Panthers let a winnable game slip away against the Broncos and the officials added another frustrating layer to Sunday’s loss
The Carolina Panthers had a frustrating loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday and some of the calls made, or not made, by the officials made this one sting even worse.
The Carolina Panthers dropped a tough one-possession game to the Denver Broncos on Sunday and had a chance to take the lead late before fumbling the opportunity away. This was a winnable game for the Panthers, and a lot of circumstances went into the result.
Overall, it was simply a frustrating day for the entire team and everyone involved. The root of it comes down to penalties. Carolina had 13 penalties enforced in this game for a total of 113 yards. You can’t have that. It’s hard to win any games when that happens.
“When you play a good opponent, you have to minimize the mistakes,” head coach Dave Canales said after the game. “Just thinking about that right there, when you’re playing a team like the Broncos, they’re a tough team to beat in these one-possession games because they do things right… That’s the part we have to focus on to make sure we play clean football all the way through.”
It’s a weak excuse to blame the officials for a loss, and the Panthers certainly aren’t doing that
Blaming the officials for a loss is a weak excuse in this league. There’s a lot that goes into it over the full 60 minutes to blame the result on one or two calls, regardless of the situation. The Panthers took the high road after this game with how they reacted to some of the calls that were made, or not.
“I always connect with (the officials) and just ask them what they saw,” Canales said. “I saw what they saw. Whether you call it a 50/50 decision or all of that.”
Some of the calls were spot on. The Panthers played aggressive on the outside with two practice squad call-ups starting in Marco Wilson and Corey Thornton. The two were called for five defensive pass interferences (four of which were enforced). Those penalties kept drives alive for the Broncos and were easy calls for the officials to see.
“It’s about technique, Canales added. “When you’re going to be up there challenging, you gotta be in the right position. It’s about leverage, it’s about technique, to finish those games legally.”
Then there’s penalties that were self-inflicted mistakes. Such as having too many men on the field, or jumping offsides, or pre-snap penalties on offense. You can’t blame the officials for those kind of calls, and again, the Panthers didn’t use that as an excuse.
“We should never be relying on refs or calls or anything like that. It’s on us to go out and win,” quarterback Bryce Young told reporters. “There’s plenty of stuff on tape that we could have done. We could have executed better, I could have executed better. That’s all that we care about. Circumstances are circumstances. We didn’t do enough today, that’s what matters.”
Two moments that flipped this game on its head
The first game-changing play came late in the third quarter. The Panthers were set up with a first-and-goal at the one following a defensive pass interference call on tight end Darren Waller. The Panthers were treating it as a four-down situation to score a touchdown and started the sequence off with a passing play.
Young had to by time before throwing it to the back left corner of the endzone. There was a lot of back and forth between tight end Tommy Tremble and linebacker Justin Strnad. No call was made for the contact as the officials deemed it a “bang-bang play”, and result was an incomplete pass.
The next play, the Panthers were stuffed on a run. However, after the play, the officials came together and said that Broncos head coach Sean Payton actually dropped the challenge flag before the snap. After the review, it was confirmed that the ball bounced up off Tremble’s hand and was then caught by Devon Key for an interception.
The Panthers were knocking on the door of making it a 21-13 lead. Instead, the Broncos got the turnover and marched down the field and scored to make it a 19-14 game.
“It was huge and flipped the fields completely,” Canales explained. “They did a great job of executing on the next drive. Those are situations we gotta be able to finish and punch the ball in there, however we do it.”
The next game-changing moment came on Carolina’s final offensive drive. The refs missed a clear offsides call on the first-and-10 play that was a 20-yard completion. Calling that would have stopped the clock. Carolina’s next play then ended with a strip-sack that sealed the game, as Young’s arm did not fully come forward prior to the ball coming out.
Again, not all of it was on the refs. The Panthers had plenty of execution issues as well in this game that led a winnable game slip through their hands. But, fans have every right to be frustrated with how everything unfolded on Sunday.
