Carolina Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater played one heck of a game Sunday against his former team, the New Orleans Saints.
But it wasn't a triumphant return, because Bridgewater's Panthers lost, 27-24, to New Orleans. And although Bridgewater did dozens of things right Sunday, he also did one thing he absolutely couldn't do on Carolina's last drive — taking a third-down sack that pushed Joey Slye's game-tying field-goal attempt to 65 yards.
Bridgewater's passing numbers were fantastic: 23-for-28 for 254 yards, with two touchdowns, no turnovers of any type and a 128.3 quarterback rating. He threw TD passes of 74 and 7 yards to DJ Moore, and he scrambled effectively. He even had a laugh on the final drive when after one scramble he took a seat for a second beside Drew Brees and Taysom Hill on the New Orleans bench.
But it wasn't good enough. The Panthers dropped to 3-4 when they couldn't score on that final drive and Bridgewater — who had managed to avoid New Orleans tacklers all afternoon — took one risk too many on third-and-11 and went down instead of throwing the ball away. That would have allowed Slye to try a 57-yard field-goal attempt. Instead, his 65-yarder was down the middle but short by maybe a yard, falling inches below the crossbar.
"Obviously, that sack was a fatal blow there," Panthers head coach Matt Rhule said. "We can't take a sack there, no matter who it is. ... We shouldn't have even been back there."
Bridgewater said the Panthers had the "perfect play call" and "probably would have scored a touchdown" if he could have thrown the ball but that the Saints had "schemed up that protection" and that he didn't have time to throw the ball away.
On the sack, Panthers running back Mike Davis ended up having to try to block New Orleans defensive end Marcus Davenport, who who pushed through Davis and got to Bridgewater for the Saints' only sack of the game.
Play VideoDuration 0:07PHOTOS: Carolina Panthers fall to Saints in Week 7
Carolina Panthers lost to the New Orleans Saints in a close 24-27 points on Oct. 25, 2020. BY STEPHANIE BUNAO
— Should Rhule have instead gone for it on fourth-and-19 from the New Orleans' 47 after the Bridgewater sack? I know Fox Sports displayed a graphic then that said the chance of winning for the Panthers when trying the field goal was 2.3% and the chance of winning on the fourth-down conversion was 13.1 percent. Rhule said afterward he thought Slye had a better chance of making that than Carolina did of making a fourth-and-19.
Having seen Slye's live leg for a long time, though, I don't mind taking the shot at the 65-yarder in ideal indoor conditions. Slye hit a 66-yarder in practice to get the Panthers job in the first place. "He's made it from there," Rhule said, referring to Slye's distance work in practice. Slye said afterward he's hit from 70 yards in practice and once from 73 yards with the wind at his back and that he thought he missed by about an inch or two.
— The worst tackling attempt Sunday? That was by New Orleans linebacker Craig Robertson. He had a shot at Moore near the goal line in tight space just short of end zone. And he totally whiffed. Runner-up: Troy Pride Jr. had an open-field miss on Alvin Kamara, which allowed Kamara to pick up a third-and-14.
— For as good as Panthers rookie defender Jeremy Chinn has been, he had a couple of tough moments Sunday. He was beaten for a 4-yard TD pass on the last play of the first half, and he was pancaked onto his back after a block by New Orleans tackle Andrus Peat on a screen pass in the third quarter.
— The most embarrassing stat for the Panthers defense has to be this: New Orleans was 12-for-14 on third-down conversions. The Panthers were 6-for-9 converting third downs themselves in a game that featured only one punt, by Carolina.
"Third downs killed us," Carolina linebacker Shaq Thompson said. "And if you don't win on third down, it's going to be a long game, and that's what happened."
