Rhule said. “Obviously, it precluded us from kicking some field goals at times and keeping it a different game.”

The Panthers had a chance to grab an early 3-0 in the first quarter but couldn’t kick it and instead turned the ball over on downs on the Bills’ 24-yard line. Later, when trailing by 14, quarterback Cam Newton scored the Panthers’ lone first-half touchdown on a 4-yard rush. Carolina went for two and converted when DJ Moore made a spectacular one-handed catch in the end zone.

More problematic than the Panthers’ kicking situation was their undisciplined defensive play. Carolina extended multiple Bills’ drives by committing penalties. The most egregious came when defensive tackle Bravvion Roy was flagged for an unnecessary roughness call in the third quarter.

He came face-to-face with Bills quarterback Josh Allen after Yetur Gross-Matos shoved him out of bounds. The penalty gave Buffalo a fresh set of downs. Five plays later, Allen found receiver Gabriel Davis in the end zone, which pushed the score to 24-8.

“The disappointing thing for me is the undisciplined personal fouls. One lead to points at the end of the half in the two-minute offense,” Rhule said. “Then we have them stopped. Give them a first down. Quarterback scrambles and they get a touchdown. Really to me, 10 points come off undisciplined plays from our defensive line.”

Too often the Panthers beat themselves. Late in the first quarter, Newton threw an incomplete pass to receiver Robby Anderson on a fourth-and-1 read-option bubble screen. Matt Rhule called Newton’s decision to not hand the ball off to running back Chuba Hubbard a mistake.

“It’s a zone-read play and it should not be thrown,” Rhule said. “There is a bubble (tagged) on there in case a blitzer comes but we had that guy blocked. So that is just an error by the quarterback. That should be a handoff and first down. It was the right play call by Jeff (Nixon).”

Newton bounced back from his early mistake by putting together a solid rushing game. He carried it a team-high 15 times for 71 yards. But it was the Panthers’ inability to generate explosive passing plays that allowed Buffalo to sit on underneath routes and continuously blitz Newton.

The Panthers threw for just 156 yards. Newton completed 47 percent of his passes. Backup P.J. Walker did not play despite Rhule teasing a two-quarterback system all week.

“I think it was just a matter of we’re moving the ball well by running the quarterback,” Rhule said. “I think we had 151 yards rushing today. So I thought that was our best chance to move the football was to run the quarterback and continue the zone reads and some of those things.”

The Bills held throughout the game as only four of Carolina’s 11 possessions lasted eight plays or more. Down 10, the Panthers got the ball back with nine minutes remaining. The drive lasted nine plays before Carolina turned over on downs near midfield.

The Panthers (5-9) have no shot at the playoffs. They’ll spend the next three weeks trying to figure out who their best options are at quarterback and offensive line. Carolina has started three quarterbacks this season and 10 different offensive line combinations in 14 games.

After the game, Rhule did not commit to a starting quarterback. Sam Darnold returned to practice last week and could be a factor in these final few weeks.

“We’ve got to be a little bit better offensively to help the defense,” Rhule said. “But I think they’re at the end of a, it comes down to throwing the ball and creating some explosive plays.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2021 at 6:15 PM with the headline "What Matt Rhule said about losing his kicker and what went wrong in Panthers’ loss."

Ellis L. Williams

The Charlotte Observer

Hailing from Minnesota, Ellis L. Williams joined the Observer in October 2021 to cover the Carolina Panthers. Prior, he spent two years reporting on the Browns for Cleveland.com/the Plain Dealer. Having escaped cold winters, he’s thrilled to consume football, hoops, music and movies within the Queen City.