CHARLOTTE — A look inside the numbers and snap counts from Sunday's 40-9 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
The Panthers continued their streak of not allowing an opposing offensive touchdown in the first quarter. There has not been an opponent first quarter touchdown in any of the eight games this season.
Rookie wideout Tetairoa McMillan just missed his second career 100-yard game, finishing with seven catches for 99 yards.
Running back Rico Dowdle led the team with 54 rushing yards on eight carries (6.8 avg.), his fourth-consecutive game with 50-plus rushing yards, tied for the longest streak of consecutive 50-yard rushing games in his career (Weeks 12-15, 2024, with Dallas).
Running back Chuba Hubbard recorded his first rushing touchdown of the season with 10:33 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Hubbard's 23 career rushing touchdowns are the fifth-most in franchise history.
LB Christian Rozeboom led the team with 12 tackles and two for loss. The tackle total tied a career-high for Rozeboom; his seventh-career game with at least 10 tackles.
Corner Mike Jackson led the team with two passes defensed, his sixth game this season with a pass defense and second-consecutive game with multiple PBUs.
Bills running back James Cook set a record for the most rushing yards in a game by an opponent with 216 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns. This bettered the previous record of 215 yards by Derrick Ward at the New York Giants (Dec. 21, 2008).
Panthers allowed four rushing touchdowns. This equaled the fourth most rushing touchdowns allowed in team history, previously accomplished at St. Louis (Nov. 11, 2001). The team record for the most rushing touchdowns allowed is five, previously accomplished three times – most recently at Cincinnati (Nov. 6, 2022).
The Panthers did not force any turnovers and turned the ball over three times on one interception and two fumbles to finish with a minus-3 takeaway/giveaway ratio.
The three giveaways led to 17 points for Buffalo.
Through eight games, the Panthers have a negative-5 turnover ratio and are 2-0 when positive in turnover margin, 0-1 when even in turnover margin and 2-3 when negative in turnover margin.
Snap Counts
Take a look at the snap counts and playtime percentage for the Panthers in Week 8 of the regular season against the Bills.
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Player Offensive Snaps Special Teams Snaps
Damien Lewis 61 (100%) 3 (13%)
Ikem Ekwonu 61 (100%) 3 (13%)
Andy Dalton 61 (100%)
Tetairoa McMillan 57 (93%)
Xavier Legette 54 (89%)
Brady Christensen 48 (79%) 2 (7%)
Jalen Coker 40 (37%)
Taylor Moton 36 (59%) 2 (7%)
Chuba Hubbard 35 (57%) 4 (14%)
Austin Corbett 34 (56%) 3 (11%)
Ja'Tavion Sanders 33 (54%) 15 (54%)
Tommy Tremble 28 (46%) 9 (32%)
Cade Mays 27 (44%)
Yosh Nijman 25 (41%) 3 (11%)
Rico Dowdle 22 (36%) 4 (14%)
Mitchell Evans 16 (26%) 8 (29%)
Jake Curhan 13 (21%) 3 (11%)
Brycen Tremayne 8 (13%) 18 (64%)
Jimmy Horn 8 (13%) 4 (17%)
Trevor Etienne 4 (7%) 11 (39%)
For starters, only having three starters play all 61 snaps is a major problem. Usually, the offensive linemen all will, but only two of them did — Damien Lewis and Ikem Ekwonu. Injuries forced the other three starters out, and all three active reserve linemen played on offense. Brady Christensen is expected to be out for the season with a torn Achilles and they're awaiting tests on Taylor Moton and Cade Mays.
Tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders is back up to his normal starter reps, playing over half the snaps (54 percent) after easing into it his first game back last week (when he played 37 percent). That meant rookie Mitchell Evans was down to 26 percent, though he might have been close to becoming an offensive lineman as the game wore on.
Wide receiver Jalen Coker is also moving back toward a normal number of snaps (66 percent) in his second week back, after getting 37 percent of them last week.
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Player Defensive Snaps Special Teams Snaps
Nick Scott 62 (98%) 9 (32%)
Christian Rozeboom 60 (95%) 4 (14%)
Tre'von Moehrig 58 (92%)
Mike Jackson 56 (89%) 7 (25%)
Jaycee Horn 55 (87%)
Tershawn Wharton 49 (78%) 7 (25%)
Trevin Wallace 45 (71%)
Derrick Brown 44 (70%) 7 (25%)
DJ Wonnum 41 (65%)
A'Shawn Robinson 40 (63%) 6 (21%)
Nic Scourton 39 (62%) 7 (25%)
Chau Smith-Wade 27 (43%) 10 (36%)
Boogie Basham 21 (33%) 4 (14%)
Claudin Cherelus 18 (29%) 20 (71%)
Bobby Brown III 18 (29%) 7 (25%)
Lathan Ransom 17 (27%) 21 (75%)
Princely Umanmielen 15 (24%) 3 (11%)
LaBryan Ray 12 (19%) 1 (4%)
Corey Thornton 8 (13%) 6 (21%)
Akayleb Evans 7 (11%) 10 (36%)
Thomas Incoom 1 (2%) 25 (89%)
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Player Special Teams Snaps
Bam Martin-Scott 18 (64%)
Maema Njongmeta 18 (64%)
Demani Richardson 10 (36%)
Sam Martin 7 (25%)
JJ Jansen 7 (25%)
Ryan Fitzgerald 6 (21%)
The biggest sign things didn't go well Sunday is the sheer lack of names in the special teams column. When the injuries hit, the guys who are normally running down or blocking for kicks had to play offense and defense.
Sanders played a healthy special teams role as well, playing 54 percent of the snaps, joining offensive regular Brycen Tremayne (64 percent), along with Cherelus (71 percent), and Lathan Ransom (75 percent) on defense, as having to play a heavy load in the kicking game.