After a positive beginning to the week for the Carolina Panthers, it ended with a negative preseason game. Throughout intrasquad training camp and joint practice, the vibes were high in Carolina. Those were squandered in a 27-0 home loss against the New York Jets to begin the preseason.
Panthers head coach Frank Reich tried to look on the positive side after the loss.
“You don’t like getting shut out and getting beat 27-0,” Reich said. “But I have a lot of years in this league that tell me that preseason scores aren’t the most meaningful thing. And not that we’re not accountable for that. We are. But it’s not the most important thing right now. It’s just not. We’re tryin’ to evaluate our team.”
Panthers Begin Preseason In Disappointing Fashion
Offensive Growing Pains
One of the glaring issues was the lack of positive offensive drives, with 165 total yards. Two factors played into this: offensive line woes and generic playcalling.
The Panthers offensive line gave up five sacks and saw the quarterback under consistent duress. Bryce Young and Matt Corral took multiple hits as the offensive line collapsed due to the Jets pass rush depth. The Panthers were without starting guard Austin Corbett as he’s recovering from a torn ACL. Corbett’s mid-season return is expected to cement the interior of the line. In the meantime, the Panthers are forced to piece together an interior line that was vulnerable in Saturday’s preseason game.
After the game, the Panthers offensive line held a meeting to address the disappointing preseason debut.
“Just disappointed. Not what we’re looking for at all,” left tackle Ikem Ekwonu said on giving up a free shot on Young. “He shouldn’t be getting hit at all. That’s on us. We just weren’t good enough today.”
Regarding playcalling, the Panthers offense lacked creativity and movement. While the coaching staff wants to withhold most play calls for the regular season, giving the offense a game plan destined to fail is poor judgment.
“Listen, this is by design. I mentioned this the other day. We’re very generic now. We did nothing in our scheme. Nothing. And that’s not an excuse. I expected us to do a lot,” Reich said. “So, we kept it simple so that we could do a lot, so we didn’t have to think much, so we could evaluate one-on-one play. So, we need to do better there. But as a coaching staff, we weren’t tryin’ to put the guys in the best position the whole game, really, in any phase.”
Defense Breaking off the Rust
The Panthers suffered from a lack of effort and rust on the defensive side. This was seen alarmingly as rookie Jammie Robinson missed an open-field tackle on Jets running back Israel Abanikanda.
Israel Abanikanda 🌪️ pic.twitter.com/VsK3tpnNno
— PFF College (@PFF_College) August 12, 2023
Those who excelled were rookie DJ Johnson and Sam Franklin. Johnson consistently moved the Jets offensive line in penetrating through the interior guards. Franklin had the Panthers only turnover with an interception that was nearly a pick-six. He was shoe-string-tackled by Jets quarterback Tim Boyle. Franklin was a special teams player last season but showed his effectiveness by displaying high levels of effort.
With less than a week until the Panthers travel to MetLife Stadium to play the New York Giants, there’ll be a lot to improve on in the coming days. The focal point throughout Panthers practice will be addressing the offensive line and installing a more creative offensive preseason scheme.
Main Photo: Jim Dedmon – USA Today Sports
