First Half Wind Down
After the Browns kicked a field goal to tie the game at 17, the Panthers started a drive with 59 seconds left in the first half and two timeouts on their own 25-yard line. After a rush by Christian McCaffrey, it appeared that Rivera and the Panthers were content to go into halftime tied – certainly not a surprising decision, but perhaps a conservative one. But then Newton and the Panthers rushed to the line and the quarterback found Curtis Samuel for 19 yards and the Panthers called their second timeout of the half.
Two plays, 21 yards – 30 seconds off the clock.
Clock management and questionable use of timeouts near the end of halves has plagued the Panthers all season, from an unusual goalline possession that ended with a field goal in the first half of Week 1 against Dallas to perhaps the highlight of the season, the 63-yard field goal to win it against the Giants that stemmed from the Panthers gaining one yard in 30 seconds before rushing Gano onto the field.
After pressure forced Cam to try and get rid of it to McCaffrey and the originally-called-fumble was overturned to become an incomplete pass, Jarius Wright would get tackled inbounds after a six-yard gain and instead of using their final timeout, they rushed to the line and essentially spiked the ball before what has now become a tradition – the Taylor Heinicke Hail Mary.
When asked if he felt as if he could have treated the final drive of the first half differently, Rivera was defensive.
“Maybe if we make a play,” said Rivera. “Again, you just don’t know. To assume something would be really easy. I could’ve called a different defense in certain different situations as well. Sometimes it happens, I guess. It’s hard to explain.”
The Panthers were one of the best in the league at scoring points at the end of halves – they’d scored the most in the NFL over the past five seasons – this year, they’ve scored zero. Today in Cleveland, they went into halftime with a timeout in their pocket after using one full minute of game time to travel 27 yards and end with a Heinicke Mary that – while it was the second-longest play of the day – didn’t reach the end zone.
The Panthers struggled with clock management at the end of the half, but more alarming is their inability to finish in the fourth quarter – they’ve had seven possessions in the fourth quarters of the past two games, all of which when the Panthers were within a score; those drives produced zero points.
“We were moving the ball,” said Cam Newton after the game. “That’s the explanation that remains a question mark. We move the ball on teams. We move up and down the field. We’ve just found ways to come up short. The only thing that comes to mind is that we’re not playing good complimentary football. When the defense is getting stops and turnovers, we can’t just have this lackluster performance and find ways to not get points.”
“Those opportunities slip through our grasp and find ways to come back and bite us.”
Up Next: Delaying It On The Line
