CHARLOTTE, N.C. — How has Teddy Bridgewater played in the second half of the 2020 season?
The Carolina Panthers quarterback has played well at times. His and the offense's late-game woes have been the focus of much attention, but it's far from the only problem area. The 3-8 record in close games also doesn't just fall on him, though he shares the responsibility.
The Panthers will go into the offseason, with Bridgewater's body of work, and evaluate the quarterback position.
"It's a question of who can be that guy that can help you win," Panthers owner David Tepper said last week. "That's the most important position on the field. And to say that unless you have that guy for sure that gets you to playoffs and Super Bowls, you have to keep re-evaluating that, because that's the only thing that matters is Super Bowls. And until you have that guy, you're evaluating, evaluating, evaluating every year."
When Carolina evaluates, what will they see? The eight end-of-game drives that failed to win or tie the game? Sure.
As Bridgewater prepares for a second game against his former team this weekend, it's worth looking back to his first game against the New Orleans Saints. In what was his best outing of the season, he completed 23 of 28 passes (82.1%) for 254 yards and two touchdowns. The only sack he took was on a third down near the end of the game that left kicker Joey Slye with an almost impossible field-goal attempt. A bad decision, but not all on him.
Since then, Bridgewater has only played in seven games, as he missed the win over the Detroit Lions with a knee injury. His numbers have declined in the seven games after that solid performance in New Orleans. In the Thursday game vs. the Atlanta Falcons that followed, Bridgewater — and the entire team — had a rough outing. He also hurt his neck at the end of the game.
Weeks 1-7 — Weeks 8-15*
Cmp/Att 169/234 — 158/235
Cmp pct. 72.2% — 67.2%
Yds/Att 8.3 — 6.9
TD-INT 8-5 — 7-4
Sacks 13 — 17
Rush TD 1 — 4
*Bridgewater missed one game due to injury and the Panthers had a bye.
If you look even more recently, Bridgewater has been having his worst stretch of the season. In the last five games, he has completed 65.6% of his passes, thrown four touchdowns to three interceptions and been sacked 12 times. He also lost two of his three fumbles on the season, all in the last two games. There's no dramatic drop-off, but there has been a difference.
There's a variety of factors involved, including opponents picking up on offensive coordinator Joe Brady's scheme. Key players have missed games — left tackle Russell Okung has been in and out of the lineup.
Five of the failed offensive drives at the end of games have come in the last seven games — compared to three in the first half of Bridgewater's season. Bridgewater, in part because of the Panthers' bye week, went almost a month between passing touchdowns when he had none in back-to-back losses to the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers.
After the Broncos game, Brady said he and Bridgewater went back and focused on making sure all of the QB's fundamentals were sound, something the coordinator said looked better in the loss to the Packers.
"You lose sight on just watching the fundamentals and the footwork and your lower body mechanics and those things. That's something that we all have to just stay on top of on a consistent basis," Brady said. "Obviously Week 14, you sit there and say hey, 'It shouldn't have even got to this point,' but it's just something that, just throughout the game, just continue to remind ourselves of."
Bridgewater's performance has been more down than up as the season progressed, but the same could be said for the offense as a whole. That falls on the coaching staff, too. He has still put together some solid drives, has been accurate and is actually putting up a career-best season statistically. Being able to move around with his legs in 2020 has been an unexpected positive.
His three-year contract has always set him up to be around Carolina for another season. The wins and losses the Panthers will use to measure Bridgewater, as Tepper said, are only part of the judgment on a starting quarterback. There are pieces this offense needs — like a pass-catching tight end and Christian McCaffrey's presence — but improvement over the second half of the season, similar to what is happening on the defensive side of the ball, isn't there quite as much.
Keep in mind:
— The Panthers already have two 1,000-yard receivers this season: DJ Moore and Robby Anderson. Mike Davis also now has 1,000 scrimmage yards and Curtis Samuel is 70 yards away from joining him. In the Super Bowl era (since 1970), only four teams have had four players with 1,000-plus scrimmage yards in a season (2004 Indianapolis Colts, 1995 Falcons, 1990 Houston Oilers, 1989 Washington Football Team).
— In fourth quarters this season, Bridgewater has the lowest touchdown percentage on throws of any quarterback who has averaged 3.12 throws per game (38 quarterbacks). He averages a touchdown on 0.8% of throws.
— Seven of his interceptions have come when under pressure this season, tied for the second-most in the NFL.
— Bridgewater is set to finish the season with a career-high in completion percentage (69.7), yards per attempt (7.6) and yards per game (254.1). This would be the only season of his career where he has played in six-plus games and not had a game-winning drive or fourth-quarter comeback (played at least six in 2014, 2015, 2019 — six combined drives and five comebacks).
