{"id":653730,"date":"2026-01-04T17:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653730\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:11:09","slug":"best-and-worst-from-week-18-loss-to-buccaneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/653730\/","title":{"rendered":"Best and worst from Week 18 loss to Buccaneers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> didn’t get their desired result on Saturday, falling short to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> in a heartbreaking 16-14 defeat<\/a>. A win would have clinched the franchise their first playoff berth since 2017 and their first NFC South title since 2015.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, it’s a tough one to swallow\u2014even with the division crown still in play<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there were a number of standout performances throughout what was the Panthers’ biggest game in quite some time.<\/p>\n

Here are the best and worst Pro Football Focus grades from the loss . . .<\/p>\n

*Players listed recorded at least 10 offensive or 10 defensive snaps.<\/p>\n

Best of the offense<\/p>\n

1. WR Tetairoa McMillan: 79.8<\/p>\n

2. TE Tommy Tremble: 78.0<\/p>\n

3. RT Taylor Moton: 75.1<\/p>\n

4. QB Bryce Young: 67.3<\/p>\n

5. C Cade Mays: 65.9<\/p>\n

McMillan reeled in four catches for a team-high 85 yards. Tremble recorded three grabs for 38 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Young completed 24 of his 35 throws for 266 yards, a pair of scores and an interception.<\/p>\n

Worst of the offense<\/p>\n

10. RG Austin Corbett: 62.6<\/p>\n

11. WR Xavier Legette: 62.5<\/p>\n

12. TE Mitchell Evans: 52.9<\/p>\n

13. LT Ikem Ekwonu: 50.1<\/p>\n

14. RB Rico Dowdle: 33.4<\/p>\n

Ekwonu was charged with a team-high three pressures.<\/p>\n

Dowdle rushed for just 10 yards on seven carries. His 33.4 overall mark is a season-low.<\/p>\n

Best of the defense<\/p>\n

1. S Nick Scott: 86.5<\/p>\n

2. S Lathan Ransom: 84.1<\/p>\n

3. DL Derrick Brown: 69.3<\/p>\n

4. ILB Christian Rozeboom: 63.8<\/p>\n

5. CB Jaycee Horn: 62.7<\/p>\n

Scott’s 86.5 is a new season-high. He registered four stops and earned a team-high 86.6 run defense grade.<\/p>\n

Brown notched a career-high 13 tackles and led the Panthers with six stops.<\/p>\n

Worst of the defense<\/p>\n

11. OLB Nic Scourton: 54.0<\/p>\n

12. CB Mike Jackson: 49.6<\/p>\n

13. OLB Trevis Gipson: 48.1<\/p>\n

14. DL Cam Jackson: 47.3<\/p>\n

15. CB Chau Smith-Wade: 36.3<\/p>\n

Smith-Wade received a team-low 29.5 coverage grade. He allowed three catches for 45 yards on three targets.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Panthers didn’t get their desired result on Saturday, falling short to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[247,265,210,4888,3789,1476,211,10412,10418,235,260,10620,10626,6009,11404,7879,7,52288,2659,20842,789,9765,6457,6911,1184,10413,1458,10118,13024,246,88,6,35196,1132,10128,245,264,236,7878,7152,818,9029,1602,2517,10621,817,829,9,266,819,209,704,250,2597,2596,2355,7785,3345,10120,10407,58652,42123,811,776,1058,1505,5952],"class_list":["post-653730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-bay","tag-brown","tag-bryce","tag-bryce-young","tag-buccaneers","tag-cade","tag-cade-mays","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-chau","tag-chau-smith-wade","tag-derrick","tag-derrick-brown","tag-dowdle","tag-football","tag-gipson","tag-horn","tag-hub","tag-jackson","tag-jaycee","tag-jaycee-horn","tag-legette","tag-listicle","tag-mays","tag-mike","tag-mike-jackson","tag-moton","tag-neutral","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-nick","tag-nick-scott","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-panthers","tag-rico","tag-rico-dowdle","tag-scores","tag-scott","tag-smg","tag-smg-listicle","tag-smith-wade","tag-sport","tag-sport-scores-u0026-statistics","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-statistics","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers","tag-taylor","tag-taylor-moton","tag-tommy","tag-tommy-tremble","tag-tremble","tag-trevis","tag-trevis-gipson","tag-twitter","tag-u0026","tag-xavier","tag-xavier-legette","tag-young"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}