CHARLOTTE (BLACK & BLUE KICKOFF LIVE) — New year, new team? No, not yet. Still the same team as the Panthers get ready for the final time of the 2023-24 season.
Week 18’s contest welcomes Baker Mayfield back to Bank of America Stadium, this time as the starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
After losing to the New Orleans Saints in week 17, the Bucs are 8-8 but can clinch the division title and a home playoff game with a win against the Panthers on Sunday.
This season, Mayfield has put up career-bests in completion percentage (64.4%), passing yards (3,907), and passing touchdowns (28).
When the Panthers last saw the Bucs in the week 13 loss, Bryce Young went 15-31, 178 yards and an interception. However, his counterpart, Mayfield, wasn’t much better. He was also just under 50% passing at 14-29 with 202 yards, one touchdown and also one interception.
The Bucs’ defense allows 93.1 rush yards per game, good for top-10 in the NFL. Meanwhile, week 13’s matchup was Chubba Hubbard’s best game this season and one of the best of his young career.
He rushed 25 times for 104 yards and two touchdowns. Those are all season bests for the 24-year-old running back (the 25 attempts and two touchdowns are also career-bests, while the 104 yards is the second-most rushing yards he’s had in a game).
Earlier this week, former Panthers’ defensive end Al Wallace was announced as the team’s Legend of the Year. Wallace was traded to Carolina before the start of training camp in 2002 and spent five seasons with the team. He was part of the defensive line unit with Julius Peppers that helped them reach the Super Bowl in 2003.
Wallace will be recognized in the third quarter of the game and will hit the Keep Pounding drum. Additionally, the team is presenting a $5,000 community grant in Wallace’s name to the Burnette Nobles Fund, an organization formed in honor of fallen Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers John Burnette and Andy Nobles, who were killed in the line of duty in 1993.
When asked what it means to be back and around the gameday experience, Wallace responded, “For me, it’s really an opportunity to recapture some of the feelings of playing here. The one thing I get asked the most when I’m around town is ‘Do you miss the game,’ and the thing I always tell people is being around the team, former players, current players, and the games helps recapture some of that camaraderie which I first started to feel when I got to training camp in 2002.”
Wallace hosts his own sports talk show on weekdays from 2-3 p.m. on ESPN 730 and has been a part of the BBKL team for five years.
From everyone a part of the Black & Blue Live team and Queen City News, congratulations to Al Wallace on this recognition.
Al Wallace is our Legend of the Year.
A community grant in his name will go to the Burnette Nobles Fund. https://t.co/UJuIF7aBQm
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) January 6, 2024
This will be the 47th meeting between the NFC South rivals. The Panthers lead the all-time regular season series 25-21 and are 13-10 at home.
Sunday’s game starts at 1 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium and will be live on Queen City News.