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Carolina Panthers come up with another pathetic Week 1 performance

The improving Panthers entered 2025 with some expectations. Unfortunately, the team that finished strong a season ago was nowhere to be found on Sunday.
Russell Baxter|
Jaguars defensive end Dawuane Smoot (98) sacks Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) during the third quarter of an NFL football game between the Carolina Panthers at Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium Sunday September 7, 2025. Jaguars defeated the Panthers 26-10. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]
Jaguars defensive end Dawuane Smoot (98) sacks Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) during the third quarter of an NFL football game between the Carolina Panthers at Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium Sunday September 7, 2025. Jaguars defeated the Panthers 26-10. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union] | Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Carolina Panthers

It was an offseason in which general manager Dan Morgan was highly aggressive, and with good cause. The Carolina Panthers posted their seventh straight losing campaign in 2024. The 5-12 finish also marked the sixth consecutive season that the franchise had lost at least 10 games.

There was some hope following four wins in the club’s final nine games in 2024, and young quarterback Bryce Young was the main catalyst for the team’s improved finish. Morgan added numerous key pieces on both sides of the ball in hopes of building off the club’s promising second half.

So what happened on Sunday afternoon in what proved to be a long afternoon at Jacksonville in more ways than one? A 26-10 loss to a team that actually finished with a worst record (4-13) than Dave Canales’s club in 2024 was somewhat startling. So much for late-season momentum carrying over into the following year.

After the team’s traded field goals in the first quarter, Jacksonville took over in a second quarter that included a weather delay that lasted one hour and 17 minutes. An interception by Young before the interruption eventually led to a Jacksonville touchdown. A lost fumble by Young not long after the teams returned to action led to a Jaguars’ field goal just before intermission.

Season openers have been a big issue for the Panthers

The Panthers eventually narrowed the gap to 23-10 with less than five minutes to play in the game via a Young to Chuba Hubbard TD pass. With less than a minute to play and down by 16 points, the Panthers’ signal-caller committed his third turnover of the game via a second interception. By afternoon’s end, Canales’s team had been outgained 378-255 in total yards. Jacksonville ran for 200 yards against the NFL’s worst rushing defense in 2024.

Make it four straight Week 1 losses for the Panthers dating back to 2022, and by a combined score of 123-54. Carolina has lost the turnover battle in those setbacks by a 10-3 count, giving up the ball three times in each of the last three setbacks. Canales is on the hook for these past two openers, with losses to the Saints (47-10) and Jaguars (26-10) by a combined 73-20 count.

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Russell Baxter
RUSSELL BAXTER

Russell S. Baxter has been writing and researching the game of football for more than 40 years, and on numerous platforms. That includes television, as he spent more than two decades at ESPN, and was part of shows that garnered five Emmy Awards. He also spent the 2015 NFL season with Thursday Night Football on CBS/NFLN.