Despite a powerful defensive effort in the second half, key mistakes led to a 24-16 primetime defeat for the Panthers against the Packers.
Here are our winners and losers from tonight’s game.
Winner: Panthers defensive line
Brian Burns’ performance was the biggest reason Carolina made the final score close, but he wasn’t the only pass rusher who stood out against Green Bay. To tack onto Burns’ two-sack performance, Efe Obada added one of his own and Derrick Brown notched the first two sacks of his career. This is a strong unit that can be built around over the next couple of seasons.
Loser: QB Teddy Bridgewater
Bridgewater has made some inexcusably bad plays the last couple months and he added a few more tonight. To make one of them even worse, Melissa Stark reported that Bridgewater’s goal-line reach fumble was a decision he made himself, despite coach Matt Rhule preaching against it. The veteran QB later fumbled the ball in the red zone a second time, though he was saved on the stat sheet. Bridgewater didn’t make up for it with a great passing game, either. He ended the night with a passer rating of just 82.8 after throwing for 258 yards.
Winner: WR D.J. Moore
Moore was easily the team’s most productive receiver. Not only did he hit the 1,000 receiving yards mark for the second-straight year, but he did so by putting up 131 yards against one of the better passing defenses in the NFL. Moore also added multiple highlight-reel plays, including a zero-separation 37-yard grab and an incredible 40-yard catch-and-run to set up a Joey Slye field goal late in the fourth quarter.
Loser: OC Joe Brady
While Rhule made it clear the communication between the coaching staff and their quarterback hasn’t been perfect, it’s hard not to believe that offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s play-calling has had alot to do with the Panthers’ struggles. From the tepid calls on third and long to the unsuccessful trick play involving Brandon Zylstra, Brady’s early promise as a hot-shot OC has definitely cooled off.
Winner: Second-half defense
Carolina’s defense was night and day in the second half compared to the first. After allowing the Packers to roll over them with 21 first-half points, the unit bounced back in a major way, managing to get consistent pressure on Aaron Rodgers. Not only did they hold the Packers to just three points in the final 30 minutes, but they forced Rodgers into averaging a shockingly low 3.3 yards per pass attempt.
Loser: WR Curtis Samuel
Samuel has had more ups than downs this season. However, this was clearly one of the latter. The fourth-year wideout was targeted nine times but only managed to haul in four of them. Two of those incompletions were head-scratching dropped screens. This was an uncharacteristic bad game from Samuel, who had a sharp 84.7% catch rate coming in.
Winners: RBs Mike Davis, Rodney Smith
The game-script was far from ideal for the Panthers to be running the football but when they did, Mike Davis and Rodney Smith were efficient. On 18 combined carries, the duo racked up 82 rushing yards, averaging just over four yards per carry. Bridgewater also chipped in on the ground, running for 26 yards and posting the team’s only rushing score of the night.
Loser: Panthers’ run defense
The Panthers finally began to contain RB Aaron Jones in the second half, but by then, it was far too late. Jones ran wild in the first half and finished with 145 yards and a touchdown. While it was reassuring that Carolina eventually got it together, the team needs to work on defending the run for all 60 minutes.
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