The Carolina Panthers welcomed a handful of key defenders back against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. But how did they factor into the eventual 21-18 loss?
Here are the top takeaways from Week 13’s snap counts:
Getting little from the middle
The Panthers went with a fresh guard duo on Sunday. Justin McCray became the fifth different starter for the line on the left and undrafted rookie Nash Jensen became the sixth different starter on the right.
Neither, however, fared particularly well.
Over 38 pass-blocking snaps, McCray and Jensen combined to allow eight pressures of quarterback Bryce Young. The latter’s five pressures stood as a team-worst.
Half a Horn
Jaycee Horn, in his first game back since sustaining a hamstring injury during the season opener, played on a pitch count. The oft-injured cornerback registered 32 snaps, accounting for a 52-percent presence on defense.
Perhaps to nobody’s surprise, Horn performed rather nicely in his limited outing—earning himself a 90.4 overall defensive grade from Pro Football Focus.
Expect that pitch count, if there even is one moving forward, to increase.
Chinn "returns"
In a not-so-triumphant return, safety Jeremy Chinn saw just seven defensive snaps on Sunday—the third-fewest of the group. Save for the game he injured himself in last season, those seven snaps would stand as a new career-low for the fourth-year defender.
It’s evident that defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero has had some difficulty trying to find a place for Chinn, who has now appeared in 46.5 percent of snaps in the games he’s played in this season.
