The Carolina Panthers still aren’t ready to go toe-to-toe with the best of the their division.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales spoke to reporters following Sunday’s 48-14 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a humble defeat that underlined their current cellar-dwelling status in the NFC South. He, obviously, was not satisfied with his team’s performance.
“Just sick, ya know, just about—finish opportunities to try to play our type of ball,” Canales stated to start his post-game press conference. “In all phases—we got outplayed, out-coached. I gotta first give credit to the Bucs. They were on fire today. They made it hard for us.”
That fire burned all afternoon for Bucs, who totaled 551 yards while picking up 33 first downs. The Panthers, on the other hand, amassed all of 204 yards and moved the chains just 13 times.
Tampa Bay was led by a five-touchdown performance from quarterback Baker Mayfied, who completed 27 of his 32 throws for 359 yards—his second-highest mark of the season. The victors also got another electric outing from rookie running back Bucky Irving, as he dashed Carolina for 113 yards on 20 carries.
As the Buccaneers stay alive in their pursuit of a fourth straight NFC South crown, the now-4-12 Panthers were left licking their wounds following yet another blowout loss. Canales was asked about that grander picture.
“Yeah, we got our work cut out for us. We got a long way to go,” he replied. “From a progress standpoint, while we’ve seen growth in a lot of areas, we gotta play this division tough. And we have to be able to match up with these guys—offensively, defensively, all those things. So, this is the litmus test. It starts with the division.”
Carolina’s 2024 season ends next week, with another divisional test in the Atlanta Falcons.
