With the Panthers down 16-7 from the Tampa 20 with 11:16 to play, Carolina coach Dave Canales dialed up an ill-fated flea flicker on first and 10.
Running back Rico Dowdle slipped after getting the handoff, and made an awkward pitch back to quarterback Bryce Young. Young tried to scoop the ball up and keep going. The effort failed, and the Buccaneers recovered.
After the 16-14 loss, Canales defended the decision.
“It was an aggressive call, knew they were gonna play us in single high right there, and we just — Rico slipped on the exchange, and we took a shot right there. I like the call,” Canales told reporters. “I like the opportunity that it presented us right there in the red zone to take advantage of it, and we didn’t get that done.”
Canales emphasized that Dowdle simply slipped. The Panthers coach also declined to share any details about how the play would have unfolded, but for the miscue.
“I don’t want to get into that,” Canales said. “We have another game potentially. . . . It’s just an aggressive call that I had the right look on.”
Right look or not, the field conditions weren’t conducive to trickery. Which the Panthers learned the hard way.
The Panthers blew their chance to win the NFC South on Saturday night, which forces them to become Falcons fans for a day. If Atlanta beats New Orleans on Sunday, the Panthers will become division champs via the round-robin tiebreaker among three 8-9 teams — Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta.
Many will say Carolina’s opportunity was impaired by multiple officiating errors. After the 16-14 loss, coach Dave Canales steered clear of criticizing the folks in black and white.
“I don’t really want to get into that because we just didn’t play well enough, offensively speaking,” Canales told reporters. “We didn’t get our run game going. A bad day on third down, which doesn’t give us an opportunity to extend the drives and really have a balanced offense the way that we can play. Some missed opportunities out there. So it really just has to be on us and about the execution and all of us making sure we’re, you know, in the right plays at the right time.”
The weather impacted both teams, too, but it definitely seems as though the officiating created more issues for the road team. In the end, it won’t matter if the Falcons, favored by three, can beat the Saints.
The problem for the Falcons (and for the Panthers) is that Atlanta has a 4-1 record at night, and a 3-8 record in afternoon games. On multiple occasions, they’ve followed a prime-time win with a clunker.
The Panthers will be praying that the Falcons get the engine running smoothly against the Saints. Carolina also will be hoping that the outcome won’t be affected by the officials.
Unless, of course, officiating affects the game in a way that helps the Falcons.
The Buccaneers won.
And now they wait.
Tampa Bay will have a chance to make it to the postseason after defeating Carolina 16-14 on Saturday.
But the winner of the NFC South will be determined by Sunday’s matchup between the Falcons and Saints. If Atlanta wins, Carolina will be headed to the postseason as the winners of a three-way tie.
The Buccaneers started the game with urgency, going up 10-0 with a Baker Mayfield touchdown pass, followed by a Chase McLaughlin 29-yard field goal to go up 10-0.
A Mayfield interception led to Bryce Young’s first touchdown pass of the day, which went to Tommy Tremble for an 8-yard score. But McLaughlin connected on another field goal at the end of the second quarter to give the Bucs a 13-7 lead at halftime.
No one was able to score in the third quarter, with Panthers kicker Ryan Fitzgerald missing a 54-yard field goal short early in the period.
But after another McLaughlin field goal early in the fourth quarter to make it 16-7, the Panthers had a good opportunity to score with the ball at the Tampa Bay 20-yard line. But that’s when a bizarre flea-flicker play call went completely wrong, with Rico Dowdle losing his footing on the wet grass and bungling the pitch back to Young. Linebacker Lavonte David recovered the loose ball for a takeaway, ending Carolina’s scoring threat.
The Panthers did make it a two-point game after Young completed a long, fourth-down pass to Tetairoa McMillan, followed by Young’s touchdown pass to receiver Jalen Coker.
But the Panthers could not get a stop on defense, with Mayfield converting third-and-4 with a 20-yard pass to Cade Otton.
By the time Carolina got the ball back, the club had just 18 seconds and no timeouts. A pitch play at the end of the game did not work and the Bucs had improved to 8-9.
Still, even after losing the game, the Panthers will win the NFC South via tiebreakers if the Falcons beat the Saints on Sunday. If New Orleans wins or the game ends in a tie, then Tampa Bay will be the NFC’s No. 4 seed as division champion.
Tampa Bay finished the game with 21 first downs, 338 total yards, and 8-of-15 on third down. The Panthers had 16 first downs, 285 yards, and were 1-of-8 on third down.
Carolina did not run it effectively at all, as Rico Dowdle finished with just 10 yards on seven carries while Chuba Hubbard also had 10 yards on five carries.
Young was 24-of-35 for 266 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. McMillan had four catches for 85 yards.
On the other side, Mayfield was 16-of-22 for 203 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Otton led with 94 yards on seven catches with a TD. Bucky Irving had 85 yards on 26 carries to shoulder the offensive load.
The rain was falling steadily in Tampa throughout the first half of Saturday’s matchup, with the Buccaneers carrying a 13-7 lead over the Panthers into halftime.
The Buccaneers scored on each of their first two drives, with Baker Mayfield hitting Cade Otton for an 18-yard touchdown and Chase McLaughlin hitting a 29-yard field goal to put Tampa Bay up by 10.
But then Mayfield’s 11th interception of the season helped the Panthers get on the board. Linebacker Christian Rozeboom picked off the deep pass over the middle and a few plays later, Bryce Young connected with Tommy Tremble for an 8-yard touchdown to make the score 10-7, Bucs.
Carolina then had a promising drive brewing toward the end of the half, but Young tossed an interception to rookie Jacob Parrish to give the Bucs the ball back. Mayfield made an outstanding play to move the chains on third-and-5 from the Tampa Bay 47, keeping it alive with the pass rush coming before hitting Otton for a 22-yard gain.
McLaughlin hit a 36-yard field goal to end the half, putting the Bucs up by six.
The Buccaneers have been able to move the ball, out-gaining the Panthers 216 to 80 and holding the ball 21:44 to 8:16. Tampa Bay finished the first half with 14 first downs to Carolina’s six. The Bucs were also 6-of-9 on third down while the Panthers were 0-of-3 on third down.
Tampa Bay more than doubled up on Carolina’s plays, with the home team running 40 to the Panthers’ 18.
Mayfield was 10-of-15 for 130 with a touchdown and an interception in the first 30 minutes. He’s also rushed three times for 28 yards. Bucky Irving has 49 yards on 14 carries.
Young is 7-of-11 for 75 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Rico Dowdle has just 5 yards on five carries.
The Panthers will receive the second-half kickoff.
A Baker Mayfield interception has helped get the Panthers on the board.
Carolina took advantage of an extra possession to score a touchdown with a Bryce Young pass to Tommy Tremble.
The Bucs still lead 10-7 with 10:50 left in the second quarter.
On third-and-7 from the Tampa Bay 23, Mayfield was looking for Emeka Egbuka deep down the middle. But linebacker Christian Rozeboom was right in the line of the pass, picking it off and returning it 20 yards to the Tampa Bay 19.
From there, Young connected with Tetairoa McMillan for an 11-yard gain to make it first-and-goal. A play later, Young hit Tremble for an 8-yard score.
Young is now 5-of-7 for 46 yards with a TD.
The Buccaneers had scored on their first two drives before the interception.
On the injury front, Bucs linebacker Anthony Walker is out with an ankle injury suffered on the opening kickoff.
