We’re going to live in optimism while we can
Last week saw the Carolina Panthers win their first game in the 2023 season. It only took them half a season, but there is hope that their performance against the Houston Texans is one they can repeat, and even build on, against the Indianapolis Colts this week.
Much of the credit goes to a superior offensive rhythm established under first-time play caller Thomas Brown. We laid out three keys to his potential success in his debut and all of them were relevant to the result of the game. Let’s revisit those and see where he did well and where there is still room for (massive) improvements:
Target distribution, take two
One of the main criticisms of this offense through eight weeks has been that Adam Thielen is the only reliable target that Bryce Young has. To his credit, Young has averaged six receivers with two or more targets per game this season. That number drops to three players when you make the criteria three targets or more.
Last week we learned that Young has better chemistry with Tommy Tremble than Hayden Hurst at the tight end position and that everyone, from Frank Reich to Brown to Young, really wants to establish the Young to D.J. Chark connection, even if there have been better results from Jonathan Mingo’s play so far.
The stars of the Panthers offense may not be the bigger name, bigger contract guys we all expected, but the team is starting to figure out who they can rely on. This week I want to see a more even distribution of targets and catches across Thielen, Mingo, Tremble, and Chuba Hubbard.
I’d also like to see Miles Sanders, Hurst, and Chark more involved, but let’s talk in baby steps for now.
Seriously. Where is the running game?
Hubbard may have run away with the starting running back job over Sanders, but “more effective in similar time” is not the same thing as “effective.” The Panthers tallied 44 whole yards on 24 carries against the Texans. Some of that was Houston daring Young to beat them (and daring the Panthers offensive line to protect him), but they should be getting better than 1.8 yards per carry even against a stacked box for most of the game.
Everything is going to get easier for the Panthers if and when they can balance their offense. Sustained success in the running game is going to make the Panthers look like an actual, competitive NFL team. Will we see that this week?
Time management
I wrote the following last week under the header “play clock expiry”:
If the disappearance of the running game is the greatest mystery of the season then the greatest mystery of this franchise may just be the inability to get a snap off more than 1.5 second before the play clock expires and, thus, wasting timeouts early for little appreciable gain more often than not. It is a problem that has persisted across multiple coaching staffs and quarterback combinations with only slight periods of absence for at least the last ten years.
Last week, the Panthers did not use a single timeout before 1:30 left in either half. They then used most of their timeouts to control the clock. In the first half, they created an extra, if ultimately unsuccessful, possession and in the second half, they orchestrated the game winning drive.
That is game affecting progress that the team made with one simple change in play callers. I’ll be watching for this to continue as everybody settles into their new roles, but it is a promising start.
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