Nothing much went right for the Carolina Panthers offense during their joint practice against the Houston Texans. They were overwhelmed and outmatched. And quite frankly, they got punched in the mouth.
Responding to adversity is nothing new for quarterback Bryce Young. And the No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft issued a rallying cry to his teammates after failing to lay a glove on Houston's formidable defensive unit.
Pressure breaks pipes. The Panthers' offensive line was blown away by Houston's defensive front, led by the stud edge rushing duo of Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. Young has pressure in his face all day, and though he acknowledged they needed to be better, he's excited to grow from this clear reality check.
Bryce Young believes Carolina Panthers will grow from joint practice reality check
The Panthers got knocked back. How they push forward will be key.
"We're competitors. We want to win. Again, they got after us today and that's not a good feeling, but, it's not, I wouldn't say frustration. It's not angry about the circumstances, situation.
"It's us not performing at the level we want to. I look in the mirror, we all look in the mirror, and again, a day like this, you got to grow from it, but we're excited for that process. I'm excited to be able to do that with this group."
There are higher expectations for the Panthers this season. Winning the NFC South and pushing the Los Angeles Rams to their limit in the wild-card playoff round were positive steps in the right direction.
Now, more is required.
This was a step back versus a team that is expected to be among the challengers if quarterback C.J. Stroud can get it together. And the Panthers fell way short of matching them.
The players didn't need to be told; neither did head coach Dave Canales. You know when you're getting beaten down by the better team. That's just how it goes sometimes, but what's important now is taking these lessons on board and making sure the flaws don't carry into Week 1 against the Chicago Bears.
Because that is coming around sooner than you think.
While the Panthers won't see many defensive fronts like this in the regular season, the protection in front of Young has to improve. Not having Taylor Moton and Ikem Ekwonu available is being sorely felt. There are concerns at center, and the guard duo of Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt have both missed time this offseason.
And if Young doesn't have enough time to go through his progressions effectively, that's only going to end one way.
Overreactions are plentiful at this time of year. Panthers fans were on the highest of highs, but this joint practice brought them crashing back down to earth.
As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But if this was a measuring stick for Canales and Young to assess, there is a lot of hard work ahead.
Young isn't panicking. He'll treat this setback as a learning curve, and so should everyone else.
But this cannot become the start of a concerning trend. That comes with far greater ramifications.
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