Bucs Run Away from Panthers Late in Regular Season Finale
TAMPA BAY, FL - The Carolina Panthers hung around with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday evening for about three and a half quarters, but collapsed late in the fourth quarter, losing 41-17.
Much like last week in New Orleans, Sam Darnold was in a rhythm early. The Panthers dominated the time of possession in the the first quarter, holding onto the ball for 13 minutes and 26 second. On the first drive of the game, Darnold made some big throws to DJ Moore and Robby Anderson on third down, methodically moving the ball down the field. Ameer Abdullah hit the hole for a gain of 10 to move it inside the 10 and two plays later, Darnold found a wide-open Chuba Hubbard on a wheel route out of the backfield for a touchdown.
Tampa Bay went three and out on their first and only drive of the opening quarter. The Panthers played with some aggression on the ensuing possession after DJ Moore came up one yard shy of a first down after picking up 19 yards on a drag route. He jumped over a defender and landed close enough to the sticks for Matt Rhule to leave the offense on the field. DJ Moore rounded the edge on a jet sweep and moved the chains. With time simultaneously winding down on both the play clock and game clock, Rhule called for a timeout instead of letting the quarter come to an end. Even if he thought it was going to be a delay of game, he probably should have let it go and been okay with giving the punter some more room instead of worrying about a 4th & 6 attempt. Following the timeout, Rhule left the offense on the field and Darnold's shot downfield fell incomplete to Moore.
Carolina's defense bended but didn't break, holding Tampa Bay to a 39-yard field goal by Ryan Succop early in the second quarter. Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard popped loose on a run up the middle on the third play of the series, quickly moving Carolina into plus territory. Abdullah was featured in both the passing game and ground game over each of the next four plays as they maneuvered their way into the red zone. Rhule's second blunder of the game came when he left Sam Darnold in for a quarterback sneak on 4th & inches rather than Cam Newton. Darnold nearly lost control of the snap, pushed forward, received a terrible spot from the officials, resulting in a turnover on downs inside the three-yard line.
Phil Snow's unit produced yet another three and out but the Carolina offense failed to take advantage of decent field position. Backed up inside their own five, Tom Brady delivered a strike to Mike Evans for a gain of 37 on 3rd and 10. A 20-yard pass to Rob Gronkowski and a 24-yard pass to Breshad Perriman set up a short touchdown pass to Le'Veon Bell to give the Buccaneers their first lead of the game, 10-7 at the half.
Brady and the Bucs carried the momentum over into the second half with a quick, efficient seven play drive that resulted in a seven. Brady connected with Gronkowski on back-to-back passes for 42 and 19 and a few moments later, Ke'Shawn Vaughn walked into the end zone untouched up the middle.
Chuba Hubbard had another nice run for 15 yards, which was followed up by a beautiful grab over the middle by DJ Moore for 17. The drive stalled out just inside the red zone, but Lirim Hajrullahu tacked three points on the board to bring the Panthers back to within one score on a 35-yard field goal.
Tom Brady really heated up, hitting on eight of nine passes and led the Bucs to another scoring drive, this time finding Mike Evans for the touchdown.
With the Panthers on the ropes, Sam Darnold wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet and answered the bell with a beautiful dime to Robby Anderson over the shoulder on 4th down for a 19-yard touchdown. Unfortunately for the Panthers, Brady remained hot and extended the lead back out to 14 just six plays later finding Mike Evans up the sideline for pay dirt.
Elflein had a bad snap on third down which disrupted the timing of the exchange between Darnold and Abdullah, so Darnold kept it but coughed the ball up and handed Tampa a short field. Succop booted in a 40-yard kick to put the game out of reach for Carolina.
To put the icing on the cake, wide receiver Scotty Miller ran one in from 33 yards out to bring us to the final score of 41-17.
The Panthers will have the 6th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
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