Teddy Bridgewater Likes the Direction the Offense is Heading in

For the first time in five years, Teddy Bridgewater took the field as a full-time NFL starter and played really well, finishing the game going 22/34 for 270 yards and a touchdown. Despite the Panthers falling short, Bridgewater had a positive outlook on the game and felt blessed to be back in a starting role.

"Tough game today. It's always good to just get back out there and compete. Not the results that we wanted, you know you always want to come up with the victory, but it is a lot of positives to take away from today. At the end of the day, there are no moral victories in this sport. So we just have to watch the tape, with thick skin, just continue to buy in to what coaches are telling us around here and coaching us to do around here. And you know, we'll have a good football team. It is a long season. We don't want to make it one that's too long, where certain trends and things continue to roll throughout the season. We want to come back tomorrow, focus on Tampa and watch the tape and contain with that 'what's next' mentality."

Aside from the offense stalling out at the end of drives and sputtering a bit in the third quarter, the offense was pretty efficient. Capping off drives with touchdowns will certainly be a point of emphasis heading into week two, but Bridgewater liked a lot of what he saw from his teammates.

"I learned that we have a group of guys who will continue to fight and it’s a group where you always try to get a feel for your team and it’s a group of new guys. You watch guys on the sideline when things don’t go well and no one is dropping their heads, everyone has their chin up high and with that 'what’s next' mentality. It is a group of guys who just fight, have that underdog mentality and I’m just excited that we have this group, a group that is going to continue to just get better each week throughout this league."

The biggest takeaway I had from this game was that Bridgewater has not only confidence in himself, but the guys that surround him too. He looked comfortable in the pocket, didn't press too much and only really had two questionable throws. Panthers head coach Matt Rhule preached about ball security since day one of training camp and was one of the first things he rattled off in his compliments of Bridgewater's play.

"I thought Teddy was excellent. [He] protected the football, [he] brought us back when we were down 12 there, in the fourth quarter brought us back and took the lead. [He] ran the football which I thought he was fearless with running the football. [He] didn’t take a lot of bad sacks. Even with starting the second half, what was disappointing for me was starting with two three-and-outs and penalties obviously hurt us at the start of the second half. I thought he was the guy who got us going. I thought he excelled in the two-minute drive at the end of the first half and I wish we had gotten him the 4th-and-one so he could have taken us down and won the game at the end."

There's still a lot of work that needs to be done for this team to be truly competitive in the NFC South, but from the offensive side of the ball, they're in a good spot. Like it or not, Teddy Bridgewater is the quarterback for the immediate future and appears to be the right guy to lead the offense. Now, it's just going to be about finishing off drives, eliminating three and outs, and continuing to develop chemistry. Keep in mind, this was the first time this offense played together against someone other than themselves and posted 30 points. Last year, the Panthers averaged just 21.2 points per game - certainly an improvement, albeit just one game in.

Carolina will have yet another tough challenge next Sunday as they take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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