Panthers owner David Tepper drops F-bomb after loss: When will ax fall on Frank Reich?
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — David Tepper reacted to the Carolina Panthers’ latest loss probably like most fans of the woebegone franchise.
Exiting the visitors locker room at Nissan Stadium after a 17-10 defeat to the Tennessee Titans , Tepper took several strides, shook his head and yelled, “F—!”
It was that kind of day — and that kind of season — for an owner whose frustration has seemingly reached a boiling point. Considering Tepper’s track record, it’s hard to see how Frank Reich makes it through his first season as the Panthers’ head coach.
The loss Sunday dropped the Panthers to 1-10 and continued their season-long struggles on offense. The offense scored 15 points or less for the sixth game in a row — a stretch dating to Oct. 15 (42-21 loss at Miami) and spanning two different play callers.
In two games since Reich reclaimed play calling from offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, the Panthers have scored a total of 20 points, allowed 11 sacks and averaged 222.5 total yards.
It’s one thing to flail against the Dallas Cowboys’ dominant defense as the Panthers did in Week 11, but the Titans (4-7) entered Sunday ranked in the bottom third of the league defensively.
This will not end well for Reich, who said he didn’t speak to Tepper after the game.
The defense gave the Panthers a chance by shutting out Tennessee in the second half. But after a touchdown drive on their first drive of the second half, the Panthers couldn’t do anything, either.
Their final four possessions ended with three punts and a failed wide receiver screen on a fourth-and-6 at the two-minute warning.
“What are you gonna do? You’re 1-10. What, are you gonna feel sorry for yourself? Think something’s gonna magically fix everything? No. We lost a close football game today. These games are winnable,” Reich said. “That message doesn’t fly when you’re 1-10 but I know these games are winnable. I know we have the players and the coaches to do that.”
That’s been Reich’s message all year but the results haven’t changed.
Offensive touchdowns have become as rare as an eclipse, with the Panthers scoring one or fewer in eight of 11 games. They’ve been outscored by 119 points, the second-worst point differential in the NFL behind the New York Giants (minus-133). Unfortunately for Reich, the Giants aren’t on the schedule this season.
The difference Sunday proved to be Bryce Young ’s fumble on a strip-sack by Arden Key , who beat left tackle Ikem Ekwonu to jar the ball loose from Young and give the Titans possession at the Carolina 15. Two plays later, Derrick Henry scored on a 10-yard run to put Tennessee up 14-3. A Nick Folk field goal made it 17-3 at the half.
But with the defense keeping Henry and rookie quarterback Will Levis in check in the second half, Young and the offense took over at its 20 trailing by a touchdown with 2:57 remaining.
The Titans’ fourth sack and a dump-off to Chuba Hubbard on third-and-long left the Panthers with a fourth-and-6 from their own 24. The Panthers had a play called that included an in-breaking route by DJ Chark and other downfield routes.
But thinking the Titans were in Cover 0 — man coverage with no deep defender — Young checked to a screen to Chark, who was pulled down by safety Amani Hooker for no gain.
Reich defended his rookie quarterback afterward, saying it was the right check while adding that Chark might have drifted back too far behind the line of scrimmage.
“When you hit that play right versus 0, it’s a touchdown. DJ probably came a little further back then he needed to. He’s not normally the guy in there for that,” Reich said. “We had a couple (receivers) go down. The play that we had called was going to put DJ on another in cut, not that he was primary. So we wanted him in that spot. We just need to execute that better.”
But Chark said the Titans were not in Cover 0, and the Panthers would have done better to stick with the original call.
“It was against Cover 0 but they didn’t go Cover 0. My job is to get four yards behind the line of scrimmage. I have to check and see how far I was but felt like I got four yards behind the line of scrimmage,” Chark said. “I’ve gotta watch film and see what it is.”
Asked if he should have left the initial play call, Young also said he needed to watch the tape.
“We had an option to have that on. You play that cat-and-mouse game and it didn’t go our way,” he said. “That’s on me. As a unit, we’ve just gotta execute on big plays.”
Let’s be real. Even if the Panthers pick up the six yards there, they still have 70 to go with less than two minutes remaining and out of timeouts. Their quick-strike offense has been virtually nonexistent all season.
So while the should-Young-have-checked debate was interesting, the bigger issue is this offense just isn’t set up to take advantage of Young’s skill set. The protection stinks and there aren’t enough playmakers.
On Sunday, the Titans took away Adam Thielen , Young’s favorite target, and — with the exception of Hubbard and rookie wideout Jonathan Mingo — no one else really stepped up. Thielen came in averaging 9.7 targets a game but only had three against Tennessee, finishing with one catch for 2 yards.
“It was a key,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “We were able to put some guys around him on third down. That’s kind of where he’d had 30-some targets. A third of his targets were on third down.”
Interior offensive line play has been an issue all season, and injuries continued to mount at the guard spots. By the end of Sunday, the Panthers were down to their fourth (journeyman Brett Toth ) and sixth (undrafted rookie Nash Jensen ) guards after both Chandler Zavala and Cade Mays (who replaced Zavala) left with injuries.
As a result, the Panthers were often behind the first-down sticks, a bad spot they’ve become all too accustomed to.
“You get second-and-20, second-and-18, those are hard to overcome,” Reich said.
“You just probably got out of phase because you got sacked or holding because you (allowed) pressure. Now you’re really put in the position to call another pass,” he added. “Not all the time. We’ll mix that up and call some runs on second-and-extra long. But for the most part we’re trying to go throw it to get back to third-and-manageable.”
Nothing’s felt manageable or easy for this offense since Week 1. Young, who finished with fewer than 200 passing yards for the fourth consecutive game, answered questions for three minutes in his shortest postgame media session.
There’s not much else to ask or say at this point, until Tepper reaches what feels like an inevitable decision and fires another coach.
(Top photo of Denico Autry and Bryce Young: Wesley Hitt / )
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