Panthers ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ offense has to stop

The Panthers were destined to look bad on Monday night — after all, it was a primetime game. Carolina’s propensity for laying goose eggs on the brightest stage has been a calling card of the franchise for the better part of 30 years, so why stop now? First you get mad about it, then you accept it, finally all you can do is laugh, but the frustration at seeing the offense continuously vacillate from world beaters to absolutely abysmal is simply nauseating.

Dave Canales offered cold comfort in the wake of another loss. It was more of the same from the head coach, discussing a lack of execution, and failing to take advantage of key moments — which is more or less what Canales says after every loss, but this time it was a little different. There was a strong undercurrent of the coach covering his ass, saying that he thought the Panthers brought the perfect offensive game plan to San Francisco, but the team failed to execute.

Part of this is certainly true. The Panthers were exceedingly sloppy, and we saw some uncharacteristic mistakes creep into much of the game. Tetairoa McMillan dropped passes that hit him in the hands, Bryce Young’s out of structure passing was inconsistent — and Xavier Legette was, well, Xavier Legette. The 49ers opted to stack the box to ensure Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard didn’t run them over, but this also had an effect where the tight ends were taken out of the passing game. This was especially prevalent after Young’s end zone interception when linebacker Ji’Ayir Brown make a great play reading the QB’s eyes and jumping the pass intended for Mitchell Evans — but from this moment on Young was wary of targeting his tight ends due to the pick.

The lingering question is why the team didn’t leverage verticality in the passing game? This was the defining weakness the Niners have had this season, with San Francisco ranking 25th in net yards per pass attempt allowed — an indication that they routinely struggle to stop deeper passing attempts. Instead, Carolina’s offensive game plan was scared to challenge the secondary 1v1, and it showed on Young’s passing chart from Monday night.

The Panthers only attempted six passes with 15+ air yards, and while they didn’t have a great deal of success — there were enough near completions that it was worth continuing to test the secondary. This was emphasized even further when Young and McMillan scored the second half touchdown, yet the Panthers reverted to their same, negative air yard passing attack that hoped to break the secondary with YAC, rather than contesting passes in the air.

This was a fundamentally broken plan that operated backwards from what the team should have done. The week prior we saw Young set a Panthers franchise record by pushing the ball downfield. Young threw 20 passes of 10+ air yards against Atlanta, or 45% of his passes. Meanwhile against the 49ers we saw him throw just eight passes beyond the same mark, or 27% of his passes downfield.

What makes this so frustrating is that it felt as though the Panthers had turned a corner offensively. In Week 11 we saw the training wheels come off and allow Young to make significant throws downfield, but as the stakes rose against the Niners we saw a regression to scared play calling, as if Canales and Co. were far more concerned with the possibility of catching the Buccaneers that they didn’t want to risk anything — and it came back to bite them.

The lingering question remains: Does the coaching staff not trust Young to make these throws on a regular basis? Or are they scared to open up the game because they don’t trust the receivers enough?

Either way it’s unacceptable, and the weekly mood changes are too much to bear. The Panthers might not be a playoff team in 2025 based on their talent, but they definitely won’t be because of the coaching behind it all. Something has to change to inspire some confidence that Carolina is progressing as a team, and not that their six wins were all flukes.