The Los Angeles Rams are winners of six straight, and will try to make it lucky seven in a row against the Carolina Panthers. For now, L.A. has the NFC’s best record, but must fend off an upset attempt by the scrappy Panthers on Sunday, who are unexpectedly in the playoff mix with five games remaining.
Ahead of the Week 13 matchup, I spoke with Walker Clement from Cat Scratch Reader to get the inside scoop on Bryce Young’s future in Carolina, the Panthers’ playoff chances and more in this week’s Q&A.
Q – A week after setting the Panthers’ single-game passing yardage record against the Falcons, Bryce Young threw for just 169 yards in a 20-9 loss to the 49ers on Monday night. Where does Carolina even go from here with Young, considering the leap from him last season seemingly being an outlier with each passing week?
A – Most fans are ready to go straight to the nearest burning dumpster and chuck all of their recent gear. Years of bad coaching, worse management and quarterback purgatory have Panthers fans exhausted by disappointment. Even now, with the rest of the team making major strides, a lot of fans want to burn the whole building down because of Young’s apparent status as a bust.
Something has to happen next season. At a minimum, that’s signing a veteran quarterback to actually compete with, and probably take the job from Young.
Q – Despite the loss to San Francisco, the Panthers are just a game behind in the NFC South standings at 6-6. The six wins are the most by Carolina since they went 7-10 in 2022. What do you expect from them the rest of the way, especially with Baker Mayfield hurting for the division-leading Bucs?
A – If you watch the Carolina Panthers long enough, you learn not to expect things. When they win, they tend to look crisp, aggressive and intentional on both sides of the ball. Weaknesses within those games are usually obviously attributable to injuries or bad bounces. When they lose, they tend to look like a picture of a bus whose wheels fell off, drawn by one two-year-old eavesdropping on a second two-year-old trying to describe said bus to a stranger at a park who is not listening to the story at all.
Could the Panthers win the NFC South? Heck, they could win the Super Bowl. They could also lose again to the New Orleans Saints in a few weeks and seal their fates before Christmas. Probably they’ll lose to the Rams, win against the Saints, Seahawks, and the first Bucs game just to tease us, and then lose the season finale and the division against the Bucs in Week 18. It’s not about the football, it’s about how high they can build up our hopes before dashing them. Cats are known for playing with their food, after all.
Q – While Carolina did nothing offensively against the Niners, the defense tried to keep them in it, intercepting Brock Purdy three times in the first half, with two coming from cornerback Jaycee Horn. Could you talk more about what Horn means to this defense?
A – He and Derrick Brown are everything. Expect Puka Nacua to have a down day if Horn is playing. Unfortunately, he went down with a concussion in the first half of that 49ers game, and it is unclear, at this writing, if he will be available to play on Sunday.
Q – Dave Caneles is 11-18 through two seasons with the Panthers. How would you assess his coaching performance this season, and how confident are you in his long-term future in Charlotte?
A – Dave’s grade for this season is going to be tough. On the one hand, the team is leaps and bounds better than last year’s which was itself a revelation compared to the nightmare that was 2023. I really like most of what I see in terms of his influence on the team.
On the other hand, Young’s inconsistent-at-best quarterbacking leaves so much to be desired that it is hard to fully evaluate Canales’ play calling and in-game decision making.
On the other hand, Canales does have a tendency to abandon the run, which is the absolute strength of the Carolina Panthers’ offense, and rely on Young when the going gets tough. That shift towards being a one-dimensional team still only averages about 190 yards passing per game, a number that jumped by 40 yards per game after Young’s record-breaking performance against the Atlanta Falcons.
Canales either can’t help himself in these situations and has leaned into bad habits that have directly and obviously contributed to four of the Panthers six losses or he is committed this season to putting as much pressure on Young as possible so as to make an easy, clean decision about his future this offseason.
Q – What is one question that you have for Rams fans?
A – What’s it like to trust your coach and quarterback?
For context, I have never trusted a Panthers head coach to actually be both interested in and capable of scoring more points than his opponents. Canales is actually the closest we have come to that combination.
