The NFL Week One just ended. There were some really good games like the Bills vs Ravens. There were also some not so good games like the Dolphins vs Colts which really highlights the downfall of the Dolphins and how they probably won’t make it past the first round of playoffs in any of our lifetimes. But, the main thing that caught my attention was the Carolina Panthers vs Jacksonville Jaguars game. This is not because the game was really close or there were some crazy plays but because of the opposite. The Jaguars had a record of four and thirteen last season which is by no means good. The Panthers had a record of five and twelve which is a little better. But, towards the later half of last season the Panthers really started to show improvement. They had close games with the Chiefs and Eagles who both went on to the Superbowl. This improvement was especially prevalent in Bryce Young who was playing way better after getting benched at the beginning of the season. This all being said, going into the off season many fans were hopeful that the franchise would make the improvements the team needed to fill in the gaps remaining in the team. The defense was especially bad last year with our pass coverage being absolutely awful and us being rated as one of the worst if not the worst defenses of all time in the NFL. Bryce Young as good as he was playing also had very few consistent targets to throw too. So did the management pick up the slack in the defense? Does our team look healthy after the offseason?
No, they somehow looked worse than last year. You might be thinking “It’s just week one who cares if they lost and did not play good”. But the thing is that’s how it starts every year. Here is how the cycle goes, it starts with week one going horribly. The season carries on with them barely managing to beat the worst of the worst teams. Bryce Young has some standout games toward the later half of the season but despite that we end the season with at most 6 wins. Then in the offseason the management hypes the fans up with advertisements and false promises that “this is our season”. Yeah, for sure it’s “our season” the management couldn’t even be bothered at this point. It could be good play but then the receivers drop it like the ball is hotter than the sun. Jaycee horn who is a defender genuinely made a better catch than any of the receivers the whole game. In twenty-twenty three we drafted a great quarterback and then immediately fed him to the wolves. Most new quarterbacks at least get a while on the bench to learn and get more of a feel for the NFL. This would’ve been especially helpful for Bryce Young who is on the shorter end of Quarter Backs, and the jump in size between college football players and the NFL players is like night and day. But no, it would’ve made way too much sense for the management to give him some time to adjust instead they threw him into probably the worst system in the league. The team has not had a winning record since the Obama administration.
The offseason has been brought up a few times so far but let’s see the draft. Since we did so terribly last year we got a pretty early pick and we chose to pick Tetairoa McMillan, a wide receiver. It’s not necessarily a bad pick by any means. The truth is the team desperately needs players who can actually catch but with that being said it doesn’t matter how many points we score if our defense is as bad as it is. The second pick was an edge rusher, Nic Scourton. This pick is definitely moving in the right direction. The team really needs defenders who actually feel like trying. It would’ve been cool if they maybe drafted a few defensive linemen with some talent but maybe that’s too much to ask for.
Week Two just ended as this is being written and It was just more of the same. Out of the last eight games they have played the Panthers have beaten the Cardinals seven times, so some fans were confident going into this week’s game against them. Yeah, so of course they lost but in all fairness it is a little improvement from week one, at least in the fourth quarter. The first two drives led to turnovers from Bryce Young. One was a fumble and the other was an interception. Bryce Young was sacked three times and the Panthers defense only managed to sack their quarterback once. They were down twenty seven to nine at the end of the fourth quarter and maybe then the team realized maybe they should be trying. They then proceeded to put up an absolutely generational fourth quarter bringing the game only one touchdown away from winning. It looked like the comeback was about to be completed despite all odds. The defense was turning up making plays allowing zero points the whole quarter and the offense had put up thirteen points in the quarter. But of course the chances they had during the end up not being used at all. The offense started stalling again and they lost 22-27
Overall pretty bad first two weeks considering how well the team was playing at the end of last season. The team does have potential and that was seen in the end of the last game. Hopefully there is some major improvement but at the end of the day the team is full of a bunch of new young players so there is a lot of potential for something special eventually.
