4 instant takeaways from Panthers’ Week 2 loss at the Bucs

Teddy Bridgewater’s rough start

To say things did not go according to plan for Teddy Bridgewater in the early exchanges would be something of an understatement. The free-agent signing endured a stark contrast from the start he enjoyed in Week 1 and the Carolina Panthers paid the price.

Bridgewater threw an interception on a screen pass to Christian McCaffrey early on. This eventually resulted in a touchdown for Ronald Jones following a crucial third-down penalty from No. 7 overall pick Derrick Brown when Carolina’s defense was set to get off the field.

To make matters worse, Bridgewater also lost a fumble on the next drive deep in Panthers’ territory, and Tom Brady made him pay with a score on the following play to Mike Evans.

This lost all momentum for the Panthers, who just weren’t ready coming out of the locker room and this simply cannot happen in the NFL. Bridgewater paid the price for a lack of protection. But his decision-making has to be better, to put it mildly.

If the Panthers’ fanbase thought it might get better as the game wore on, they were out of luck to a certain extent. But it was not like it could get much worse and Bridgewater did show some signs of life after the break. However, a crucial interception in the fourth quarter all-but condemned them to defeat.

Bridgewater eventually finished with 367 passing yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, completing 33 out of 42 passes.