Film Study: What went WRONG for Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers Vs the San Francisco 49ers

Film Study: What went WRONG for Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers Vs the San Francisco 49ers

All right, let’s talk Bryce Young in the Carolina Panthers. Ultimately a disappointing game for the Panthers offense coming up, you know, into a very big game, an opportunity to really show that they are the real deal. Uh and, you know, already six and five. They, you know, they still six, but this was a a tough loss for them as as even with three interceptions by party, they weren’t ultimately able to get this victory. Let’s talk about what went wrong here for the Panthers. A little bit of what went right, but mostly what went wrong here for them. Let’s start off with this play for the Carolina Panthers. So, you see right here, I mean, this was a bad one. An an important play really. Uh, you know, early on in this game, down seven points. They get the ball to first down and goal at the one and a half yardd line. So, like I mean, you’re thinking seven points. You’re thinking you have four tries to try and get the ball into the end zone right here. They’re going to run a play action though, which is, you know, you could argue, do you just run the ball in a situation like this? I that’s probably what I would do. But again, uh when you think that it’s an obvious time to run the ball, well, sometimes that’s when play action can be most effective. So, I I do understand the logic. Bryce Young’s going to take the snap. And this, at least as of right now, is working. Mitchell Evans, tight end number 84 right there, is is open. Although, there’s a lot of traffic. If you’re going to make this throw, you got to get it up and you got to get it there quickly. Really, for Bryce Young, um he’s going to do neither of those things. Watch you waits too long, puts way too much air under it. Just not a good play from Bryce Young, especially when he probably could have ran and got the first down, I think. And for, you know, a team that has struggled passing the ball down the field, you just can’t have those mistakes. You you just you just can’t. And again, some of the issues offensively passing down the field, and we’ll talk about the good plays that happened, too. But some of the issues uh that, you know, happened passing weren’t just Bryce Young’s fault. Obviously, the quarterback’s going to get all to blame, but for one thing, you had a play like this, which was a a third down and two situation. Um, so you’re looking towards uh T McMillan who, you know, it makes sense one-on-one matchup on the outside. He’s a guy who tends to win one-on-one matchups, so it’s why you spent the eighth overall pick on him. Young’s going to take the snap. He looks the safety off, but he was going towards McMillan all the way there. And you can see why. I mean, this is wide open. Great opportunity to move the sticks. Instead, this is dropped, which, you know, uh, McMillan has done a couple times this year. Again, you you you live with it with the, uh, good aspects, and he’s made some tough catches, too. So hey, everyone has their drop passes, right? Unfortunate though in a key spot, especially one, you know, the interception was immediately after a Brock party interception. This drop was after another Brock Perie interception. So getting some real opportunities, not being able to make the most of them in these spots. Heading over here, this is another one where this one’s a little bit different, but again, you have McMillan in a one-on-one matchup. You see the route on the screen. So, you know, again, this is what what Bryce Young’s going to look towards right here on a third and seven out of around midfield. Young takes the snap and it’s just again it’s good defense. I mean there isn’t a lot open right here for Young. I mean could you argue? Do you want to wait and see if it gets open and then throw? Honestly, no. You want to throw that with anticipation. You want to trust that it’s going to, you know, trust your guy in that situation. If you decide to wait, by the time it gets open, it’ll be too late to throw it. You kind of have to throw it now. Young decided to give it a chance and it just didn’t didn’t fully work out there. So, yeah. I mean, it’s it’s uh you know, you get why Young wants to make that make that play, why he wants to take that chance. Ultimately, though, again, the team has to help Young out. It can’t just be himself. This play, another example where it’s going to be a a first down and goal in this spot. So, you know, at the 10 yard line, a little bit tough here, but you want to at least gain some yards. Young takes the snap. And I mean, like, what is he supposed to do here? There is nothing. You know, those are the four eligible receivers on the screen. Who do you want to throw to? Well, for Young, he’s going to decide to just try try and see if he can, you know, bide some more time. Hopefully, something gets open or maybe he can run. But when he does that, nothing’s open and uh the 49ers are aware of a potential run. Um, you know, not there’s not there’s not nothing there. I mean, what are you supposed to do for Bryce Young? So, again, it’s a whole team issue. Guys have to get open. People can say, “Well, do you want Canales to scheme stuff up?” I don’t know what you do. I mean, these are these are I mean, this is a not a bad play to run here. the 49ers are just all over it. I think they still it’s it’s an issue they’re going to have to work on this offseason, I think, is to attack attack the wide receiver position heading over to this play. They did attack the wide receiver position this most recent offseason with their eighth overall pick and and it really worked out. Um you see right here Ted McMillan running a deep shot against quarters coverage right here. Second down and 10. They need a play, right? They just they need something offensively. They’ve gotten some like checkdowns that have worked, but that’s really kind of been it up until this point. But McMillan runs this route which turns into a one-on-one matchup. Bryce Young throws it and look at how open that gets. Nice well-ran route by McMillan. They’re able to get the touchdown when they’re down 14 to bring it up to a one-sore game. I was interested to see if they were going to go for two or not go for two cuz there is enough time left. You know, if if it’s later in the game, you absolutely go for two when uh you’re down eight. In this situation, they went to kick the extra point, but then ultimately there was a penalty which meant that they got uh you know dropped uh they got brought out to the one yard line. Then it said, “Well, let’s just go for two then.” This was the play. It’s a uh you know, man coverage concept. You have uh McMillan who’s running more of a setup route on this play and you know, spoiler, but I think he actually you could you could argue he uh interfered on this play. It goes uncalled. Um, but you see his job is to kind of try and clear out the area for a receiver to uh, you know, to get open. Young takes the snap. He looks in that direction. So, it’s not like this is, you know, something where like, you know, he this can work, right? Uh, when I was watching this live, I said, “Oh, he’s got him.” Cuz like it looks like it’s going to work. I mean, again, you can’t guarantee it, but these are the windows that you get at the one yard line. Young decides to look elsewhere. And honestly, had a bit of a window there, too. just that would have been a tough play though and the throw was just a bit high. Ultimately though, don’t don’t love that throw and don’t love that decision from Bryce Young more than anything. I would have liked to see him just run the play as designed, hit your first read. I think it was open enough. Also, don’t know if I love the play call by Dave Canales, who I think has done a lot of good things with this team, but I think it probably would have been the smarter idea in this situation to to hand the ball off given the run game versus the pass game so far. I don’t know. But then there were some that were Bryce Young’s fault. I mean, other than the first interception I talked about right here. I mean, so they kind of opened up the offense. We’re going with more of a passing attack. They had to, right? So, you’re in a situation where it’s a uh second down and eight right here. They’re in field goal range down 11 points. So, like again, is this team going to be able to if they get a field goal, you know, on the next drive get eight points? It seems unlikely, but still, you want to at least have that opportunity. Can’t turn the ball over. You see the uh you know the the coverage. This is a cover one blitz on this play. Bryce Young takes the snap and two things happen here. So first you’re going to see that the safety crashes down on McMillan which makes sense. McMillan’s a guy they’re often targeting right here. So eventually you go through the ball too many times. Uh he’s going to try and uh jump this. And also the defense is playing well for the deep shots anyway. So you know even if Young want to take advantage there really isn’t a way to take advantage. Although even in this situation, you see like you could with an accurate throw still make this completion work. The issue is you don’t get an accurate throw. Young misses it, it gets picked off and that’s kind of ball game at that point. They did ultimately get back in field goal range for a long field goal and then miss it and that was a really ball game. So yeah, not great stuff there. Also this play you see that McMillan got wide open and just Young was late in getting the ball there and also put too much air under it. So just not a good performance from Bryce Young. And listen, it’s not all his fault. To put it all on him is unfair. But ultimately, I mean, for Carolina, they’re six and six now. They have some tough games down the stretch. They play Tampa Bay twice. They play Seattle. They play the Rams. If you want to try and be a playoff team, you know, you just lost the tiebreaker against San Francisco, who it is currently one of the wild card teams at this point. The division might be your only pathway. If you’re going to sweep Tampa Bay, which is probably the only way to get in, Young has to play better. It’s just that simple. I I think. But yeah, those are my thoughts. What are yours? Let me know in the comments below. Always love hearing from you.

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