What was the cause of the Carolina Panthers’ blowout loss to Buffalo?

What was the cause of the Carolina Panthers’ blowout loss to Buffalo?

Carolina Panthers lost to Buffalo by a bunch by a bunch. Enough that it was startling. Enough that it felt like it unraveled some of the the progress they had been making. They lost 40-9. And there will be, and there already is a temptation to just take all of that bad, all of that lack of production, all 31 points of that separation, and just throw it at the feet of Andy Dalton and say, “How could you?” And I get it. I get it. They missed Bryce Young something serious over the weekend. And I did not expect to be saying that. It’s not just that, but it is that, right? As Dave Canales says here, they they were beat, meaning Buffalo beat Carolina in every facet of the game. What they did in the run game today, unbelievable performance by them, uh by James Cook. Um he had a fantastic day and uh made some big runs, you know, they consistently owned the line of scrimmage and and made it challenging for us. We were not able to get our run game going today. Went to the pass game and that’s where the turnovers happened and um pretty clear story right there. We made it really hard on ourselves against a good team and uh you know made it a really challenging situation for us. So would love to see better execution in those things in those areas um and be able to move on from that. So here’s the deal everybody. A lot of what Dave Canales just described does fall on the feet of Andy Dalton. And everyone knows the quarterback is either the goat or the goat. You’re either the goat meaning greatest of all time or you’re the scapegoat. And Bryce Young has lived that roller coaster a bunch of times. So, it’s not being unfair to Andy Dalton to put him in the same judging. For as little as they have asked Bryce to do during this this winning streak, the Panthers really missed him. And I was wrong about Andy Dalton’s ability uh to do the basics to protect the football. Canales told the media that the uh the screen that was picked off, the the kind of crazy play where he threw it to a guy that wasn’t that far away from him, that was a audible at the line from Andy. Andy checked to that play. Uh which has opened up the conspiracy theories and who knows if they’re they’re true or not that Shaq Thompson, a linebacker who had spent a lot of time with the the Panthers, uh was aware of the check, knew what was going on and passed it along. Whatever the reason being, a screen that runs to to to crud is very easy to notice if you’re the quarterback. And what do you do? You see every quarterback do it. You throw it right at that running back’s feet. You throw it right at that receivers’s feet. You throw it right at that tight end’s feet. You throw it like nobody can catch it zone. And Andy Dalton has played long enough to to know. Yeah, you got to dirt that ball or you don’t check to it unless you’re 100% positive it’s going to work. Checking the play, especially checking the play, and I know he’s a veteran. He’s been around and he’s got confidence in his his football mind, but checking the play as a backup quarterback is something where you better better know the turnovers, the the fumble right out the gate, that’s the difference. Yeah, he he just didn’t look very sharp. And obviously there was a time where he was a a pretty good, you know, starting quarterback in the NFL. That time it’s it’s evident that time has kind of passed him by and uh he was even serviceable the last couple years whether he had to come in when uh Bryce Young was benched last year or two years ago he was injured. He had a a big passing day against the Seahawks early on uh in Bryce Young’s rookie season. Uh but I don’t know how much of that is is there anymore. Now, a lot of it could have to do with, you know, you’re playing a Buffalo team that has had a good defense and they’ve had a couple shortcomings this year and they probably wanted to get right and maybe some of it’s Russ from not having a ton of reps on the field and and backing up Bryce Young, but it was clear that he doesn’t have the mobility in the pocket or to kind of roll out like Bryce Young does. That’s much as going to be obvious from the get-go when you have a 24 year old, you know, starting quarterback who’s known kind of for having that mobility versus a an older guy who’s his late 30s, was never known to be any sort of dual threat. Uh, and but you wish he would have been a little more secure with the ball, made some better decisions, uh, and and held on to it. I mean, two fumbles, um, you know, that’s some of the stuff you’d see early on in Bryce Young’s career or or early on this year. Yeah, even kind of early on when he has what some people call like his statemandated turnovers early in the game and then he turns into just a perfect game manager the rest of the game and plays super clean. But Andy Dalton just didn’t seem ready. And I don’t know, maybe some of that has to do with the way they kind of left an air of mystery as to whether or not he’d actually start this week, even though it kind of seemed like he always was going to. I don’t know. But it’s it was disappointing for sure. Like you said, they haven’t asked that much out of Bryce over this win streak, so he shouldn’t have needed to do all that much and he just wasn’t up to the task. It’s you weren’t going to win that game unless the running game and defense led you. Andy Dalton should have been exceptionally aware of that and and known that if we punt, it’s a win for me right now on some of the some of the plays. Uh when he tucks it and runs, it has to be two hands on the ball. You’re not going to pick up a 40-yard gain. No offense, you’re Andy Daltton. You’re 37 years old. Uh if I were running, I wouldn’t be picking that up either. I’m not saying this to be mean. I’m saying this to be honest, right? You have to protect the football because you, if things went well, you weren’t going to be the one deciding the outcome. And I think Bryce has recognized that, particularly at times after a few early turnovers in a game. he recognizes, all right, I’m not going to be the guy that decides this game uh outside of a few, you know, fourth down completions or whatever. I need a third down completion here or there. That’s where I can make my impact felt. But, you know, the the the funny part is from a volume perspective, Andy Dalton pretty much had a Bryce Young game, right? I I went and looked it up. Uh Bryce Young’s career averages, 19 completions on 31 attempts for 178 yards, roughly one and a half touchdowns, one interception. That’s his that’s his career. Andy Dalton vers Buffalo, 16 of 24, 175 yards. Uh so six less passes, three less complet sorry, seven less passes, three less completions, three less yards, no touchdowns, and the one interception. Add in the fumble, but Bryce has a couple of those as well. It’s it’s volume-wise it is a Bryce Young game. The difference is you can win with that Bryce Young game if you have better situational awareness. And to me, that’s it’s such a small thing, but it’s the biggest thing when it comes to the games that Bryce Young has a chance to win and Bryce Young has a chance not to win or doesn’t have a chance to win. Did he have any situational awareness this game? If he did, they’ve been right in it this year and winning games. If he doesn’t, they haven’t. And Bre and and you would think Andy Dalton, he wouldn’t be as mobile. Maybe his arm isn’t as strong anymore. Maybe, right, the quick twitch muscles have faded a bit, but you would think the situational awareness would have been there. And that’s where I made the mistake in in everything I did talking about the game going in. So, they missed Bryce Young a ton. I think that says more about Andy Dalton than about Bryce Young, but they missed him a bunch and it was obvious from the jump. Now, having said all of that, they didn’t help Andy out. They didn’t help Andy out. Rico Dowel having eight carries and Juba Hubard having 12 is a crime. Here’s Rico’s first carries of the game for five yards, for five yards, for 24 yards. He had a direct snap for negative one. Uh the the Wildcats kind of wearing on me in the NFL. It doesn’t work that often unless it’s somebody under center for a tush push. Uh but he had a direct snap, lost a yard, picked up one yard, 12 yards, and six yards. That I mean, out of eight carries, right? One, two, three, seven carries, that’s five great runs. That last carry came with a minute left to go before halftime. He didn’t touch the ball again until there were under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. He didn’t touch the ball enough early. He didn’t touch the ball enough in the middle. He didn’t touch the ball enough late. The only thing he was right cuz I I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss one, right? I had all these notes scribbled from watching the game. Wanted to make sure I didn’t miss one. So, I brought up the entire playbyplay and just searched Dowel. Do you know what’s the only thing he has a stat on between one minute left in the second quarter and uh five minutes left to go in the game? He made a tackle. That’s it. That’s the only stat he registered in half a game of football. In between his two touches, uh there was a target for Trouba Hubard which was incomplete. There was a three- yard run, a two- yard run, a four- yard run, a five yard run, and a three- yard run. That was the touchdown. It doesn’t make sense to me. And yes, the defense didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. If you’re telling a quarterback, the only thing you have to do is keep the train on the tracks, you can’t give up all of that the rushing yards to James Cook, you can’t do it. You can’t give up all those points. Although you were set up in poor situations a few times, you can’t do it. If you’re going to look at Andy Dalton and say just protect the football, then James Cook can’t break records for rushing yards against you on 19 carries. Khalil Shakir can’t put up, you know, 90 yards in a touchdown. Like that’s that’s something they hadn’t been doing. I think I saw a stat that they had given up like something like 150 yards in the previous three games combined. They got up 216 to one player rushing this year or this game. So you changed the math, right? When Bryce Young has been winning games, here’s the math. Here’s what you asked him to do. Here’s the the small amount that you asked him to do. When you give up that many points, when you give up that many yards, you’re now changing the math. You have to ask your quarterback to do more. And there was no doubt that Andy Dalton wasn’t ready to to jump up to that level. And now it becomes an even bigger deal that Bryce was at practice jogging and he was already been seen uh you know doing resistance band work and throwing lightly and taking drops because uh Green Bay looked good enough to make it another ugly one this week if you don’t have your your P’s and Q’s about you. Jordan Love is playing pretty darn good football and Josh Jacobs is I think second in the league in rushing touchdowns. So he can James Cook if he’s healthy. Bryce better be ready. And you better play the way you were playing when Bryce was making it

Tim Donnelly & Max Goren recap the Carolina Panthers’ 40-9 loss at the hands of the Buffalo Bills. Was Andy Dalton’s poor performance at quarterback the reason Carolina was blown out? How will coach Dave Canales handle his running back situation with Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle?

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