You know your team is causing heartburn when at the concession stand along with hats, peanuts and beer they are selling Pepto Bismol.
Fans of the Carolina Panthers have been taken on a rollercoaster ride this season and in recent years that has many of their fans hunched over in pain. Ten years ago, they were favored in the Super Bowl, a game they lost to Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos. Two years ago, they hocked their future in hopes that taking Bryce Young with the first pick in the draft would provide them a franchise quarterback.
So far, that hasn’t worked out.
If they wanted to, the Panthers could take credit for making the Chicago Bears relevant and a first-place team in the competitive NFC North Division. It was with the Bears that the Panthers shipped a bevy of high draft choices and a first-string receiver to for the first pick in the 2023 draft. They moved up to make Young the first pick that year.
In the succeeding years, while the Panthers dropped to being the worst team in football, the Bears cashed those high draft picks and built one of the best rosters in the league. Meanwhile, Young has always been on the verge of a washout only to offer glimpses of hope. His first look as an adequate quarterback appeared down the stretch of last season when after a horrible start and being benched, he returned to the lineup and led the Panthers to a pair of wins over the final three games of the 2024 season.
His showing offered hope to the Panthers brass that maybe the kid was ready to reach the heights they anticipated when they spent “too much” in draft picks to acquire him. So, they started this season with hope, which gave fans more reason to head to their medicine cabinets when early season results did not match last year’s late season success.
The Panthers got blown out on opening day by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and were tagged with a loss in Arizona in second week action while the Cardinals won one of the only three victories they have tallied this season. After four weeks, the Panthers had only one win, and little hope.
Then Young started looking like a quarterback of note. A narrow victory over the Miami Dolphins to open October was followed by two more wins and suddenly Carolina appeared to have a chance to be heard in their NFC South Division race. But hope in Carolina is routinely followed by disappointment, and no sooner did Carolina appear relevant than did they get blown out on their home field by the Buffalo Bills, 40-9.
Fans of Dave Canales’ team were then treated to one of the biggest upsets of the season when the Panthers went to Lambeau Field and handed the Green Bay Packers one of their only two home losses this season. The victory over the Packers elevated the Panthers to their first favorite role of the campaign, and while giving five points at home to the New Orleans Saints they lost, 17-7. Since then, the Panthers have won, lost, and then pulled another of the biggest upsets of the season while pinning the first place Los Angeles Rams with a surprise defeat.
While this was going on, the team that has won the NFC South Division four straight seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have sputtered like an old car on a cold morning. Early in the season, Baker Mayfield and company were good enough to pin the Seattle Seahawks with a rare home loss, but last Thursday night they blew a two touchdown fourth quarter lead to the struggling Atlanta Falcons and dropped their fifth game in six decisions. The Buccaneers decline opened the door for the Panthers to take sole possession of first place … all they had to do was beat the lowly Saints last Sunday. Instead, New Orleans beat the Panthers for the second time this season and left them in a first-place tie with the Buccaneers who visit Bank of America Stadium on Sunday.
Let’s see, the Panthers are good enough to beat the Packers and Rams and inconsistent enough to lose against the Arizona Cardinals and twice to the New Orleans Saints. Which means this, something other than talent is dictating Carolina results this season.
According to our charts, put the Panthers in the right situation and they can beat anybody, in the wrong one, they are sitting ducks. This week, they are at home, underdogs, and playing the Buccaneers in the first of two contests against their division rivals over the next three weeks.
The Bucs are favored, and Panthers fans are skeptical and anticipating another dose of Pepto Bismol.
This is just the kind of circumstances the Panthers need to win.
Qoxhi Picks: Carolina Panthers (+3) over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers