The Panthers were beat by the Pittsburgh Steelers in every facet of the game on Thursday Night Football in front of a national audience. They made mental mistakes – see James Bradberry biting on a shoulder fake on the first play of the game when he had help on the underneath route, allowing a 75-yard touchdown on the first offensive snap of the game for the Steelers or Cam Newton’s ill-advised interception as he tried to throw it away when pressured by TJ Watt in the end zone; they made physical mistakes – see Donte Jackson tripping on Antonio Brown’s long touchdown or Curtis Samuel’s fumble that set up the Steelers final score.
They either weren’t ready for the Steelers pass rush or offensive protection schemes as they simultaneously couldn’t protect Cam Newton and couldn’t get to Ben Roethlisberger; they turned the ball over; they couldn’t get off the field on third down or make tackles when they had opportunities to do just that – everything that could go wrong for the Panthers did.
And they know it.
A sampling of what the Panthers had to say after the game, with the same sentiments threading throughout each player’s thoughts – we played terribly and we have to get better.
Thomas Davis: A nice does of humble pie for us today – the scoreboard was indicative of how we played tonight.
Ryan Kalil: I think we got beat. They’re good players on that side and we didn’t do a good enough job all around and we all kind of took turns – up front, backfield, Cam. We’ve just got to a better job, we’ve got to get on the same page and it’s not how we drew it up. It wasn’t confusion, it wasn’t that we didn’t know who had who – we just got beat. We didn’t make the reads we wanted to, we didn’t make the adjustments we needed to and that’s what happened.
Greg Olsen: I think every element of the game went against us, I don’t think it was one phase, one element, one side of the ball, I think we just really played poorly collectively as a group. At the end of the day, we got beat in every facet of football imaginable. Every element of the game; all sides of the ball – all phases, all components of those phases. I think we got a little bit – I think we realize now, maybe this isn’t so easy…we have got a lot of work to do. We found out tonight that we have some work to do to be in that upper echelon.
Chris Clark: We didn’t come to play. We clearly got outplayed today, but the majority of the downfall is on us. We are a lot better than what we put out there today.
Jarius Wright: We don’t play Sunday, so we have to look at the highlights and see this for pretty much ten days straight. This is one that’s going to sink in for a little while.
Cam Newton: We just got whooped, man. It happens. You’ll have those type of games in the league. It’s going to be about how we rebound and get ready for our next opponent. It happens like this sometimes and we’re OK with it – what I am not OK with is not learning from this and the guys in that locker room seem to have a grasp on what’s at stake. We know what we are capable of being a deep contender, [a] playoff team and we just got to find ways.
Ron Rivera: At the end of the day guys, this shit happens, and I’m going to put it just like that. Okay, let’s just be honest about it. It happens. This is my 30th year in the NFL. I have seen games like this; I’ve been part of games like this, on both sides. At the end of the day, you continue to dwell on it and worry about it; it’s going to creep in. If you get over it, and you start preparing on your next game and focusing on your next game, you give yourself the chance to win the next game. That’s what we are going to do. There’s no magic pill. I told that to the players in the locker-room. At the end of the day, get this one out of your system and move forward. We, as coaches, have to go to work, figure out what happened and get those things corrected, and start preparing for the next team. That’s the only thing we can do. I’m not going to go to beat them down – they are beat down already.
