The Carolina Panthers got a couple of early breaks and did very little with them en route to the second straight blowout loss of the season. What a difference a few weeks makes. Once again, we're desperate to move on to the next game, but we have to sit with this one a few extra days this time.
Despite the ugly loss, there were some individual standouts. There were, as evidenced by the on-field product, plenty of standouts for the wrong reasons , too.
Linebacker depth (as well as the fact that he was taken as a project in the seventh round) has kept Jackson Kuwatch to a special teams role. But tonight, on a unit that has been much-maligned this year, Kuwatch made a huge play by forcing a fumble on the opening kickoff.
A really bad season continued Thursday night for Luke Fortner. Right after getting possession and getting a first down from that fumble recovery, Fortner got beat badly in pass protection, so Bryce Young had no chance, and the Panthers missed a big chance to score an opening touchdown. It was a microcosm of his season. His run blocking was very solid, but if he can't protect Young, that's not good.
Where has Marco Wilson been all year? Seriously, why have the Panthers been trotting Akayleb Evans out when Wilson was there and Evans is a special teams ace? It makes very little sense, especially with how good Wilson was tonight after being pushed up into the lineup rapidly.
Rasheed Walker's revenge game did not go to plan. He was beat routinely in pass protection again. He is beginning to show why no one really wanted him in free agency, and while he was cheap, he's also been pretty bad. That continued tonight.
How much more can we say about Chuba Hubbard? He has arguably been the most consistent player this year, and he's been one of the best offensive weapons. That didn't stop tonight. The only thing that changed is that his number was called a lot more in the first half, as he's typically been a second-half grind-it-out kind of player this year. He rose to the occasion, though.
Will Lee's roller-coaster season continued. He committed two bad defensive pass interference penalties, one of which came while allowing a 53-yard catch. And on that same catch, he got hurt, leaving the paper-thin secondary without its best cornerback. He has to stay healthy, and he has to clean things up. The injury isn't his fault, but the penalties are. And they're frequent.
The Panthers haven't gotten much from Derrick Brown all season, but he finally showed up tonight. He got some pressure on Jordan Love and was a force in the run game, too. It was not enough, but it was good to see Brown put together a good outing.
Ejiro Evero had the team ready to play better, and they were much more adept at tackling. But his decisions were abysmal. The Panthers couldn't get pressure on the second-worst offensive line, so Evero timed up several useless and ill-fated blitzes, including an incomprehensible one on third-and-13 that led to a touchdown.
Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Brad Idzik against the Philadelphia Eagles | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Brad Idzik knew the status of the offensive line and the matchup tonight. He scripted a good series and got off to a pretty decent start, but things went completely off the rails after that. He had nothing to scheme up to help his quarterback or the ailing offensive line. It was not a good performance from the rookie play-caller. His calls on what ended up being the final drive of the night were not good.
We didn't hear much out of Monroe Freeling tonight because most of the attention was on Rasheed Walker, and for good reason. Freeling wasn't good, either. The Packers abused the left side at will, but the right side of the line was pretty awful, too. So far, the early returns on Freeling are overwhelmingly negative.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/panthers/onsi as 4 Winners and 6 Losers From Another Disappointing Panthers' Loss vs. Buccaneers .
