Bryce Young tries to end the playoff hopes and dreams of another franchise.
The Internet has dubbed Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young with a new nickname—-the Carolina Reaper. He’s earned that nickname because any loss at his hands signals some sort of death knell for your franchise. He beat the Saints, they fire their coach. He beat the Giants, they benched and then cut their starting quarterback. He beat the Cardinals, they were eliminated from postseason contention.
Young has a chance to add to that anthology against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend. The Bucs lost control of their destiny by losing to the Cowboys last Sunday. They now need to win more games than the Falcons over the last two weeks to leapfrog them back to the top of the division. If the Falcons win and the Bucs lose to Bryce Young, the Bucs are out.
Young and the Panthers offense put forth a good showing in the previous meeting of these two teams. But as has been the case in most of their recent “good” losses, a few individual mistakes at inopportune times cost Carolina a win. It also proved to be a learning experience for head coach Dave Canales, who settled for field goals on 4th and short in Bucs territory, only to see Eddy Pineiro hook two of those attempts left of the uprights. He’s been noticeably more aggressive on fourth downs since that game.
The recipe for a win this Sunday is essentially to mirror what the Panthers did against the Bucs a few weeks ago with a few minor adjustments. Here’s what they are.
Take care of the football. Even with their inefficiencies putting the ball into the endzone, the Panthers still had a chance to win the game in overtime. They lost that when Chuba Hubbard had the ball punched away. The Bucs offense is too explosive for this defense to handle if they’re given extra possessions with short fields. The offense needs to help out.
Convert red zone trips into touchdowns. The Panthers did a good job moving the ball the first time around, but they settled for five field goal attempts. A couple of those were in short yardage situations, so the football gods made sure the field goals missed to teach Canales a lesson. The Panthers need to be more aggressive and chase touchdowns.
Keep pushing the ball down the field. Young has shown better touch on passes down the sidelines in recent weeks. His receivers haven’t been catching them, but the threat that maybe they could eventually will make everything easier for the offense.