Panthers 0 Buccaneers 9: It’s finally over

The Panthers season has mercifully come to a close in the most fitting way possible.

The Carolina Panthers season has finally ended. In a fitting finale, the offense made a series of mistakes to take their own points off the board while the defense fought as hard as possible to keep the game close. In the end, it was a 9-0 loss. The Panthers end the season with two straight games scoring zero points.

First Quarter

The Buccaneers started with two easy passes from Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans at the expense of Donte Jackson. Jackson was picked on a third time when he gave up a completion to Cade Otton on a 3rd and 9 a few plays later. The drive finally ended up stalling around midfield though after Mayfield overthrew Evans on a deep ball. Prior to that, the Panthers had missed two possible interceptions.

After a nice 12 yard run by Chuba Hubbard, the Bryce Young went to the air for the first time and hit Stephon Sullivan on a slant. The ball went through Sullivan’s hands and was nearly intercepted. A couple of plays later, Young was sacked on third down to force a punt.

The Buccaneers quickly punted it back after another Baker Mayfield deep shot to Evans was nicely broken up by Xavier Woods. The Panthers responded with their own punt after trying to lean entirely on Chuba Hubbard for a drive and getting blown up on a 3rd and 4 carry.

The Panthers had their third near forced turnovers on the Bucs’ ensuing drive when Frankie Luvu pried the ball out of Trey Palmer’s hands, but an offensive lineman alertly pounced on the loose ball. After Yetur Gross-Matos ended the drive with a sack, Chris Tabor did the Tabor special and called a timeout to force a Bucs punt before the quarter ended and the teams changed direction. Entirely because of that decision, Jake Camarda shanked his punt that rolled almost all of the 40 yards it was credited for.

Second Quarter

After a few Miles Sanders runs, Young escaped pressure on third down and found DJ Chark wide open behind the defense. He ran all the way to the end zone, where he fumbled the ball diving for the pylon. It was recovered in the end zone by the Bucs.

The defense forced another 3 and out from the Bucs to get the ball back for the Panthers offense, who started their next drive with a nice easy pass to the flat for Adam Thielen in the flat. He dropped it. They ended up punting the ball right back.

The Bucs’ ensuing drive started with a Rachaad White run. It was tracked down from behind by, among others, Derrick Brown. It was his 99th tackle of the season, setting the record for the most in NFL history by a defensive lineman. Tackle 100 game a few plays later on another White run up the middle. That drive ended in a Bucs field goal to put the visitors up 3-0.

Another ineffective Panthers drive ended in a punt back to Tampa Bay. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Brown hit Mayfield as he was throwing, which put the ball in harm’s way. Jaycee Horn had a chance to intercept it, but he couldn’t get both hands on it, Two more incomplete passes later, and the ball was being punted right back to the Panthers. The Panthers had essentially the same drive that took hardly any more time off the clock. On third down, Young threw a wounded duck high and wide to the outside that was nearly picked off and would have been a touchdown.

Johnny Hekker’s punt was not a good one, and it resulted in good enough field position for the Buccaneers to work into field goal range before the end of the half. That was threatened by Troy Hill bursting into the backfield to blow up an end around for a loss of seven, but Chase McLaughlin was still able to hit a 57 yarder to put the Bucs up 6-0 heading into the half.

Third Quarter

The Panthers started the second half with two runs for a combined three yards. They benefitted from a third down offsides by Tampa Bay that helped extend the drive, but it only delayed the inevitable. The drive stalled around midfield after a false start by Tommy Tremble proved to be insurmountable.

Derrick Brown sacked Mayfield on the Bucs next drive to eventually force a punt. Ihmir Smith-Marsette took the punt right up the middle of the field 29 yards to the 46 yard line. On first down, Young handed to Hubbard for another short run up the middle on first down. More runs and runs set up another third down sack to force a 52 yard field goal. Replacement kicker Matthew Wright pushed it wide left to end the third quarter.

Fourth Quarter

The Bucs matriculated the ball into the red zone. They had a chance at a touchdown, but Palmer maybe made a catch attempt more difficult than he needed to and let the ball fall to the turf. Frankie Luvu bullied his way into the backfield on the ensuing third down to force Mayfield into the waiting arms of Brian Burns. McLaughlin banged home his third field goal of the day to bury the Panthers under a two score deficit.

The Panthers started the ensuing drive with a run up the middle by Chuba Hubbard, but this one actually picked up 12 yards. A big scramble by Bryce Young got the Panthers inside the 30. On the next play, Raheem Blackshear sliced his way through the defense for a touchdown. However, it was called back because of an illegal formation because Terrace Marshall did not line up on the line of scrimmage like he was supposed to. On the next play, Young was hit from behind as he tried to throw and lost the ball. It was recovered by the Buccaneers.

The Buccaneers milked the clock on the ensuing drive. White toted the ball for a few decent gains and Chris Godwin beat Donte Jackson on a key 3rd and medium to extend the drive and run the clock under four minutes. A few more White carries earned the Bucs another first down and ran the clock down to the two minute warning. Baker Mayfield was able to kneel the clock out from there.

Overview

Bryce Young finished with just 94 passing yards on 18 attempts. The Panthers relentlessly leaned on their mostly ineffective run game and never got any sort of offensive rhythm. They did score two touchdowns, but both were taken off the board by individual mental mistakes.

Derrick Brown had a terrific final game to make a final case to be an All Pro. He led the team with seven tackles in this game and became the first ever defensive lineman to be credited with over 100 tackles in a season. At least the defense has its anchor for the foreseeable future.

With that, it’s time to turn our attention to the offseason and the upcoming head coaching search.