Following a month of steady progress and three straight wins, the Carolina Panthers entered their Week 8 game against the Buffalo Bills with a chance to prove it belonged among the NFC’s more consistent teams. It turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.
They walked out of Bank of America Stadium with a heavy loss and an F from John Breech of CBS Sports, who graded the Panthers' woeful performance.
With quarterback Bryce Young sidelined, veteran backup Andy Dalton made his first start in over a year. The result wasn’t pretty. He turned the ball over three times — one interception and two fumbles — directly leading to 17 points.
Dalton completed 16 of 24 passes for 175 passing yards, as the Bills' pass rush sacked him seven times. It didn’t help that Carolina’s offensive line, already banged up, kept losing bodies. By the fourth quarter, three starters were on the sideline.
Now, the offense playing poorly under Dalton wasn’t too much of a surprise. However, perhaps the most shocking part of Carolina's loss was the complete unraveling of Ejiro Evero's defense.
Before this game, the Panthers hadn’t allowed a single rush over 10 yards in three weeks. Buffalo running back James Cook III ran for two touchdowns and a career-high 216 yards during an afternoon of complete dominance.
His total was the most ever allowed by a Carolina opponent, surpassing Derrick Ward’s 215-yard day back in 2008.
Breech summed it up bluntly in his weekly grades. “This was a chance for the Panthers to prove they’re for real, but they ended up failing the test badly.”
That sums it up pretty well. A missed field goal before halftime, three turnovers, seven sacks allowed, and a lot of injuries; it felt like everything that could go wrong did.
Even head coach Dave Canales, who had been steering the team toward steady improvement, was upset that the effort didn’t meet their standard. Sure, all the good things they've done over the last month aren’t gone, but they were less evident against the Bills.
The loss drops the Panthers to 4-4. But even worse, the offensive line injuries could have lingering effects as the season moves into its second half.
For a young team trying to turn the corner, this meltdown was a reminder that progress isn’t always linear. And if the Panthers want to prove that “F” was a fluke and not a forecast, their response this weekend against the Green Bay Packers will say everything.