Carolina Panthers
Welter and Lea: Panthers have a lot of room for improvement
Pat Welter and Chris Lea analyze the state of the Panthers after the 21-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
New coach, new quarterback. Yet the stories remain the same. I feel like we can copy and paste some of these chats from another season to save us all. Some trouble here. Panthers fall 21 13. Let's go back out to Chris Lee who's there after a tough loss to the Minnesota Vikings and Chris, I'll say this about Bryce Young. He played football today. He played football today but didn't seem to do anything when it really counted. Yes, the numbers looked better but ultimately no touchdowns, 0 to 2 in the red zone. That seemed to be the story to me. What did you see? Yeah. Well, also I saw somebody who didn't have a lot of help and we'll talk about play calling a little bit later, but also people have to get open. Also, the offensive line has to give him time to operate and he was sacked five times and other times he was absolutely running for his life. He also needs a running game and his running backs didn't really generate much of that either. So it's not a lot that Bryce Young can do in a situation like that. But yes, the Carolina Panthers were horrible in the red zone. Got down there twice, got into plus territory, five times. Their offense by themselves without a defensive takeaway. Only generated three points. The rest of the 10 points from today came from the defense, Sam Franklin, of course, with the pick six and of course, Kamo Hill gets them in plus territory. All they have to do is kick a field goal and they do it. It just wasn't a good day for the offense as a whole. And there's going to be this angst around Bryce Young and his development until he does something to show why he was taken number one overall. And to your point right there, the coaching staff doesn't seem to be putting him in the best positions to do that. I mean, Miles Sanders, that line in this game was embarrassing. I think it was 13 carries for around 19 yards. And then there's some of those careless penalties last week. It was the false starts and in this game, there was clock management issues, delay of games in your home stadium. So what are you seeing from Frank Reich? And the player's reaction to him and his message, you know, this for the people at home in these situations as we're waiting for interviews, a lot of times, the media, we like to talk amongst each other and give our theories. And one of the things that we all noticed in the three games that Bryce Young played versus the one game that Andy Dalton started in, it felt like Andy Dalton was operating from a completely different playbook. It felt like they let him have everything he could let it fly and that he had access to different plays that Bryce Young doesn't quite have access to. And so some of us are talking about, hey, like if you got this guy, number one overall, this is his rookie year. He's just played three games, let it fly. This is the time for him to make mistakes if he can't do it with, you know, four years from now. Ok. Well, maybe he's not cut out for the NFL, but he's not even four games into his own season into his career, I should say, and they're not letting it fly. And also Frank Reich is the one who's calling plays. Are you going to let him have more access? And Frank Reich also with some clock management issues, they get to Adam a 15 yard or towards the end of the second quarter, they don't call a time out, 10 seconds run off the clock and then they have to settle for a 56 yard field goal or maybe they could have gotten a little bit closer, maybe even scored a touchdown. So a lot of folks are looking at Frank Reich and wondering what are you doing? Why is the handcuffs on not only just the offense but Bryce Young, well, the message we were sold to begin this season was the Panthers were a quarterback away or maybe a coach away too. You replace bad rule, you replace the hodgepodge of quarterbacks they had last year. Maybe you could win the division. Well, that's all out the window now. And you got all these guys that came here, Chris to win, all these guys on defense that are doing everything they can to win yet. This team is 0 to 4 and you and I saw the splintering start to happen under Matt rule. It's early here in the Frank Reich Bryce Young era, but you're there, you're having those conversations. What are you seeing? Yeah. So one of the smart things, I think the Carolina Panthers did, they went out and got some big time veterans, Adam, the, we had a chance to talk to him in the locker room. And one of the things that he said is even though we're 0 to 4, I'm one of the captains and the team is going to look towards me. So he's like the way that I prepare. I have to prepare like it's 0 to 0. I have to listen to the coaches like it's zero and zero. And if they look at me and say, Adam, you're not doing your job, I have to respond a certain type of way because he said if he starts to slip, then everybody else, the young guys, people who aren't captains guys who know, they probably won't be here next year. They're going to start to falter and slip and they won't be as engaged and locked in and then this season can really get out of hand. So you have veteran leaders like Adam, the also Miles Sanders who said something very similar in the locker room. They understand how they need to step up individually and what they need to do to set the expectation and the example for the rest of their teammates. It is a tough time right now in Charlotte, it has been a tough time in Charlotte. Panthers fall to 0 to 4. Let's see if they can turn things around Chris safe travels back.