CHARLOTTE — When you reach a certain point in your development, big reactions tend to seem like overreactions.
That's not just about getting old; that's about building a certain depth of perspective. And for the Panthers, the response to an ugly loss to the Bills has been kind of instructive.
There's not a lot of freaking out, inside the building or out (I bow to your Buddha nature, Mailbag readers). That 40-9 loss to the Bills was ugly, sure, but it was also enough of an outlier that it's hard to attach too much greater meaning to it. Allowing seven sacks and letting James Cook run for 216 was obviously bad. But the fact that they hadn't given up more than three sacks in a game all year, that they had allowed 131 rushing yards in the last three games combined, and that Cook broke a franchise record for opponents, made it clear those were not results within the predictable norms. That makes it easier to build a fence around that one and call it a zoo, rather than believing it's just the way it is forever.
(Also, the Bills are really good at football, with an MVP quarterback, and a coach that's now 9-0 after byes. That matters too.)
And when the Panthers talked about it, it was clear they realized that, too. Dave Canales has said several versions of "that's not us" and "that's not our football" in the 48 hours since that game. And it's not. They've played in a way that's the opposite of that for more of the year than they haven't, so when Canales met with his leaders on Monday, there was a clear sense emerging of who they were.
"Going into this meeting today, there's a sense of an identity," Canales said Monday. "There's a sense of what we look like at our best, and we understand what we're going, what we're getting after, and what's required of it.
"So there is a confidence that's growing and a knowing of who we are and what our identity can be at its best."
The toughest challenge for any team is figuring out who they are and how they win games. The fact that the Panthers have established that they can generally run and stop the run most weeks, and that they recognize what it looks like (and what it doesn't) is a huge step in the growth of a team. The 2002 team went through an eight-game losing streak in the middle of a season, but they figured out how they planned to do business. And that December, they wheeled off four wins in their last five, proof of concept for a plan they'd build on the following year when they added more players.
The Panthers aren't where they need to be yet, but they have learned what they want to be, and that's a huge step.
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Will Rico Dowdle start at running back over Chuba Hubbard? — Evan, Matthews, NC
Not sure if the first snap of the game matters. Because it seems like Dave Canales is leaning a certain way in terms of the overall workload, based on Monday's press conference.
The way Canales talked about it Monday made it clear they had looked back at the numbers over the last month (as they always do every four games).
In the two games Hubbard missed with a calf injury, Dowdle averaged 7.3 yards per carry. In the two games since Hubbard returned, he averaged 2.5 yards per carry to Dowdle's 5.3. And that's with them getting nearly equivalent rushing attempts, 26 for Hubbard and 25 for Dowdle. But Hubbard had an edge in snaps played, 73 to Dowdle's 55.
"It's a fair observation, and you know Chuba has meant a lot to this organization, certainly to the identity that we want to build our team on," Canales said. "And wanted to give Chuba the opportunity to go out there and to continue to impact our team in a positive way.
"We cannot ignore the fact that Rico has been exceptional in a couple of games and then in the opportunities he's had over the last two weeks. He's made some excellent plays, loved the tempo and violence that he's running with, and these are all things that we're talking about and working through this week as we look back on these last four games and really taking a snapshot of what's been successful for us. These are conversations that we do definitely have to have."
Hubbard remains one of those "the blood and the bricks" guys (to steal the phrase of Ikem Ekwonu last week in reference to Taylor Moton, Cade Mays, and Brady Christensen, and I love that phrase so much). The work he did last year helped define the second-half run that saw the Panthers begin the march to stability. Also, this cat went for 1,195 yards and 10 touchdowns a year ago. We've seen him do this.
So even if Dowdle gets the bulk or the majority of the carries for the next few weeks, a few other things remain true. The Panthers will need them both. There could come a time when Dowdle comes down off this heater. In which case, you'll be really glad you have a Hubbard to turn to.
The fact that Hubbard is the ultimate adult in the room helps because, as he said Monday, all he's worried about is winning. That attitude is priceless, and it's also why they invested in him, because he represents the kind of work ethic and selflessness they aspire to.
Hubbard was here the day the Panthers set a franchise record by rushing for 320 yards in a single game against the Lions. The fact D'Onta Foreman got 21 carries for 165 to his 12 for 125 mattered less than the result — the torched the Lions on a sub-freezing day. And that's what matters the most.
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I'm old enough (lol) to remember the days of Double Trouble with Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. It was great fun anticipating which one of them would break out on the next big run. They were able to thrive in a two-back system and enjoy themselves doing it. Is there anything possible that could be taken from the way their situation was handled that could be used in the current Hubbard/Dowdle combo? Wouldn't that be fun! — Steve, Biscoe, NC
That's kind of the point.
Stewart acknowledged the similarities this week in our postgame show with Kristen Balboni and Thomas Davis.
"Eventually the juice runs out," Stew said in reference to his days going back and forth with Willams, acknowledging that most hot hands eventually cool. So he and Williams were there for each other, and when one was working, that guy got the ball more often.
We'll see what it looks like when we get to Green Bay on Sunday, but Canales' acknowledgment that he couldn't ignore the numbers points to Dowdle getting more of a chance. My guess is that Hubbard will remain a big part of that, and Dowdle will be grateful for the support.
In the words of the wise Eastern philosophers Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, it takes two to make a thing go right.
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Is Andy Dalton's hair really red, or is that just the oxidation process? More like the rusty rifle. And as a rusty rifle is wont to do, Andy blew up in our face on Sunday. I know that I called for him in last week's Mailbag, but as I hope he is able to do in the postgame, I will admit I made a mistake. Tough loss today. Lots of issues highlighted, but QB play alone never gave us a chance. Keep Pounding! — Jake, Candler, NC
Possibly harsh.
As Andy himself acknowledged, he didn't have a great day. He realizes that. Everyone does. Three turnovers are not survivable in a situation against a better team, and that's what the Bills are. The list of teams in the NFL that can beat the Bills with their backup quarterback, during which three starting offensive linemen leave the lineup, is a pretty short list. Again, Bills head coach Sean McDermott has never lost coming off a bye week, and never is a hard trend to buck.
But when a team is in a situation like that against a team that's better in every measurable way, it has a choice to make. They can play to clutch-and-grab and try to play it close, or they can play to win the game. The Panthers put the ball in Dalton's hands and gave him a chance to win it. You don't do business that way if you don't trust him. So the suspicion is they'd be willing to do it again.
He took a couple of shots early, which didn't help because he looked more uncomfortable than he generally does. A couple of those throws were clearly out of character. But I also learned a long time ago that when a lot of things go wrong at the same time, you run the risk of making a mistake if you make it all one person's fault. There were plenty of contributing factors on Sunday, one of which was certainly Dalton.
And for the record, that hair is real, and it is spectacular.
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Is this submission too late? Probably, but here goes anyway: The game against the Bills felt like one that could be defining, not because of the actual play of the team, the team has proven capable of bouncing back from losses this year, but because of all of the injuries along the offensive line. Heartbreaking to see so much talent having to leave the field. I wish all those guys good health and fast recoveries.
As I understand it, by the end of the game, we didn't have any backup linemen left, correct? So that brings me to my question: what happens if a team runs out of linemen? If one more guy had had to leave the game Sunday, what would the team have done? Roll with only four guys on the line? Plug in a TE at one of the spots? Plug in a DT and hope for the best? Call a timeout and recruit someone from the stands? Forfeit? I hope to never actually see this in a game, but curious about how it works. Thanks! — John, Charlotte
Not only is it not too late, it's just in time.
Because I was kind of hoping somebody would ask this.
When the Panthers lost Moton, Mays, and Christensen to injuries during the loss to the Bills, they were indeed down to their final five offensive linemen.
They're used to Yosh Nijman plugging in at tackle, and Austin Corbett was their starting center to begin the season, so that's a natural replacement. Jake Curhan's a right tackle by trade, but he played 239 of his 260 offensive snaps at left guard for the Bears in 2024, so he was able to step in at right guard to finish.
After that, it gets a little weird. (And in the old days, teams would often go into games with just seven active offensive linemen, and it got weird more often.)
The correct answer is that rookie tight end Mitchell Evans was about to become a tackle. You'd like to keep it on the same side of the ball, so a tight end who is used to being in pass protection anyway is probably the best bet. And Evans is the biggest body of the group, and has proven himself to be a capable and willing blocker. So, god forbid anything else happened (enough happened already), he'd have likely gotten the call.
But there was another instance in that game that proved that the old adage "the more you can do" applies.
Offensive linemen aren't only for offensive plays. They have to block on the field goal team too. There are usually three of them on either side of long snapper JJ Jansen. So once they started running out of the usual suspects and were down to five, they had to get creative. Special teams coordinator Tracy Smith found outside linebacker Boogie Basham standing there, told him he was needed, so Basham did what football players do. He did his best.
Basham confirmed that it was his career debut as a member of the field goal team.
(The Panthers got a field goal blocked in 2021 when an offensive line injury forced them to put an untested defensive tackle in that unit, so this stuff can really matter.)
These are the kinds of "in case of emergency break glass" scenarios no one wants to contemplate for long. But it's good to know there are guys ready, just in case.
And because I got to crawl around in the weeds of the field goal team, and talk about preparation (there's nothing dads and Eagle Scouts love more than talking about being prepared), I'm making John this week's Friend Of The Mailbag, and will get the appropriate honorarium on the way to him as soon as the new shipment of honorariums arrives (they're coming, I swear).
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Cool stuff about Dan Morgan and Miami last week. People forget how dominant he was in the early 2000s. And that was probably the best draft class in franchise history, with him, Kris Jenkins, and Steve Smith. Who do we give credit for that one, since they fired George Seifert after a 1-15 season? — Will, Rock Hill, SC
Well, you can't absolve George of any credit just because the season left the rails early and never got back on them. He was the boss and ultimately in charge of the entire football operation at the time. (Also, let's not act like George was bad at his job. When he came here, he had two Super Bowl trophies and the highest winning percentage of any coach in league history. Now, going 1-15 spoils that a little, but he still has a .648 winning percentage [higher than all the guys who are finalists in the coach category for the Hall of Fame this year, including Bill Belichick]. And honestly, going 8-8 with Steve Beuerlein and his 1999 team here might have been as good a coaching job as anything he did in San Francisco. But we digress. [And that's the longest parenthetical digression in the league this year.])
But according to the people who were there at the time, the architect of that draft and the reason it came together like it did was former director of player personnel Jack Bushofsky.
Bushofsky was the scout's scout, a guy who knew them when he saw them, hard-boiled in all the best ways. He was also an incredible racquetball player.
When we caught up with him last week, the 88-year-old Bushofsky was driving from his home in New Port Richey, Fla., back to his native Pittsburgh to visit family, and was passing through Charlotte. He's still healthy and active, still playing a lot of golf.
"I'm getting around OK; still kicking, not quite as high as before, but still kicking," Bushofsky said with a laugh. "I'm trying to stay young, think young, and be young, try to stay active."
And he loved circling back to talk about Morgan and that draft class. When I mentioned that he might be one of the more underrated figures in franchise history, he replied: "Well, I tend to agree with you."
But as any lifelong scout recognizes, credit isn't something you can count on, and there's a lot of luck involved as well. They had a second-round grade on Smith (which was justified by time), and were fortunate that no one else took him in the 72 picks that came before they acquired what should be a future Hall of Famer. And taking Morgan with their first-rounder was a great call, giving them the kind of defensive centerpiece and signal-caller and worker that team needed in the years to come.
Either way, that draft helped set the stage for the Super Bowl run in 2003, and without Bushofsky and his preparation and accurate read on players and personalities, they would not have been there.
Whether he got credit for it at the time or not.
"But, hey, that was my job and I did it and you know, everything fell into place," he said. "I was just happy that we had the chance to get some of those guys.
"I never was one to seek out notoriety, so I sort of stayed in the background. That's probably more my personality, more like Dan, you know. Just a no-nonsense, workaholic, and let the chips fall where they may and go from there."
That's the thing a veteran football guy says (it sounds a lot like Morgan). And all you need to do to recognize Bushofsky's football guy credentials is take a quick glance at this picture. Old-school Bike shorts, notebook, and stopwatch in his pocket, gaze straight ahead at the practice field.
That's what a football guy looks like. And that's what Jack Bushofsky was and remains.
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If you want an explanation for why the Panthers are struggling on defense, look at their drafts from 2022-23. These are the guys who should be entering their third and fourth years on the team, and not a single defensive player from those two classes is still around. Not only that, but they missed with so many other early-round picks from those years. How much of the team's struggles over the last few seasons do you think can be blamed on poor drafting? — Todd, Cary, NC
Obviously, you'd rather get more of a bump from those two classes, but at the time those guys were drafted, the defense was full of veterans, and guys who are no longer here. And while it's not a saving grace, they do have a Mays from that 2022 class, and Chandler Zavala from 2023 is coming back to practice this week. And as we've learned, offensive line depth is a good thing to have.
But the last two years, the balance to the defensive side of the ball is being restored.
Getting signal-calling linebacker Trevin Wallace and nickel Chau Smith-Wade out of the 2024 class helped fill two important spots on defense. They also turned their seventh-round pick into a reliable starting corner via trade (Mike Jackson), and the early returns on this year's class, including Nic Scourton, Princely Umanmielen, Lathan Ransom, and Cam Jackson, are good.
Now, do they need to hit on more picks on that side of the ball in coming years? Sure they do. But they knew when they began drafting for the Canales-Morgan iteration of this team, it was going to take a few years to stock that side of the ball. The recent work has been better.
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And on that note, let's go lightning round, brought to you by the patron saint of the lightning round Jeff from Fuquay-Varina, to close it out this week.
Does Andy Dalton have the right stuff? (Arm strength? Mobility?) — George, Liberty, SC
Andy Dalton did not forget how to play football last Sunday morning. He's the same guy who's 26th on the all-time passing yardage and touchdown pass lists. He had a bad day. He is not a bad quarterback.
The one week thinking the Panthers maybe could make the playoffs was fun while it lasted. Today has been a disaster. — Kelly, Charlotte
Remember when all Daniel-san wanted was to learn karate, and that old coot Mr. Miyagi kept making him do household chores?
The Panthers are in the process of learning to paint the fence and wax the car, which is a step you have to take before entering the All-Valley tournament against those jerks from Cobra Kai.
Hey Darin. Wayne, the Notre Dame fan who asked about the picture of Mitchell Evans last week. Thank you for sending. It was perfect. As always I enjoyed your article. Go Panthers and Keep Pounding. — Wayne, Matthews, NC
Happy to help, Wayne. Just glad I didn't have to send you pictures of Evans playing tackle.
