The Carolina Panthers are looking to address mistakes following their 26-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s season opener. Quarterback Bryce Young acknowledged his role in the defeat, pointing to turnovers and decision-making as key issues.
“Obviously can’t turn the ball over like that,” Young said. “Cost the team. I have to be better than that, but just better decision-making.”
Young threw two interceptions, with a third negated by a penalty, and lost a fumble during a slide attempt. There were also issues with miscommunication on snaps between Young and center Austin Corbett.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales commented on the need for improvement in communication at the line of scrimmage, particularly after the Jaguars changed defensive looks that disrupted timing.
Corbett expressed his frustration after the game: “Frustration, … Frustration,” he said. “That’s about it. We beat ourselves there. A lot of things in that game that are not winning football.
“Didn’t protect the ball, didn’t hold up in the run well enough, didn’t hold up well in the pass, and we made it hard on the defense to be able to get stops, giving them some good field position. So, overall frustration.”
Canales emphasized that problems went beyond individual plays or players: “That’s a picture of where we’re at right now,” he said. “Obviously not good enough. The turnovers, the explosive plays, I thought our tackling was not great, we let a couple of plays out that we had stopped essentially for nothing, and we let them get through to the second level.
“I think anytime you have four turnovers in a game, you give an offense with a bunch of weapons more opportunities, this is the outcome, this is what happens here. I’m proud of the guys for finishing. I’m proud of them for continuing to play, but they know as well as I know that’s not good enough, but it was a good chance to just look at them in the eye and say, look, this is where we are at right now and we’ve got to look at the tape we have to grow from this we have to take care of the basic things that we’ve been working on and and just take a next step this week.
“But certainly disappointed in how we played today, especially with all the things that we emphasize.”
A key sequence came early in the second half when Carolina’s drive stalled inside Jacksonville’s 10-yard line. On fourth-and-1 from the 5-yard line without a running back in formation, Young was unable to find an open receiver before throwing incomplete out of bounds.
Young later reflected on his reaction after leaving the field: “Just the competitive nature,” he explained. “We all probably could do a better job. I definitely could do a better job with body language there. It’s on me, but just competing, that’s all. It was just something that was going on with, not executing, again, when you’re not executing, it sucks, but I have to do a better job as a leader.”
Corbett concluded: “There are 11 guys that are frustrated out there today; whoever is out there is frustrated,” he said. “This is not what we were wanting Week 1, and we’ve got to make some changes.”
