Good luck finding any winners in a 20-3 loss, am I right? Well, let’s try to do it anyway.
Here are some losers and winners from the Carolina Panthers’ preseason defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday night:
Winner: LB Frankie Luvu
The man his Panthers teammates now know as “Uce,” Luvu was the biggest standout for Carolina in this one. He wound up with three tackles, a forced fumble, a quarterback hit and a pass breakup in the start alongside Shaq Thompson and Jermaine Carter Jr.
Frankie Luvu. Great timing. pic.twitter.com/Vl0iKtaNK6
— John Ellis (@1PantherPlace) August 21, 2021
Frankie Luvu shoots the gap and finishes with an aggressive tipped ball. Luvu plays fast as hell. pic.twitter.com/axb8WvZ1Pc
— John Ellis (@1PantherPlace) August 22, 2021
Each play he made felt like a big deal, and to him, it should have. We’ll look back at these last few days with the Ravens and remember it as the week Luvu clinched his spot on the roster.
Loser: The Panthers secondary
Carolina lost cornerback Troy Pride Jr. last week in Indianapolis. He’ll miss the remainder of the season after undergoing ACL surgery.
They took two more hits, perhaps not as serious, with safety Kenny Robinson and corner Keith Taylor. Hopefully, they won’t lose either of these defensive backs for too long, as both were setting themselves up to serve as some solid depth in the secondary.
Winner: QB Will Grier
Those three points came with Grier under center, who was good enough to close a little of the gap in the No. 2 quarterback competition. The offense wasn’t exactly moving under him, but the 2019 third-rounder completed 11 of his 14 throws for 144 yards in a largely controlled performance.
Loser: QB P.J. Walker
That gap closed back the other way also, in part, to Walker’s poor outing. Nothing came easy, or at all for that matter, as he connected on just one of his eight throws after shining in Indianapolis a week ago.
Winner: WR Terrace Marshall Jr.
All this kid seems to do is win this summer. After an 88-yard output in his debut against the Colts, Marshall Jr. once again led the team with 50 receiving yards on three grabs. 34 of them came on this . . .
Another week, another deep shot to Terrace Marshall Jr.
pic.twitter.com/WBJg9lFdVn
— PFF (@PFF) August 21, 2021
Loser: K Joey Slye
It’s not great when the head coach says you haven’t “produced at the level” the team needs you to. But, Slye deserved that callout and he has to agree after missing a 37-yarder tonight. He’s now 5-for-7 on kicks this preseason, including a missed extra point.
Leave a Reply