The Carolina Panthers were blasted to the tune of 51-13 by the San Francisco 49ers yesterday at Levi’s Stadium, and today’s stock up, stock down report will reflect exactly what kind of effort that was by the Panthers. So, strap in and join me for a ride through the haunted house of horrors that was yesterday’s game.
Stock up
Michael Palardy: You know it’s bad when the first thing you have to do is point out how good the punter was. Palardy punted seven times yesterday for 313 yards, including one that pinned the Niners inside their own five that resulted in a safety (more on this in a second). Palardy also boomed a 56-yarder, which is nice.
Bruce Irvin: Irvin helped the Panthers cut into the Niners’ lead by sacking Jimmy Garoppolo in the end zone for a safety in the third quarter. Sure, the score was 27-5 at the time, but I only have so much to work with here.
Christian McCaffrey: He scored the only touchdown and had another nice run that was called back for holding, but he was pretty much the only bright spot for the Panthers on offense yesterday. He picked up 117 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown, and added 38 more yards on four receptions. Considering how bad the Panthers were beat yesterday it’s commendable that he was able to produce as much as he did.
Honorable mentions
There are a few players who weren’t great but also weren’t terrible, and I feel the need to at least exclude them from the stock down section. I’m just going to list them with a brief recap of what they did instead of going into detail, because honestly I want to forget this game happened as soon as I can.
Joey Slye: He made all of his kicks. Sure, he only attempted one kick (from 41 yards), but he made it.
Curtis Samuel: He led the team with 46 receiving yards. Yeah, you read that correctly.
Greg Olsen: He caught both passes thrown to him. He only gained 13 yards, but he was only targeted twice so there’s not much else he could have done.
DJ Moore: He didn’t do anything great, but he also wasn’t terrible. He caught five passes for 38 yards on nine targets.
Luke Kuechly: He led the team in tackles and had an interception.
Eric Reid: He was second in tackles and picked up one sack and three tackles for loss.
Stock down
Literally everyone else. I’m not going to go too deep into specifics, but the rest of the team was either mediocre or flat out bad yesterday. The offensive line couldn’t block, the defense couldn’t tackle, the quarterback couldn’t complete passes, the kick returners couldn’t return kicks, the receivers couldn’t catch... if you name something bad, it probably happened to the Panthers.
Kyle Allen had his ‘come back down to Earth’ game yesterday. He went 19-of-37 for 158 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. He was sacked seven times. Yes, seven. To be fair to Kyle, the offensive line played like garbage. There’s no denying that. But, he looked absolutely lost out there. He couldn’t hit targets, he couldn’t read the defense and he couldn’t step up into the pocket to avoid pressure. He threw an interception directly to Richard Sherman. He was picked off by Nick Bosa on a checkdown play (to be fair, it was a good play by Bosa). He looked like a backup quarterback whose good luck over the last four games finally caught up to him when he finally faced an upper tier defense.
I’m not going to harp on Allen too much today because it’s not fair to him. The entire team (save for a handful of players) was bad. I don’t think Cam Newton would have won the game yesterday, but I also don’t think the final score would have been as brutal. With Cam under center, I don’t believe the Niners would have been given short fields to work with thanks to three turnovers. But on the other hand, as bad as the defense played it may not have mattered how far they had to go to score.
One thing I think I know: There is no quarterback controversy, and there never really was one. Allen is a fine backup quarterback and can give you a spot start or two when you need it, but he’s not a long term option for the Panthers and I don’t think they really ever expected him to be. When he’s healthy, Cam Newton is this team’s quarterback. I think we already knew that before yesterday’s meltdown, but if we didn’t know it then it’s safe to say that we absolutely know it now.
Another thing I think we finally learned (well, Ron Rivera learned... most of us already knew this) is that Daryl Williams is not an NFL tackle. Please Ron... stop putting him out there. It’s not working.
And speaking of Ron Rivera, how do you continue to get out-coached by Kyle Shanahan? I mean, seriously? Do you not have film on his offense? And how do you continue to let Tevin Coleman own you like that? It doesn’t matter what uniform he wears, Coleman always seems to score multiple touchdowns every time he plays against the Panthers. It’s really frustrating to see the same thing happen time and time again.
There is a bright side to yesterday’s beat down, though. It’s only one game. Every loss only counts as one loss in the standings, whether it’s 51-13 or 10-9, so at least we have that going for us. We’re still over .500 and still in the playoff hunt, but we have some work to do if we want to be a serious threat to compete for the Super Bowl. Hopefully we can get a few players back next week against the Tennessee Titans and put this loss behind us.
What stood out to you, Panthers fans? Whose stock is up or down? Share your thoughts.