CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers went into halftime against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tied at 17.
A series of poor decisions left them to go into the locker room on a sour note, but still, things had gone well overall against a 6-3 Buccaneers team, especially on offense.
The Panthers' yearlong struggles in the period aren't a secret. They came into the Week 10 game scoring only 24 points in the quarter all season and with only 30 first downs. For comparison, opponents have now scored 55 points against Carolina in the third quarter, a point differential of minus-31.
But this was the Panthers' worst third quarter to date. The Buccaneers scored 12 points off a series of bad decisions and miscues by the Panthers to build a convincing lead and pull away, 46-23, in what was simply put an ugly two quarters of football. Not even a 98-yard kickoff return could save the Panthers from dropping to 3-7 with their fifth-straight loss.
"Obviously, unbelievably disappointed in the way we played in the second half. Completely unacceptable from every member of that locker room: player, coach. Completely unacceptable," Panthers coach Matt Rhule said. "A lot of credit goes to them, obviously. Tom Brady's the best. And in the second half, we couldn't make any plays to get him off the field really other than a couple in the red zone ... so we tried to be aggressive to stay in the game. But it just didn't work out."
Recent third quarters have been bad: A lack of scoring in Week 9 against the Kansas City Chiefs, a turnover and only two first downs in the loss to the Chicago Bears in Week 6.
Sunday's third quarter wasn't bad. It was disastrous.
The third quarter started with Brady driving the field on a 10-play drive in 4:02, but the Panthers defense forced its second short field goal of the game with a 24-yard Ryan Succop kick.
The Panthers got the ball back and gained 24 yards on five plays before they were forced to punt. Rookie Joe Charlton kicked a perfect punt to pin the Buccaneers at their own 2-yard line.
Then the game started to get out of control.
On the first play of the Buccaneers' ensuing drive, Ronald Jones II burst through a hole for a 98-yard touchdown run. Safety Tre Boston missed a tackle and hybrid defensive player Jeremy Chinn missed a swipe at his ankles trying to run him down at the end of the play. It was the longest touchdown from scrimmage allowed in Panthers franchise history and only the fourth time in NFL history a player has run for a 98-plus yard touchdown. Rookie defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos made his first career start in place of Stephen Weatherly and was involved in the up-front blocking on the touchdown run.
The play was the same as one that the Bucs had broken off against the Panthers in their Week 2 match-up. The touchdown was even harder to process as linebacker Shaq Thompson identified the play in the huddle; Carolina knew what to expect.
"We knew what was coming. We didn't do our job up front. We allowed (him) to just bust through," Boston said. "I gotta help make that tackle, get him down. Line us up one more time, at least. But just bust out for 98, that's us hurting ourselves. We know what's gonna happen, and then we still don't do our job. That's on us."
After Succop's extra-point was blocked by rookie defensive tackle Bravvion Roy, the Panthers got the ball back. On the first play, Bridgewater threw an interception to linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul intended for wide receiver DJ Moore, giving Tampa Bay the ball at the Carolina 38.
It took Brady nine plays — including converting a third-and-19 play — to put points on the board as the drive ended with a 21-yard Succop field goal giving the Buccaneers a 29-17 lead. Brady finished the game 28 of 39 for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was sacked once.
The Panthers' aggressive decision making that worked last week against the Chiefs was ineffective against the Bucs. On the following possession — that wasn't helped by running back Mike Davis temporarily leaving the game with a finger injury — a fake punt by Charlton in which he tried to run for a first down failed miserably.
The Panthers defense allowed the Bucs to convert 6 of 7 third downs in the first half. In the second half, third down wasn't even the biggest issue, but they are still nudging further towards history on third down. The Panthers have now allowed opponents to convert 68/123 third downs (55.3%), while the Tennessee Titans are currently allowing 53.2%. No NFL team since 1940 has finished a season allowing more than a 49.6% conversion rate (1995 Browns).
The Bucs did not punt once Sunday. Over the last four games, the Panthers' opponents have a combined two punts.Carolina was outscored 29-6 in the half and out-gained 322 to 35 yards. The 35 yards were tied for Panthers' second fewest in a second half in franchise history — 15 in a Sept. 10, 1995, loss to the Buffalo Bills. Tampa Bay scored on nine straight possessions. The defense just could not get off the field.
Cornerback Rasul Douglas took responsibility for the loss, saying that he did not play well and his energy was missing from the defense. And Thompson made his feelings known to the locker room about the team's performance after the game.
"(Thompson) said some things and he basically told everybody to look in the mirror. The coaches have been preaching all week, details, leverage, assignment, and winning your one-on-ones. And none of us did any of that, like the whole team, we all did that," Douglas said. "He basically cursed everybody out and said, 'we didn't fight hard enough. We didn't want it more.'"
Carolina's offense had its fair share of issues as well and struggled to stay on the field in the second half, losing the time-of-possession battle 20:69 to 9:31. And things only got worse in the fourth quarter, despite the 98-yard Trenton Cannon kickoff return that led to a 3-yard Bridgewater touchdown run.
The offense went 0-4 on third down in the second half and 1-9 on the game.
With around 5 minutes remaining, Bridgewater exited the game with a knee injury on a sack by Pierre-Paul. The quarterback finished the game 18 of 24 for 136 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He rushed for 16 yards and a touchdown on three carries and was sacked the one time.
Guard John Miller (foot/ankle) was injured on the same play. From bad to worse Sunday went, and by the time the Buccaneers went up 46-23 on a seven-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski — just five plays after Bridgewater's injury — it was hard to believe the Panthers were ever in the game or had come out to a 17-10 lead.
Despite a promising first half in which the only major flaw on offense was a drive that required usage of all three timeouts before scoring a field goal and a missed opportunity to put three points on the board before halftime, the Panthers' second-half woes showed up in a devastating way they hadn't before.
"Moving forward, all of us have to understand that what just happened cannot happen. We can't play like that for a half. We can't play like that at home," Rhule said. "It was a slow methodical bleed on our defense and their offense. We've got to find a way to make more plays and really, most importantly, do things right. ... But that was unacceptable today."
