Carolina Panthers win 30-0? What?
To any Carolina fan that actually watched the game you might already know what I am going to say. The Panthers didn't really play that well offensively, a big part of the reason why the score was so high and so one-sided is because Atlanta's offense played so terribly, especially Falcon QB Michael Penix Jr.
He played so badly in fact, that he was taken out of the game in Favor of veteran Kirk Cousins, who after this game has only thrown 7 pass attempts in the entire season. It is clear that Cousins is being phased out not just of Atlanta, but the NFL in a general sense and when you need to put a guy like that in the game, well, things are very very bad.
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It was nice to see Bryce Young do a thing or two that is worth talking about for once, but also in the same game it was very evident that Carolina once again has a real problem with a quality QB with no one to pass to. So many times there were dropped passes or receivers where the ball was heading but they just couldn't get to it. Young was not the problem in these situations. There is also the problem of what appears to be a near complete absence of any sort of running game. You need to have at least the threat of being able to run the ball because if you do not the defense can collapse on any and every play preventing passing left and right.
The real star of the Carolina team and someone that is going to be getting a real workout all season is rookie Ryan Fitzgerald. Dude is 25 years old, fresh out of college after not getting drafted and was picked up as a free agent.
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Dude has only done 5 kicks this season after the Panthers got frustrated and released their long-term kicker - no idea who he was but he must have been REALLY bad for Carolina to fire you - and in the meantime Ryan has made every single one of his kicks including 1 at 57 yards.
You watch, Carolina is absolutely going to wear this guy out because they just can't seem to finish the job in the red zone. They do ok when there is a ton of space for Bryce Young to toy around with, but make things tight and I always plan on Carolina not getting it. They are just reliably unreliable.
The Carolina defense is getting a bunch of praise but honestly, that wasn't that great either. 2 of the Carolina touchdowns were because of very poor passes that resulted in interceptions so lets do some math real quick. That was 2 TD's from very bad passes by the opposing team (14 points) and 3 made field goals from Fitzgerald (9 points). This leaves just a single solitary TD that Carolina was able to eek through using traditional means and this was done by Bryce Young after his receivers failed yet again to make any sort of space for him to pass into. There was another 1 yard push at goal line that was something your grandma could have walked in because there was 1600 lbs of man meat in front of the runner that would have been able to move a garbage truck out of the way.
If I seem pessimistic about Carolina that is only because I really am, yet again. I expect that they are going to have an absolutely dreadful season and they have lost every game in the preseason, and lost every game in the regular season except this one and I really feel that can be attributed to Atlanta having a seriously bunk day rather than Carolina actually doing well. One commentator said "Atlanta just failed to turn up for this one" and that is the truth!
The next 2 weeks are likely going to be as easy as the season is going to get because next up they got 1-win Patriots and then the winless and truly awful Miami Dolphins after that.
once again the NFC south appears to be the weakest in all of the NFL so maybe Carolina will be able to pad their resume with a couple of "W"'s that they wouldn't end up with otherwise. I hope Tampa Bay can make something of the season because this is getting embarrassing for the division.