Bryce Young was coming off his worst performance of the season. But as all Carolina Panthers fans know, the quarterback is well-versed in overcoming adversity.
Young got the chance to wipe the taste out of his mouth quickly after last weekend's embarrassment against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was a chance for the signal-caller to prove worthy of being in the NFL MVP conversation against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. And we were about to find out a lot more about what this Panthers team is truly capable of.
It wasn't going to be easy. The Panthers were understrength, missing key men on both sides of the ball. That's no excuse, so Young and his teammates still had to come through to retain their slender NFC South lead.
The Packers were also coming off a loss, and they were on home soil. They are also in a much more competitive division, so the margin for error is quickly vanishing.
Fans were expectant, but as it turned out, Young and the Panthers never really had a shot until it was too late, and they fell to their second straight defeat and fourth of the campaign.
With that in mind, here are five major observations from Young's performance at Lambeau Field.
Observations from Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young's performance against the Packers
Bryce Young's batted passes
One of the main problems facing Bryce Young throughout the game was the number of batted passes. This stemmed from frequent interior pressure, and his throws lacked touch.
The Packers got up their hands and made things happen. Young had several passes deflected at the line of scrimmage. And eventually, one turned into an interception in the second quarter.
This had been coming.
The pocket was collapsing on Young, and they were generating enough disruption with four or five guys to drop more people back into coverage. It's the new blueprint for restricting the signal-caller, because teams have now seen what he can do when he gets time in the pocket to go through his progressions.
Inevitably, this came with the tired old narrative of Young's height working against him. These critics were pretty quiet early in the campaign, but they have waited for their moment to throw shade once again.
Something has to be done. The offense has hit a major hurdle in recent weeks, and the batted passes are just a microcosm of everything going wrong.
And the coaching staff doesn't seem to have a clue how to adapt.
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