Professional Football or Amateur Hour? Panthers Unprepared in Opener.

Panthers Dominated in Season Opener

Panthers Dominated in Opener: It was a frustrating day for the Carolina Panthers. But, it might have been even more frustrating for the team's fans who tuned in around the world. The day was filled with turnovers, childish mistakes, a lack of discipline, and much more; all in all, this team looks wholly unprofessional. It truly makes you wonder what we have been doing all offseason. If this is the product that our front office, coaching staff, and players put out on the field after months of hard work, then our franchise needs to re-evaluate its standards.

If it helps to express the extent to which I have been unimpressed with this team, I started writing this article--and settled on the title--with time remaining in the third quarter. There is no confidence in my heart or mind that this team has what it takes to turn things around.

Bryce Young

Let's Start with The Offense: All offseason we have been hyping up the Panthers' offense. We finally got to the point where we can say "no more excuses for Bryce Young." We're supposed to have a strong offensive line, a deep backfield, and a stacked receiver room, but we weren't able to get anything going today. Bryce Young finished the day with a completion percentage under 50%, 144 yards, a garbage-time touchdown, and 3 turnovers. Additionally, he just didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders; one play that stood out--in a bad way--was a fourth down in the redzone where he threw the ball out of bounds. Rookie WR, Tetairoa McMillan showed out when given the opportunity. Unfortunately, second year WR, Xavier Legette, didn't impress; he even had a wide-open grab ruled out because he didn't get his feet in bounds, a ridiculous error for a former first-round-pick to be making. The run game looked solid at times behind this offensive line, but at the end of the day our offense just wasn't able to put points on the board. Play-calling, some drops and mistakes from receivers, Bryce, nobody was at their best today, and it showed.

Defense: Our defense was by no means incredible. They deserve a little bit of forgiveness today because the offense was not able to stay on the field and set them up to fail with a couple of turnovers, but there's still SO MUCH room for improvement. We didn't expect this unit to be amongst the best in the NFL after last year's messy campaign, but it would have been nice to see a little more character from the defense. Despite a nice one-handed interception from Jaycee Horn, there doesn't seem to be much of an identity from this group, and Jacksonville had their way with our group when they wanted to. The Jaguars had over 375 yards of total offense with eighteen first downs. Ejiro Evero's make-or-break campaign as defensive coordinator does not seem to be off to the best start.

The Real Problem: The real problem for me, however, doesn't lie with just the offense or defense or specific performances. Rather, I was remarkably disappointed with our character and work-ethic. The team truly does not have any culture on the football field, and we don't appear to have any belief that we can compete in the National Football League. There's not much to say beyond that; if the guys don't want to be on the field and don't want to take pride in playing for this franchise, then there's nothing else we can do. I'd rather the team not even take the field than put out a product like that. I'm tired of the excuses, too. We watch teams re-build and compete within one or two years nowadays, and we can't make any progress in nearly a decade.

Image: Panthers, Charlotte Vibe