Instead of following through with their designs of playing spoiler in Week 17, the Carolina Panthers ended up just looking like spoiled milk inside of Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers smashed the Panthers this afternoon, dispatching their visitors en route to a 48-14 beatdown. They also helped their house guests make history, as Carolina’s total time of possession on the outing (18 minutes and 49 seconds) was the lowest all-time mark for the franchise.
After the game, head coach Dave Canales spoke about being outplayed in all three phases—which certainly factored into the historic lack of ball control.
“Well, I mean, it’s all of us,” Canales said when asked about his defense’s lowly performance. “And I know that we’ve given up a lot of yards and points, I understand that. But when you go 22 percent on third down, offensively, and make it hard like that and we’re off the field, the defense has to go right back out there against a really good offensive attack.
“So it’s about opportunity. We gave them so many opportunities to continue to build off their momentum and things they were doing.”
Well, they were certainly doing. The Buccaneers amassed 551 total yards, 33 first downs and converted on 10 of their 13 third-down attempts.
The Panthers, meanwhile, mustered up all of 204 yards, 13 first downs and moved the chains just twice on their nine third-down looks.
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