The Carolina Panthers dropped their first home game of the season Sunday, a 40-9 loss to the Buffalo Bills. By Scott Fowler
There was no rain through the Panthers’ first three home games of the 2025 season.
But on Sunday, it poured.
In every way besides the literal sense.
The Carolina Panthers (4-4) were mauled at home by the Buffalo Bills (5-2) on Sunday afternoon, 40-9, in their first loss of the season at home and their first defeat since Week 4. The 31-point margin of defeat is tied for 14th-worst overall in franchise history.
The loss featured sacks and fumbles and an interception and missed kicks and injuries — and that’s without mentioning the defense, who arguably had the roughest day overall.
The Panthers, prior to Sunday, had only allowed three opposing running backs to rush for 200 yards in franchise history. Those guys were Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears in Oct. 2011 (205 yards), Derrick Ward of the New York Giants in Dec. 2008 (215) and Marshall Faulk of the St. Louis Rams in Dec. 2001 (202). Sunday, though, the Panthers added another — and broke a record: James Cook took 19 carries for 216 yards and two touchdowns, and that was all without playing in the fourth quarter.
Carolina offensive linemen Cade Mays (ankle), Taylor Moton (knee) and Brady Christensen (Achilles) all exited the contest early with injuries. Linebacker Trevin Wallace was cleared for a concussion but still suffered an injury Sunday, a “stinger,” according to head coach Dave Canales, on his right side.
Starting quarterback Andy Dalton, who stepped in for an injured Bryce Young, had a rough day. He had two fumbles — the first one stunting a promising drive in the first quarter — one interception and went 16 of 24 for 175 yards. He finished with a passer rating of 70.7.
Josh Allen had a pedestrian day and could’ve afforded to be worse. He finished Sunday 12 of 19 for 163 yards and one touchdown with a passer rating of 108. He didn’t notch a fourth-quarter snap, either.
Canales answered to the lifelessness in his postgame presser. Here’s a recap of what he said.
Dave Canales opening statement
“We were not able to get our run game going today. Went to the pass game, and that’s where the turnovers happen. And pretty clear story right there. We made it really hard on ourselves against a good team, and made it a really challenging situation for us. So we’d love to see better execution in those things, in those areas, and be able to move on from that.”
Consider going with one feature back between Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle?
“Nope. I liked the plan. Just looking for execution, and we have to be able to be balanced with the pass game in those situations, and the turnovers really just got us out of our rhythm and put us in a different mode.”
Why did you stick with Andy Dalton at the end and not go with Hendon Hooker?
“Yeah, just wanted to give him a chance to get us a successful drive. And we were able to move the ball down there and get a touchdown on that one. But, it was just a chance to bounce back. I love finish. I preach finish. Talk with the guys trying to give them an opportunity after a really sloppy first half to go back in there and try to get something going.”
On Brady Christensen and his ‘significant’ injury
Yeah, unfortunately, Brady Christensen got an Achilles (injury), and so it’s a significant one. He’s going to be out. We’re going to miss him a lot. And it just gives me a chance to just talk about what he’s meant for this group: the flexibility to play all across the line in different spots, has been playing great football for us. So we’re really going to miss Brady. Jake Curhan stepped in there and did a good job at the end. But I can’t say enough about what (Christensen), just the stud guy that he is, the preparation that goes into it. He’s sick about it. And we all are for him.”
When asked if it was a ruptured Achilles: “I think so, yeah.”
How offensive line injuries impacted offense
“It made it really challenging. And we try to find that balance, you know, but at the same time, and guys rolling in there, Austin (Corbett) did a great job stepping in for Cade (Mays). That was an ankle. We’ll evaluate him more, so we’ll have more information on what that looks like. But I thought Austin did a really good job of going in there and settling it down, being able to get just get our runs and passes and all that targeted the right way. So guys stepping in again: Yosh (Nijman) coming in for T-Mo (Taylor Moton). We’ll evaluate T-Mo a little bit more right now, it’s a knee, and he just wasn’t able to finish. And you saw some pretty good rushes out there and really felt like, you know, Josh would give us a better chance after that point.”
Derrick Brown had to leave the game early. Any concern there?
“Derek seems fine. They evaluated him on the sideline. At that point in the game, we just made the decision to keep him out of there to be able to finish the game with the other guys.”
How close was Bryce Young to be active Sunday?
“Pretty close. He made progress throughout the week. Didn’t feel confident enough to get him out there and be able to do all the things that he needs to do to be successful. But we’ll circle back around early this week, and the hope is to get him back out there on Wednesday doing something. But again, we got to be smart and do the right thing.”
His message to the group
“A lot of frustration along the sideline. My message to the group is this is one game right here: the explosives; how well we’ve been playing the run, that didn’t happen today; and then we gave them the ball, gave them some short fields in some different situations. And just asking the guys, we will look at this film, we will take it and correct the things that need to be corrected and right the ship, based on the things that we’ve been doing.”
Anything jump out to you about the run defense’s issues?
“Just explosive play. I thought James Cook did an excellent job of being patient and just really slow playing. They did a great job up front, staying on their combinations, and didn’t feel like we could collapse the backside of some of these runs. There were some cutbacks that got out on us, and the toss cracks really were effective for them today. So it’s stuff we got to look at.
This is a copycat league, and teams are going to see that and try to attack us with those things. So we got to go back to the drawing board and make sure we’re fitting all those.”
A measuring stick game?
“We really look at it as one game. There’s a lot of good football right in our rear-view mirror, and we just got to get back to playing that kind of good football. So for us, it’s just one opportunity to the next opponent, look at them and try to attack our game plans and fix those things. But we have to keep our focus right here, right now and be able to get back to work.”
Bryce Young’s attentiveness versus the Bills
“He did an excellent job of just going to Andy, regardless of the outcome of the drive, and just talking to him, staying in his head, encouraging him, leading. That’s what he’s been doing while he’s been here. He was very engaged, very involved in what we were doing. So I know Bryce is just as sick as the rest of the guys.”
More on Rico Dowdle’s run distribution after averaging 7 yards per carry
“Yeah, that’s something to look at too, you know? And we got to look at schemes, and we got to look at our personnel and see who gives us the best chance to win.”
Will you continue using Andy Dalton as Bryce Young’s backup?
“Absolutely.”
On Andy Dalton’s second interception: Was it a tunnel screen that the Bills diagnosed?
““Yeah, it was. And the end got a beat on it, and tipped it to himself. So another thing that we just have to look at with our scheme and answers for different pressure type possibilities.”
What are your emotions after this loss?
“I just have a lot of confidence in this group and the football that we’ve been playing, and knowing that wasn’t us. What we put out there today was not us. That was not the ball that we’ve been playing that’s allowed us to have success. I have a lot of confidence in this group to be able to turn around, take this as a loss. A loss is a loss. Let’s fix the things that we can fix. Let’s get refocused and get back to work.”