Week 1 report card: Panthers welcome new season with embarrassing blowout loss to Saints

It was an all-too-familiar nightmare.

Inexcusable turnovers, big plays for the opposing offense, and a wildly overmatched squad that looked like it had never lined up together before, despite an encouraging training camp slate.

No, it’s not 2023, but the Carolina Panthers — in what looked like a fairly winnable matchup on paper — showed up like the same old lackluster cats from last season in Sunday’s pathetic 47-10 blowout loss to the New Orleans Saints at Caesars Superdome.

Carolina was nearly shut out in the first half by the Saints, who scored on their first nine drives of the game, including all six possessions in the first half. While first-year head coach Dave Canales had some interesting wrinkles in his first regular-season play-calling affair, his players executed like they had just met at the practice fields in uptown for a pickup game.

The Saints essentially ended the game in the first half, and the rest of the matchup was simply stat-padding fodder for fantasy football players.

Carolina finished with 193 total net yards and two scoring drives. The Saints eclipsed both totals by the end of the first half.

Here is how each unit graded out in the abysmal showing by Carolina:

Bryce Young, Panthers pass offense vs. Saints

Young’s first throw of the season was so off the mark that it went right into the grasp of Saints defensive back Will Harris.

Young was seemingly targeting wideout Diontae Johnson over the middle but uncorked the ball high and it completely missed the target by several yards. Harris jumped to make a diving pick on the play in Panthers territory.

Young’s first completion of the year — to someone not on the other team — came with 37 seconds left in the first quarter.

After being off the mark on a short pass to wideout Jonathan Mingo, Young hit veteran Adam Thielen over the middle — on third-and-8 — for a 14-yard gain. It was the only completed pass of the first quarter for Carolina. Conversely, Saints QB Derek Carr had 85 passing yards and two touchdowns on eight throws during that same period.

Young was sacked twice in the first half with both takedowns coming off a blitz from cornerback Alontae Taylor for a loss of 17 combined yards.

The second-year QB completed six of 12 passes for 50 yards and an interception in the first half. While he did move around the pocket and try to save plays with his legs, the answers just weren’t there for Young in the first half. He led just one first-half drive and that was while Carolina was down by 30 points.

Young’s protection was fooled by blitzes from the secondary, and he was forced out of the pocket regularly. The Panthers were forced to become one-dimensional because of the blowout, and that pass-mostly approach didn’t do Young any favors in the final three quarters.

Young pressed in the third quarter, opening the first half with another brutal overthrow that resulted in his second interception of the game. Young and his receivers took turns making mistakes, as the QB struggled to find open pass-catchers and made poor decisions/throws with the ball.

Young completed 13-of-30 passes (43.3%) on Sunday for 161 yards and two interceptions. He was sacked four times — three by Taylor alone — for 26 lost yards.

Young’s top target, Thielen, caught three passes for 49 yards.

Grade: F

Chuba Hubbard, run offense vs. New Orleans

The Panthers were down big almost immediately. But Carolina stuck with the run — sort of — in the first half, and had some early success. Chuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders combined for 29 yards on six total carries in the first half.

The Panthers tried to break the game open with a nifty pitch play to Mingo out of the backfield in the second quarter, but the second-year wideout fumbled the ball as he churned up the field and the Saints’ defense collected the ball.

The Panthers finished with 41 rushing yards and a fumble lost in the first half.

With the Panthers being forced to push the ball down the field to even attempt a comeback, the running game was largely abandoned in the second half.

The Panthers finished with just 58 rushing yards and a touchdown — scored by Young on a 3-yard scramble — and the lost fumble on 20 carries (2.9 yards per carry).

Grade: F

Jaycee Horn, pass defense vs. Saints

The first drive of the game featured a massive deep ball touchdown for the Saints. After going with a sequence of quick plays to start the drive, Carr unloaded a 59-yard shot to wideout Rashid Shaheed down the seam. Shaheed beat cornerback Jaycee Horn deep, but it appeared that he was supposed to have help from safety Jordan Fuller in coverage. Instead, Fuller went with assisting safety Xavier Woods on a crossing route.

Carr tried to go for another shot down the field on the Saints’ second drive after an interception, but cornerback Mike Jackson was able to bat away a deep throw meant for Shaheed.

The Panthers’ passing defense suffered another egg-on-face moment at the end of the Saints’ third offensive series. On the cusp of the end zone, Carr was given plenty of time to find a target in pay dirt as he lobbed up a 3-yard jump-ball pass for tight end Foster Moreau for a touchdown.

Carr later hit tight end Juwan Johnson for a 16-yard touchdown on the sixth series of the half. The Saints scored on all six of their first-half drives. Three of those drives ended with passing touchdowns.

New Orleans picked up 121 passing yards and three touchdowns on six drives in the first half.

With the Saints up big, New Orleans leaned on the run for most of the second half. The passing game more than served its purpose in the first half and was able to coast from there.

Carr, who was pulled with less than seven minutes left in the game, completed 19-of-23 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns.

Last season, the passing defense was a strength for Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero. At least in Week 1 of this campaign, it was a very clear weakness. The coverage breakdowns were plentiful, and the Panthers paid early and dearly for those mistakes.

By the way, Evero and his staff had worked with the majority of the secondary entering this campaign. So that familiarity actually makes the mistakes look even worse.

Grade: F

Derrick Brown, run defense vs. New Orleans

Well, tight end/fullback/Panthers tormentor Taysom Hill had his way with Carolina on the ground early on during Sunday’s game.

Hill produced 28 rushing yards on four carries in the first half to complement starting running back Alvin Kamara’s 70 yards on the ground.

A long third drive was anchored by the churning of Kamara and Hill against the Panthers’ defensive front. That was a worthwhile strategy for New Orleans offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who had a phenomenal debut in his first game as the offensive play caller.

With the Saints entering the second half with a 27-point lead, New Orleans decided to churn out yardage — and the clock — with the ground attack.

The Saints finished with 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries (4.9 YPC) against a Panthers front that was supposed to have been much improved.

Grade: D-

Eddy Piñeiro, special teams vs. Saints

The Saints weren’t afraid to cover RB Raheem Blackshear in the kickoff game.

New Orleans essentially forced Blackshear to return the game’s first three kickoffs, and the running back couldn’t get to the 30-yard line, which would have been the mark if the Panthers got a touchback. Blackshear averaged 24.3 yards per return on those first three efforts, but that yardage still wasn’t ideal considering the alternative starting location at the 30.

On the fourth kick return of the game, first-round pick, wideout Xavier Legette, returned the ball 28 yards. It was the first official touch of the former South Carolina Gamecock’s pro career.

Piñeiro scored on a 43-yard field-goal attempt at the end of the first half. He also made his lone extra-point attempt.

The biggest blemish for the special teams group — add it to the overall pile — was a blocked punt in the fourth quarter that set the Saints’ offense up for its ninth scoring drive.

The unit did, however, recover a fumble off a meaningless muffed punt with 1:06 left in the game.

Grade: D

Overall grade vs. New Orleans

Ultimately, in a loss like this, certain categories have to be weighted differently.

This loss was essentially an all-encompassing failure that was on par with a low-budget slasher film starring dinner theater understudies. It was a brutal mess and probably the absolute worst possible scenario for Week 1 in a game-day setting.

The team was upgraded in talent this offseason — that’s a fair tagline — but talent doesn’t matter when execution fails at every turn. Canales, Evero and company have a lot to fix over the next week to even function like a team during Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers.

There were no silver linings here. This tape should be taken to a local canal and sunk with bricks attached to it on the way out of the Big Easy, so no one else has to witness it again.

Overall grade: F

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