TAMPA, Fla. — After the rain stopped dumping on Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, the slightest glimmer of sunshine appeared for the Carolina Panthers: an offensive touchdown and a lead against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It was gone 10 seconds later.
That’s how long it took for former Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield to find perennial Panthers killer Mike Evans on a 75-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. Just like that, the Panthers lost the lead, Brian Burns lost his cool and Carolina was on its way to its 11th loss in 12 games — a 21-18 decision in the first game of the post-Frank Reich era, such as it was.
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Bad teams find ways to lose. Tampa Bay (5-7) is not a particularly good team. The Panthers are the NFL’s worst — and the first to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. And while interim coach Chris Tabor wanted players to stay loose and have fun over the final six games, there’s been nothing fun about the 2023 Panthers.
“I feel for them. I mean, losing stinks. And it’s hard and it’s frustrating,” Tabor said. “But at the same time, you can handle things two ways. You can either handle it with character or you can handle it with compromise. So which one is it going to be? And I like our guys. We’ll just keep working.”
Burns, the Panthers’ only Pro Bowl player, finally caved under the weight and frustrations of the team’s sorry season. While officials reviewed whether Evans had stayed in bounds before reaching the ball across the goal line, Burns got into it with Bucs guard Cody Mauch.
In the first half, another Tampa Bay lineman said something to edge rushers Marquis Haynes and Burns that infuriated Burns. After the extra point, there was some pushing and Burns took a swing at Mauch. Officials whistled Burns for a personal foul and ejected him with just under five minutes left in the third quarter.
Brian Burns said a Tampa Bay offensive player said something he shouldn’t have said early in the game, which upset Burns. It was not the same guy Burns later punched. pic.twitter.com/tiqZhZl0yl
— Joe Person (@josephperson) December 4, 2023
Asked if his reaction stemmed from the incident versus the entire year, Burns said: “All of it.”
When Evans beat nickel corner Troy Hill for the long touchdown, starting cornerback Jaycee Horn was on the sideline, having reached the reps limit the team set in Horn’s first game since Week 1. Horn played through the first defensive series of the second half and was done, leaving Hill, C.J. Henderson and D’Shawn Jamison to help Donte Jackson in the corner rotation.
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Hill, a veteran who played for defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero with the Los Angeles Rams, blamed himself for letting Evans get past him on a seam route. “Bad technique on my end, good play on his end,” he said. “I’m outside leverage, I sat on the outside leverage and (Evans made) a catch and go. Easy catch for him.”
Evans has more receptions, yards and touchdowns against Carolina than any other team. He finished with seven catches for 162 yards Sunday, though Burns wasn’t around to see the last of them.
“Emotions got the best of me. One of the offensive linemen said something in the beginning that he shouldn’t have said to me and Marquis. Ever since then I was pretty much on 10. I was mad,” Burns said. “Some events happened. We got scored on. Game wasn’t going our way. … I take full accountability for my actions but I can’t do that.”
The week started with owner David Tepper firing Reich, whose tenure was the NFL’s shortest in 45 years. There were Thanksgiving weekend layovers at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport that felt longer than Reich’s stint.
Tabor, the special teams coordinator, took over and promptly fired quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and running backs coach Duce Staley. Offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, who’d had play-calling duties yanked from under him after three games by Reich, again would call the offense with an assist from Jim Caldwell.
The offense looked a little better Sunday. Chuba Hubbard became the first Panthers’ back to run for 100 yards this season. And with Hubbard’s two rushing touchdowns, the Panthers’ offense had scored two touchdowns for the first time since a 42-21 loss at Miami on Oct. 15.
Wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, the second-round pick from Ole Miss, notched career highs with six catches and 69 receiving yards. And No. 1 pick Bryce Young lined up under center more than he had with Reich, enabling Brown to have some success with the play-action game.
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Given the way Hubbard (25 carries for 104 yards) ran with conviction, it was curious then when Brown called for passes on consecutive plays with the Panthers down three when a yard would have extended the drive in the final three minutes. After Young threw incomplete on third-and-1 and was intercepted by Antoine Winfield on fourth down, the Bucs ran out the clock.
Bryce Young completed 15 of 31 passes Sunday for 178 yards and one interception. He was sacked four times. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)“Those are the decisions. Those were the two plays that they liked, so that’s what we went with,” Tabor said.
Asked if he’d weighed in on the play calls, Tabor added: “I let the coaches coach, and I (have) a lot of faith in them.”
Defensive tackle Derrick Brown was one of the last Panthers in the locker room after what he called a long week.
“A lot of turnover, a lot of things happened. It’s one of those things where you’ve still gotta come to work so it doesn’t really matter, to be honest,” Brown said. “I hate what happened to Frank. I feel for him, other members of the coaching staff that got fired. But we didn’t get it done. …
“As a player, you should feel something about it because you feel you’re not doing your job well enough. But it’s still no excuse to come out here and lose tonight. This league keeps going forward.”
And with that, Brown was off to grab one of the postgame burgers outside the locker room and headed for the bus. On to New Orleans, the first of five more games before this season is put out of its misery.
(Photo of Chuba Hubbard: Kim Klement / USA Today)
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