Over his past four starts, Bryce Young has played his best football in the fourth quarter, and the Carolina Panthers won four times because of it.
Carolina needed field goals on the final play to beat the Dallas Cowboys 30-27 on Oct. 12 and the Green Bay Packers 16-13 on Nov. 2 and a touchdown pass with 1:59 remaining to defeat the Miami Dolphins 27-24 on Oct. 5.
In the other game in the Young-led winning streak, the Panthers defeated the New York Jets 13-6 on Oct. 19. The former Alabama All-American left that game with 3:56 left in the third quarter because of an ankle injury that caused him to miss Carolina’s 40-9 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 26.
On Sunday, the Panthers faced a three-point deficit when the fourth quarter started. Carolina ended up with a 17-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints, who had one win in nine games entering the contest, but prevented the Panthers from having six victories in their first 10 games for the first time since 2018.
“We’re always confident,” Young said. “We always want the ball. We always believe in what we can do with it. We didn’t execute that today. Again, that’s on me. I take that. And we have a group of guys that are accountable. We have to be better.
“But we know who we are. We know what we’re capable of. That confidence doesn’t change, that faith and belief in each other doesn’t change. It just sucks we didn’t get done today.”
A fourth-down sack allowed Carolina to open its first fourth-quarter possession on Sunday at the Panthers 40-yard line. But cornerback Alontae Taylor picked off a short pass by Young to put New Orleans on the Carolina 43. The good field position preceded a 30-yard touchdown pass from rookie QB Tyler Shough and tight end Juwan Johnson that put the Panthers down 10 points with 10:20 to play.
“A bad, bad read,” Young said of the interception. “Bad ball. Again, 100 percent my fault. That’s on me. I got to be better. … Bad read on zone coverage. Again, he did a good play. In respect to our opponent, have to do a better job. That’s on me.”
Carolina had only one more possession, which ended on a 1-yard completion by Young to running back Chuba Hubbard when the Panthers needed 2 yards on fourth down.
The Saints kept the football for the final 7:35. Shough passed only once during New Orleans’ 14-snap possession and connected with wide receiver Chris Olave for a 14-yard gain on third-and-5 with 5:48 to play.
“We didn’t play our version of football,” Carolina coach Dave Canales said. “That was not us. We can’t have that. We can’t give up big plays, and we can’t turn the ball over. Offense has to be more opportunistic and take advantage of some of the situations where the defense made some adversity stops for us and got us the ball back over and over in the second half, and we didn’t come away with anything off of it.”
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The game started for Carolina as though a fourth-quarter rally wouldn’t be needed. On their first possession, the Panthers moved 67 yards in 12 plays for a touchdown. A roughing-the-passer penalty nullified an interception on a third-and-9 snap, and running back Rico Dowdle finished the series with a 5-yard touchdown run three snaps later.
Young completed 5-of-6 passes for 26 yards and ran for 6 yards during the scoring series, which featured five runs for 15 yards and two receptions for 9 yards by Dowdle.
The Panthers had only one other possession that covered more than 19 yards. In the third quarter, an 11-play, 60-yard series ended with a blocked field-goal attempt.
In the scramble for the football, though, Carolina ended up with a new set of downs at the New Orleans 30-yard line. But Young fumbled away the football on a first-down handoff at the Saints 15.
“Just not executing,” Young said. “Again, it touched my hands. I fumbled the ball. That’s on me. I always take that. (Wide receiver) Jimmy (Horn Jr.) came up to me and took accountability because that’s the type of competitor and the person he is. But again, at the end of the day, I’m the guy who touched the ball. It’s on me. So we have to get that out of our system. That’s stuff I have to be better at. We all have to be better as a team.”
Young completed 17-of-25 passes for 124 yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
In his second NFL start, Shough completed 19-of-27 passes for 282 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He had four completions of at least 26 yards, including a 62-yard TD to Olave. Young’s longest completion gained 26 yards – twice as much as any of his other passes.
“It’s just taking advantage of those opportunities one-on-one down the field,” Canales said of Carolina’s lack of a vertical-passing element, “and it comes down to just me-to-you factor and making those plays. At the same time, from a game-plan standpoint, I got to make sure we’re putting our guys in the right spots, taking advantage of matchups. …
“I think it’s just timing and rhythm, but also it’s the choices, the type of passes. That’s something that starts with me, and I got to make sure I look at that and make sure we’re putting our guys in the right situations with the matchup and leverages that we’re working with to give them access so that Bryce feels confident to throw to the guys in different spots.”
At 5-5, the Panthers play another NFC South rival in their next game. Carolina faces the Atlanta Falcons at noon CST Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
“We’re in pursuit of our best football,” Canales said. “That was not our best today, and we did not let the things that we’ve been successful with come alive today. So we have to make sure that we take the next opponent and look at what they’re doing and have that type of mentality. Our mindset has to be to find our best football. It can’t depend on who the opponent is and how you respect a bunch of pros. And every week they’re going to bring a bus full of pros. And so we have to make sure that we’re detailed, we’re locked in and get back on track with our work.”
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