The Carolina Panthers lost by 30 points yesterday to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and part of me keeps thinking, “How does this keep happening?”
Last season the Carolina Panthers made the playoffs with eight wins, which typically happens once a year in the NFL. It’s not the most uncommon thing we’ve ever seen.
In doing so though, the Panthers endured a 42-13 loss to the Patriots, a 40-9 loss to the Bills, a 20-9 loss to the 49ers (score doesn’t really tell the whole story of that game), and a 27-10 loss to the Seahawks. In a vacuum, no individual loss is all that damning. They’re all to great teams that ended up being Super Bowl Contenders.
As a whole, it painted a larger picture that Carolina was still several tiers below those teams. That’s fine for where things were last season. Playoffs, in all honestly, weren’t expected initially.
But through five games for the 2026 Panthers, you couldn’t help but have those expectations. Prior to Sunday, the Panthers were 3-2 with wins against the Falcons, Lions, and Eagles. Their only two losses game against the presently 5-2 Bears and 5-2 Browns.
And on Sunday, the Panthers were up against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that had one win all season long. They were up against a team that did not have their No. 1 receiver, their starting right tackle, or their best defensive back. Carolina was a home favorite against a team on the brink of firing their coach.
But you would not know that from watching the game.
So what went wrong, and why do the Panthers continue to have games where they aren’t even competitive?