The Panthers seemed intent to get the ball to Curtis Samuel this week, with head coach Ron Rivera saying the Panthers were going to try “everything” to get him the ball against the Chicago Bears. As they drove down the field easily on their first possession on Sunday, mostly due to Cam Newton finding Kelvin Benjamin for 28 yards and adding a 14-yard scramble for a first down. But on the 24-yard line of the Bears, Newton would try to find Samuel on a college-style option play, and when the rookie wide receiver from Ohio State couldn’t handle the pitch, it was picking up by corner Eddie Jackson and Jackson raced untouched for 75 yards and a Bears touchdown. “I just lost track of the ball,” Samuel said after the game. “I’m better than that; I can do better than that and I will do better than that.”
Just like that, the Panthers were down 7-0 and had turned the ball over in a game where they needed to win the turnover battle against a rookie quarterback to emerge victorious; the turnovers would ultimately be their undoing, as they would fall 17-3 to the Chicago Bears.
It was an ugly first quarter for the Panthers, as they found it hard to recover from that turnover and even harder to block the Bears and their 3-4 defense. After amassing 47 yards on their first drive before the botched pitch play, the Panthers were eaten up by the Bears aggressive defense to go 12 yards the wrong way on their next two. Newton was sacked three times in three drives, and the Panthers running backs Jonathan Stewart and Christian McCaffrey ended the first quarter with five carries for five yards, and would end the game with 58 yards total, with only 10 of them coming from McCaffrey on seven carries.
“Simple slant route, he stuck his hand in there and popped it up. I couldn’t find it. Safety came and picked it; I’ve got to do a better job of finding that ball and knocking it down.”
-Wide Receiver Kelvin Benjamin on the second quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown
The second quarter would start the same way. With the Panthers moving the ball effectively, after a 25 yard drive, Newton would look for Kelvin Benjamin on a third down, and cornerback Prince Amukamara would get his hand on the ball before it got into Benjamin’s gut, tipping the pass into the air and directly into the hands of a waiting Eddie Jackson, who raced 75 yards down the sideline for the touchdown. Yes, you read that correctly; the same player scored two 75-yard defensive touchdowns in one half.
It was that kind of day for the Panthers, who would head into halftime 17-3 after a Tarik Cohen 70-yard catch and run would end in a goal-line stand for the Panthers defense when Julius Peppers raced Mitchell Trubisky to the pylon and won, with Trubisky’s knee hitting the ground just before the ball crossed the plane and John Fox electing to kick a field goal from the one-yard-line up by 11 points. “You’ve got to build off of it, holding them to three points. Field goals and takeaways, that’s our motto in the red zone,” safety Colin Jones said. “We know our job is to get the ball back to our offense so they can have a chance or an opportunity to score.”
The Panthers had their opportunity to score at the end of the first half as Cam Newton completed a 37-yard pass to Kelvin Benjamin to the Bears 15-yard-line, but the Panthers could not get lined up in time and they would end the first half ahead in nearly every category but the scoreboard; Benjamin would end the game with three catches for 65 yards.
The third quarter was just as frustrating for the Panthers, as they would again dominate in almost every statistical category but could not turn those plays into points. The Panthers outsnapped the Bears 17-6 and outgained them 90-6 but ended the quarter the same way they began it, down by 14 points. ”
For the second week in a row, the Panthers defense did their job, this time limiting the Bears to 158 total yards and only 2-of-10 on third down, including limiting one of the best running games in the league to only 65 yards, only to be outdone by the offense’s turnovers. Last week it was allowing two touchdowns when faced with two short fields, this time the defense wasn’t even on the field as the Bears scored almost all of their points. In just one of many eye-popping defensive statistics in a game where the Panthers would lose by two scores, the Bears only three first downs in the final three quarters would come on Cohen’s second quarter 70-yard catch-and-run and two on their final drive of the game.
“You know, we won every statistical category except for one; we didn’t create enough turnovers on defense and we didn’t get our offense extra opportunities,” said linebacker Thomas Davis. “It’s something that as a defense we take pride in, we work on it a bunch and today, they created more turnovers and they scored off of those turnovers. We’ve got to do a better job as a defense of creating more turnovers.”
Additional Notes:
- Safety Kurt Coleman, who was a game-time decision, was declared inactive during warmups; he practiced on a limited basis all week, and should be ready to return next week against Tampa Bay. Colin Jones started in his place, but Jairus Byrd received snaps as well.
- Linebacker Luke Kuechly was declared out on Friday as he remains in the concussion protocol, he was unable to practice at all during the week; according to head coach Ron Rivera, Kuechly has plans to see independent neurologists tomorrow.
- Ryan Kalil reaggravated a neck injury which had sidelined the former Pro Bowler for the past four weeks. He was replaced by Tyler Larsen on the second drive of the game and did not return. Kalil said after the game he was frustrated by this issue cropping back up.
- DT Kawann Short got a finger on a Conor Barth 52-yard field goal attempt in the second quarter, which was just enough to deflect the ball towards the crossbar. Short blocked a 48-yard attempt from Tampa Bay’s Roberto Aguayo in Week 17 of last season.
- Cam Newton was sacked five times for 26 yards lost and credited with three turnovers, including a fourth-quarter interception by Danny Trevathan in which Newton threw it directly at the linebacker while scrambling.
- The Panthers failed to convert a third quarter 4th-and-2 as Cam Newton took a quarterback draw over right tackle and was wrapped up before the first-down marker.
- Left guard Trai Turner exited in the fourth quarter and did not return with a left knee injury. His replacement, Amini Silatolu, was called for offensive holding on his first play of the game, which negated a first down pass to Jonathan Stewart.
- Mitchell Trubisky, who has been tasked as a “game managing quarterback” for the Bears, only attempted seven passes and completed four of them, one being the 70-yard completion to running back Tarik Cohen.
