FOXBOROUGH, MA (CAROLINA SPORTS LIVE) — We all knew Drake Maye was special when he came into the Queen City News studios all those years ago as a Myers Park Quarterback. We knew he had NFL potential when he took over as the starter at UNC. He didn’t need to be stellar to beat the team he rooted for as a child.
In fact, it was the New England Patriots defense and special teams that ended the Carolina Panthers early Sunday in a 42-13 blowout at Gillette Stadium.
“Certainly not the execution we’re looking for. This is in all phases, first and foremost, giving the credit to the Patriots,” said Panthers head coach Dave Canales. “They outplayed us in every phase, offensively, defensively, on special teams, with the big return yardage on that. When it’s a full team effort like this, I have to put that on myself. I have to look at how I’m preparing the team, how we’re going about our work. I have to look at that and compete to find an edge to get these guys to work together, to focus so we can get the execution that we’re seeing happen in our processes.”
The first possession for Carolina had everyone thinking the Panthers could have back-to-back wins. Bryce Young started his first drive going five-for-five and finding Tommy Tremble in the end zone for a touchdown. Things started to go downhill immediately after that, as rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald would miss the PAT.
The Patriots took over from there.
Forty-two unanswered points until a late touchdown pass from Andy Dalton to rookie tight end Mitchell Evans. Young would be benched early in the fourth quarter after the game was out of hand. However, Young wasn’t moving the ball downfield efficiently. Bryce would finish the game going 18 for 30 with 150 yards passing. He seemed to be out of sync with his favorite target, Teatiroa McMillan.
“Missed some stuff,” said Bryce. “I take accountability for that. It’s on me. Missing my opportunities. We’ll watch film, and I’ll be better and we’re all be better.”
Special teams couldn’t get it together.
Giving up multiple long returns off kicks, including what would be a dagger. Marcus Jones’ 87-yard punt return had a barrage of missed tackles. It would happen again on another kick, where punter Sam Martin had a shoestring tackle to save the score from getting worse.
When Drake Maye had the ball, he looked cool, calm, and composed. Something the Panthers are still waiting to get consistently from their QB1. Maye had a rushing touchdown early in the game, which would end with the Charlotte native hitting the old school Cam Newton Superman celebration.
The Carolina defense attempted to hold its own on the ground. It’s well known that if they can stop the run, they’ll have a chance, but they gave up 101 yards to six different rushers. That’d set up Maye to find ball catchers like Stefon Diggs and tight end Hunter Henry. Maye would finish with 203 yards passing.
Carolina now heads back to Charlotte, where they’ll welcome the Miami Dolphins, who have their own issues.
The Panthers hope to get healthy. Offensive guard Chandler Zavala went down early in the game. A big loss for an offensive line that has given its quarterbacks time to work. David Moore also went down in the first play of the game with an elbow injury. Turk Wharton did return from injury this week, but was on a snap count.
TEAM STATS
🏈 Total Yards: Panthers outpaced New England 326 to 207
🏈 Passing Yards: Panthers – 197, New England – 203
🏈 Rushing Yards: Carolina – 129, New England – 104
🏈 Panthers had nearly 10 more minutes of possession