The problem with playing a team clearly better than you are is that it can all get away from you fast.
The Panthers saw this last week at Kansas City and then they saw it again Sunday at home against Tampa Bay in a 46-23 loss — their fifth consecutive defeat in a once-promising season.
Once 3-2, Carolina is now 3-7 and just got blown out for the first time in the Matt Rhule era before a crowd of 5,815 in Bank of America Stadium.
Tampa Bay scored on nine straight possessions during the game. Yes, nine.
"It was a slow, methodical bleed," Rhule said. The coach also called the second-half play and coaching by the Panthers "completely unacceptable" and said he was "unbelievably disappointed" about it.
In a game Sunday that Carolina actually led for most of the first half and that was tied 17-all at halftime, the Buccaneers pulled away in a hurry once the second half began. The Panthers, meanwhile, looked fragile and out-of-sorts in the final 30 minutes, with the end result that Tampa Bay doubled the Panthers on the scoreboard.
It was even worse in total yardage, as Tampa Bay outgained Carolina by a staggering 544-187.
Tampa Bay just has more talent than Carolina, for one thing. That's why the Buccaneers could survive a turnover on their first drive and Tom Brady could misfire on at least four potential touchdown passes (and still Brady threw for 341 yards and three TDs while running for a fourth).
You just get so many more chances to win when you're better.
But you also have to lay this one partly on the Carolina coaches.
They were out-adjusted at halftime. Again.
It wasn't coaching, though, that allowed Bucs running back Ronald Jones to run 98 yards straight up the middle for the longest play from scrimmage against the Panthers in team history, breaking tackle attempts by both Tre Boston and Jeremy Chinn on his way to the end zone.
And it wasn't coaching that, on the play immediately after the 98-yard TD, ended up with Teddy Bridgewater throwing an interception to Jason Pierre-Paul. (Bridgewater left the game in the fourth quarter after a sack that caused a knee injury. He walked off the field and to the locker room under his own power. He wasn't made available to reporters after the game.)
But it was coaching that had the Panthers try a fake punt for the third consecutive week, this time on an ill-advised punter draw (?!) that had no chance. And it was at least partly coaching that forced the Panthers to use all three of their timeouts on a second-quarter drive.
By the beginning of the fourth quarter, that 17-all halftime tie had become a 29-17 Tampa Bay lead on the way to much more. And although Carolina would have its own 98-yard play — a non-scoring but quite spectacular kickoff return by Trenton Cannon — it still wasn't close to enough.
At least the degree of difficulty goes down after this week. Carolina hosts Detroit (4-5) next Sunday in a battle of two teams that are under .500. But if the Panthers (3-7) are going to continue playing second halves like that, they aren't going to beat anybody else.
— Over the past four games, Carolina opponents have punted twice. Not twice per game — twice in four games!
— The Panther tight ends finally answered the missing-persons call Sunday. Colin Thompson, normally Carolina's third tight end and a blocking specialist, had his first career touchdown on his first career touch with a 7-yard TD. And Ian Thomas made a nice catch in traffic to pick up a first down.
— Linebacker Shaq Thompson was all over the field for the Panthers Sunday in the first half, with numerous tackles, a first-quarter forced fumble and a tackle for loss.
— Rookie Chinn had some serious rookie woes Sunday. The Panthers' hybrid defender got burned for a 5-yard TD by Cameron Brate, then got burned again for a 44-yard catch-and-run by Rob Gronkowski. Chinn also prides himself on his speed, but he couldn't run down Tampa Bay's Jones on his 98-yard TD run.
— It was a tough game for Panthers cornerback Rasul Douglas, who had a defensive holding penalty, missed a tackle on a 31-yard catch-and-run by Chris Godwin and was beaten a couple of other times, too, by Tampa Bay's Mike Evans.
— Myles Hartsfield made a great play covering a third-quarter Joe Charlton punt, knocking the ball away just before it reached the end zone, meaning that Tampa Bay had to start a drive at its own 2. It turned out to only make Jones' TD run more impressive, but that wasn't Hartsfield's fault.
