The Panthers were 4 point underdogs today in Green Bay and while I am not surprised that the Panthers lost, and I am not surprised that they lost by more than 4, I actually AM a bit surprised that they didn't get beaten by more points than they did.
To be fair to the Carolina side, they didn't do all that terribly, but they simply played like the Panthers, and the Panthers are not very good.
Here we go again with teeny-tiny Bryce Young getting overwhelmed throughout the entire game. The Packers' defense started jumping to swat his passes and succeeded on a couple of them. This is one of the many downsides of being quite a lot smaller than the other guys on the field although now it is his height, not his tiny weight, that is the major factor. He only threw 1 interception but several others were very, very close to being INT's as well.
It didn't help that once again the O-line for Carolina seems damn near useless in the 1.2 seconds or so that they are giving Bryce to handle the ball on nearly every snap. It's a little bit tough to get any real passing yardage when your offense simply cannot keep the opposition off of you for more than a bit over 1 single second.
Young is probably getting pretty used to this as he was sacked 6 times in the game and that number could have easily been double that amount if Bryce hadn't used his QB IQ to get rid of the ball near an eligible receiver. He threw to nobody countless times during this game out of necessity.
Green Bay did NOT look good either though. Nobody is going to argue that they did. They fumbled on the opening kickoff return and this was a sign of more mishaps like that to come. While I do think that Green Bay is a better team than Carolina, I think we are actually a lot more likely to see Carolina in the playoffs than we are to see the Packers. This has everything to do with Carolina being in what is definitely the weakest division in the entire NFL. The NFC South has been pretty terrible for a number of years and 2026 is one of them.
But my gambling streak against the Panthers is now in the positive, with more wins than losses.
Next up the Panthers have the Denver Broncos and Denver, strangely, is favored by fewer points than Green Bay was at just 2.5. Of course this can change as we get closer to next weekend but at the moment I feel as though this is an easy bet that will take me to 5-3. I guess some of the bookies out there are counting on home field advantage despite the fact that Carolina lost badly to Tampa Bay at their last home game and Tampa Bay is one of the the crappest teams in the entire NFL.
I guess I could say that the Panthers did better than I thought they would do and in the 4th quarter, there were a couple of times that it looked like they might actually tie the game up and force OT. But of course they just kept bumbling the ball and not giving Bryce enough time to make any sort of good plays.
I had previously said that Bryce Young was the weakest link in the chain but it isn't just him, that offensive line is just abysmal and Denver's defense is rated higher than Green Bay's. That could end up being and absolute rout.
