Panthers vs. Chiefs game review: Alabama Bryce showed up

When the Panthers needed it most, the 2023 first overall pick played the best game of his career

The Carolina Panthers gave the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs the best shot they had – and it was a good one. The saying may be “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”, but an exception should be made for the Panthers after taking the Chiefs to the final whistle on Sunday.

For an organization as downtrodden and long suffering as the Panthers have been, pulling up to a game as 11 point underdogs versus and going punch for punch for 60 minutes represents another step taken towards building a competitive team.

For this week’s game review, we’re going to look at the main player behind the Panthers competitive performance, and why they ultimately lost despite playing their best football of the 2024 season.

‘Bama Bryce showed up

Bryce Young played outstanding football on Sunday. For much of his career thus far, any positive statements directed towards Young came with a caveat. Today there is no pointing out that he only performed well because he was going against a bad team, or that he only started performing during garbage time, when the Panthers were out of the game already. No, Young went up against one of the NFL’s best coached defenses with above average starters across the starting 11 and looked liked he belong there.

On Sunday, Young had one of the best quarterback performances in the league this week and the best of his NFL career, so far. He looked like the player the organization wanted when they traded up to take him 1st overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. There are so many telling stats about his performance that I think it’s best to just list them out:

• Young’s 82.8 passing grade was 3rd best in the NFL in Week 12 (per PFF)
• Young’s 5 PFF “Big Time Throws” (BTT) were tied for the most in the NFL in Week 12 (per PFF)
• Of the 3 players with 5 BTT, Young had the lowest number of turnover worthy throws (1) and the highest average depth of target (10.1 yds) (per PFF)
• Young had a 90.1 grade versus the blitz, going 11/14 for 140 yards and a touchdown (per PFF)
• Young had a 2.66 time-to-throw, with a 34.3% aggressive throw rate (highest in the NFL by over 10% in week 12) and a completion % over expectation of 5.7% (per NFL Next Gen Stats)
• Young had 3 of the top 20 “improbable completions” of the week (per NFL Next Gen Stats)

Suffice it to say, Young played a great game. He was decisive, aggressive, accurate and took care of the football. Fingers crossed we can see more of this player over the final 6 games of the season.

Patrick Mahomes was inevitable

With all due respect to the Panthers, the Chiefs have a history of turning these games into wins, and were put into perfect position when the Panthers were set to give the ball back to them with 1:46 on the game clock with their full compliment of timeouts. According to the broadcast, the Chiefs had won 4 of their 9 games on the last play of the game, which became 5 of 10 once the Chiefs finished the Panthers off with a field goal as time expired.

There were a few moments the Panthers could have handled better to give them a better chance at a win, Jaycee Horn getting 4 penalties called on him wasn’t helpful, nor was his 27.7 coverage grade. Dane Jackson had a few rough moments leading to a 29.8 coverage grade and seemingly let up on thinking Mahomes was going to go out of bounds on the last drive, only for him to turn up field for 33 yards to all but seal the game.

Xavier Legette’s drop on the Panthers final offensive drive may have cost the Panthers an opportunity to have the ball last, instead the Panthers had to run a few more plays that ran through the 2 minute warning. A few penalties here, a missed tackle there, and an unfortunate injury to Ja’Tavion Sanders were too much to overcome for the Panthers against a 9-win team.

While that’s all I have for you this week, tune in to next weeks game review as Dave Canales gets his first game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As always, keep pounding!