Happy New Years. The Panthers are going to look at the tape of this 22-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons today and see missed opportunities across the board. Fumbled handoff exchanges, dropped passes and poor decisions in the passing game dominated a poor offensive performance that ultimately cost the Panthers the NFC South championship after the Saints lost in Tampa Bay to the 4-12 Buccaneers. The Panthers won’t have very long to wallow in their offensive woes, as they must immediately turn around and prepare for a game against the New Orleans Saints in the Big Easy next Sunday at 4:40, their (hopefully) first game of the NFC playoffs.
With Damiere Byrd out for the rest of the season with a lower leg injury, Kaelin Clay got the snaps of a #2 wide receiver and contributed one catch for 15 yards; Brenton Bersin played 57% and pulled in two catches, his most memorable a third-and-23 conversion. With Jonathan Stewart inactive with back tightness, many expected a healthy dose of Cameron Artis-Payne; the Auburn grad only saw the field for 12 of 61 snaps while starter Christian McCaffrey played a slightly higher-than-average 85%. Speaking of wide receivers, Russell Shepard, the highest-paid of the healthy non-Funchess wideouts, played only 8 snaps after missing last week with a shoulder injury.
With Kurt Coleman nursing a sore ankle, the Panthers used a platoon of Colin Jones and Jairus Byrd at safety, with Jones getting the slight nod with 54% of the snaps to Byrd’s 46%; Jones also played the highest compliment of special teams snaps. In Charles Johnson’s return from a four-game suspension, he played the fewest snaps of the defensive ends as Steve Wilks added Bryan Cox, Jr to the rotation; the defensive line now rotates in nine players to maintain ferocity on every snap. That’s probably one of the reasons the Panthers didn’t allow a 100-yard rusher the entire season.
| Player | Position | Offensive Snaps | Percentage | Defensive Snaps | Percentage | Special Teams | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D Williams | T | 61 | 100% | 2 | 7% | ||
| A Norwell | G | 61 | 100% | 2 | 7% | ||
| A Silatolu | T | 61 | 100% | 2 | 7% | ||
| C Newton | QB | 61 | 100% | ||||
| R Kalil | C | 61 | 100% | ||||
| M Kalil | T | 61 | 100% | ||||
| G Olsen | TE | 57 | 93% | ||||
| D Funchess | WR | 53 | 87% | ||||
| C McCaffrey | RB | 52 | 85% | ||||
| K Clay | WR | 42 | 69% | 8 | 27% | ||
| B Bersin | WR | 35 | 57% | ||||
| E Dickson | TE | 29 | 48% | 9 | 30% | ||
| C Artis-Payne | RB | 12 | 20% | 11 | 37% | ||
| R Shepard | WR | 8 | 13% | 17 | 57% | ||
| C Manhertz | TE | 8 | 13% | 3 | 10% | ||
| T Moton | T | 5 | 8% | 2 | 7% | ||
| F Whittaker | RB | 4 | 7% | 15 | 50% | ||
| J Bradberry | CB | 72 | 100% | 10 | 33% | ||
| L Kuechly | LB | 72 | 100% | 9 | 30% | ||
| M Adams | SS | 72 | 100% | 8 | 27% | ||
| T Davis | LB | 72 | 100% | 6 | 20% | ||
| D Worley | CB | 66 | 92% | 10 | 33% | ||
| M Addison | DE | 51 | 71% | 2 | 7% | ||
| K Short | DT | 49 | 68% | 8 | 27% | ||
| C Jones | FS | 39 | 54% | 23 | 77% | ||
| S Lotulelei | DT | 39 | 54% | 8 | 27% | ||
| S Thompson | LB | 37 | 51% | 11 | 37% | ||
| J Peppers | DE | 35 | 49% | 8 | 27% | ||
| J Byrd | FS | 33 | 46% | 3 | 10% | ||
| K Love | DT | 31 | 43% | ||||
| C Munnerlyn | CB | 29 | 40% | ||||
| V Butler | DT | 25 | 35% | 6 | 20% | ||
| W Horton | DE | 22 | 31% | ||||
| B Cox | DE | 19 | 26% | 11 | 37% | ||
| C Johnson | DE | 17 | 24% | ||||
| K Seymour | CB | 12 | 17% | 21 | 70% | ||
| D Mayo | LB | 23 | 77% | ||||
| B Jacobs | LB | 21 | 70% | ||||
| A Gachkar | LB | 20 | 67% | ||||
| A Armah | RB | 19 | 63% | ||||
| M Palardy | P | 9 | 30% | ||||
| J Jansen | LS | 9 | 30% | ||||
| G Gano | K | 5 | 17% | ||||
| T Larsen | G | 5 | 17% | ||||
| G Van Roten | G | 4 | 13% | ||||
