The Carolina Panthers’ 2025 alternating win-loss theory was tested again in Week 15, after a bye and a previous win. The principle held, as the maddening trend continued. The road loss to the Saints was especially frustrating; they saved their worst moments for the most critical parts of the game.
How the Carolina Panthers’ Failure To Execute in 3 Regards Earned Them the Week 15 Loss
The Panthers had two major opportunities in Week 15 to put the New Orleans Saints into a deeper hole via turnovers, but they couldn’t capitalize on either shot.
The first chance came early in the second quarter. The Panthers’ defense had Tyler Shough and the Saints’ offense in a second-and-13 from their own 14-yard line. New Orleans’ wideout Devaughn Vele flashed open on a shallow drag across the middle. Shough eventually targeted him.
However, Vele stopped on his route, and the QB put a touch of air under the throw, causing it to sail outside and beyond the target. The ball dropped right in front of Panthers’ Chau Smith-Wade.
Smith-Wade was breaking on Vele’s route, but didn’t see the ball in time to make a play. The Shough-to-Vele miscommunication offered up a friendly interception. It was available for the Carolina nickel to take it all the way to the house for points. The subsequent third-and-13 play resulted in a 16-yard completion, with Smith-Wade in coverage.
An additional 15 yards came from a roughing the passer penalty against A’Shawn Robinson, one of the contest’s twenty accepted infractions.
Carolina took a two-possession, ten-point lead after a five-minute, 70-yard drive to open the third quarter. They scored a touchdown to culminate the drive. On the next Saints’ possession, Mike Jackson — PFSN CBi’s No. 20-ranked cornerback (84.3) — delivered a perfectly-placed hit on New Orleans’ WR Mason Tipton running a jet sweep to Jackson’s side. The hit jarred the football loose, once again in New Orleans’ territory.
While Panthers’ fans collectively launched from their seats, yelling, “ball!”, Christian Rozeboom found himself in an incredibly advantageous position. He was already in pursuit of the play and could have fallen on top of the fumbled football. Instead, he couldn’t stop himself from running into the already-collided duo of Tipton and Jackson, creating a three-car pileup. The free ball was instead recovered by Saints’ Dillon Radunz.
The subsequent third-and-13 (deja vu, anyone?) was successfully converted when Tyler Shough completed a 15-yard pass to Devaugh Vele. That drive led to a New Orleans field goal, cutting the deficit to seven and keeping the Saints within reach.
There Was Nothing Sneaky About the Panthers’ 4th-and-Inches Attempt
Bryce Young was asked about his confidence in converting on fourth down in his post-game press conference, to which he finished his response with, “At the end of the day, it just comes down to execution.”
The Panthers’ offense stayed on the field and attempted to convert three fourth-down situations in Sunday’s game. They succeeded on two, both of which came prior to the final attempt. First (fourth-and-three), a 21-yard pass to Tetairoa McMillan, created by Bryce Young, evading pressure in an empty shotgun look. The other (fourth-and-one), a three-yard Rico Dowdle run up the middle from a trips-right shotgun RPO concept.
When Carolina lined up to go for it on fourth down the final time (inches-to-go), they came to the line in the exact 22 personnel formation they showed in the first quarter. The Saints’ defense recognized it and communicated at the line pre-snap. Carolina motioned Tremble to flank the left tackle, as it had previously, and ran the inside dive with Chuba Hubbard, as it did before.
The offensive line had been getting bullied since the opening drive of the third quarter. They weren’t generating much push. Running the ball wasn’t a ‘bad’ call. But it created an opportunity for the Saints to pack defenders into the run, which was not ideal. The execution of the call was the dagger.
Damien Lewis lost leverage instantly. Taylor Moton hit a knee, and his defender collapsed the right side onto Hubbard, who tried to avoid tripping over Lewis via a jump cut.
“With Bryce [Young] it’s physics. He goes about 190 pounds.”, Panthers’ head coach Dave Canales responded on Monday when asked about whether he’d given any thought to sneak plays in short yardage situations. As for if he’s considered – – heading into Week 16 of the NFL regular season – – using any other non-190-pound player on the Carolina roster, perhaps former-QB-turned-TE Mitchell Evans, Canales added, “We have. We’re working on some stuff.”
Panthers’ Defensive Miscommunication Meets Saints’ Offensive Tempo
The fourth quarter was a meltdown for the Carolina Panthers. The defense allowed 182 yards and ten points in the final period. Tyler Shough threw for 162 yards (272 total in the game) and nine 10+ yard completions in the fourth quarter alone.
Canales’ assessment of those final drives on Monday was, “We [Panthers] were totally disjointed in the back end.” He added, “These are like, base calls that we have to be more connected on.”
Pressed for more detail about the disjointed play, the Panthers’ coach said, “It was the communication that was disjointed,” not the defensive call(s). In contrast, Jaycee Horn felt that the tempo the Saints’ offense used was the cause of more problems.
“They were just going tempo. And they was catching us in the same call, damn near the whole drive, and they was just getting easy completions.” Horn told reporters in the locker room on Monday.
Horn would further push back on Canales’ assessment when asked if communication issues caused the disjointed play:
“On the touchdown drive, I wouldn’t necessarily say it was communication on that drive, cause they were just going tempo and catching us in the same call. And we were in true zone, like, most of the time, so it wasn’t much me and Mike [Jackson] could really do on some of those digs and in-breaking routes that [Chris] Olave caught.”
The final wrinkle in the disjointed saga: Mike Jackson told reporters, “We just wasn’t on the same page, that’s really it.” Asked if the late-game performance was due to the tempo, Jackson plainly stated, “Nah, it ain’t got nothing to do with the tempo, it’s just us. (There were) times when they tempo-ed us in the first game and we was on the same page.”
You can place that one in the ‘communication’ column, if you’re keeping score at home.
The linebacker’s play in coverage was a problem, a common theme this season. Timeliness and reaching depth aren’t the unit’s strengths. The intermediate middle of the field is a fun zone for opposing offenses. That was certainly the case on the final two drives that directly resulted in the blown lead and wasted opportunity in Week 15. That’s one point of communication that’s crystal clear.
