Carolina Panthers just had a record-breaking season — in all the worst possible ways

The Carolina Panthers did something they’ve never done before in the last game of an awful NFL season: They got shut out for the second week in a row.

Carolina’s 9-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers put a final damp stamp on one of the worst NFL seasons in history, authored by a bunch of Panthers players who by the end couldn’t score if their careers depended on it — and in many cases, they will.

The Panthers finished the year with a 2-15 record, the worst mark in league history since the NFL went to a 17-game regular season in 2021.

The Panthers were also shut out 26-0 against Jacksonville a week ago during a game in which team owner David Tepper threw a drink in the direction of Jaguars fans and ended up getting fined $300,000 by the NFL for doing so.

This game didn’t surpass that one for complete embarrassment, but it certainly gave it a run before a stadium that looked roughly half-empty.

The Panthers’ offense was booed frequently in Bank of America stadium, especially after once running the ball on third-and-12. And after the Panthers hadn’t been shut out for 21 straight years and 342 games in a row, they ended the season being blanked twice in an eight-day span. Egregious.

Amazingly, the Panthers also ended the year having never run a single play in the fourth quarter while holding the lead. In their only two wins, they won on last-play field goals. So if you felt like the Panthers were always behind this year late, trying to climb out of a hole, that’s why.

According to ESPN, the Panthers became the second team since 1945 to lead for 0:00 of playing time in the fourth quarter over a full season. The other: The 1982 Baltimore Colts in a strike-shortened season in which Baltimore only played nine games.

Tampa Bay (9-8), meanwhile, won the NFC South, made the playoffs on the season’s final day and celebrated in the visitors’ locker room. Former Carolina quarterback Baker Mayfield couldn’t get his team to a single touchdown and looked gimpy both in the game and walking off the field, but it was still enough against this poor Carolina team.

At least the Panthers would normally have the No. 1 pick to look forward to in April’s draft. But because they traded that away in the Young deal, their first pick instead is slated to be No. 33.

Panthers’ chances to score that backfired

It’s not like Carolina had absolutely zero chances to score. Substitute kicker Matthew Wright missed a 52-yard field goal on the final play of the third quarter.

And if you were going to sum up the Panthers’ season in one play, a fine contender came in the second quarter. Young, scrambling left and in trouble, suddenly found wide receiver DJ Chark alone behind the Tampa Bay defense.

Chark sped up the left sideline, seemingly about to complete a 43-yard touchdown.

Instead, he reached the ball toward the goal line instead of holding it tight, and Tampa Bay safety Antoine Winfield Jr. came speeding into him and knocked the ball loose just before the goal line. Chark fumbled into the end zone, Tampa Bay recovered, and Carolina’s only real chance at scoring in the first half went by the boards.

Chark said afterward that instead of going airborne with the ball in front of him, he should have lowered his pads.

“I shouldn’t have tried to force something and tried to be Superman,” Chark said.

The Panthers held Mayfield very much in check — Mayfield (20-for-32 for 137 yards) never seems to play very well in Bank of America Stadium no matter what team he’s on. Still, though, Mayfield will be one of four former Panthers QBs on teams who have made this year’s playoffs: Teddy Bridgewater, PJ Walker, Sam Darnold and Mayfield all have qualified for the postseason.

Tampa Bay only scored three field goals, but that was plenty against one of the most anemic NFL offenses in history. The Panthers are the first team to get shut out in consecutive weeks since the Cleveland Browns in 2008. Young completed 11-of-18 passes for 94 yards, a season low. His previous season low was 112 yards the week before in the other shutout against Jacksonville.

Another of the many damning stats about this season: Christian McCaffrey, whom the Panthers traded away in 2022, scored 21 touchdowns by himself in San Francisco this season. The Panthers’ offense, altogether, scored 20.

To add one final insult to injury, a 29-yard touchdown run by the Panthers’ Raheem Blackshear was nullified in the fourth quarter when Terrace Marshall Jr., a second-round pick for the Panthers in 2021 and a major disappointment all season, didn’t “cover” the Panthers’ left tackle.

Because of Marshall’s incorrect alignment on the play, Blackshear’s touchdown didn’t count due to an illegal formation call. Bryce Young then fumbled on the next play after left tackle Ickey Ekwonu whiffed badly on a block and Young was sacked from the blind side, losing the ball.

Ekwonu loses some confidence

Ekwonu, Carolina’s first-round pick in 2022 and a product of both Charlotte and N.C. State, had a poor second season after generally playing well as a rookie. He admitted afterward that he had lost some confidence as the season went on.

“I kind of got beat on some things early in the year,” Ekwonu said, “and I kind of just let that carry over to more and more games. And I can’t do that.” My guess is that the Panthers will at least consider moving Ekwonu to guard in the offseason, where he wouldn’t have to combat so many speed rushers. But he said afterward he wants to stay at left tackle if possible.

“I know I can play left tackle at an elite level in this league,” Ekwonu said.

Then there was Young. The best thing you can say about this season for him, really, is that he survived it, starting 16 of a possible 17 games and getting sacked 62 times (tied for a team record) without sustaining a season-ending injury.

Of the two plays that originally were ruled Panthers touchdowns Sunday only to be overturned, Young said: “Obviously, it’s not ideal, but that’s part of the game.”

In other words, it was all par for the season’s course for the Panthers, who ended up not scoring a single point after Christmas.

Of the criticism this team has received, running back Chuba Hubbard said: “You never want to forget the bad stuff. Never. Never. You want to grow from it. Learn from it. Dissect it and turn it into something beautiful.”

Thankfully, it’s 2024

The 2024 regular season can’t come soon enough for this bunch, and they’ll start it with a current streak of eight consecutive scoreless quarters.

The Panthers’ defense, on the other hand, played well. Edge rusher Brian Burns — who will be the subject of a big contract negotiation in 2024 — addressed the entire season afterward and admitted he was “terrified of getting hurt” this year.

Did he play not to get hurt?

“I don’t want to say that,” Burns said. “But in the back of my head, probably. Just being transparent. I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m proud of. But it’s human nature.” Burns, whose sack total dropped from 12.5 to 7.0 this season, added later that he was playing as hard as he could all season and that he would “never question my effort.”

Interim head coach Chris Tabor finished 1-5 in his six-game stint. He had replaced head coach Frank Reich, who was fired on Nov. 27, 11 games into a four-year contract, after the Panthers started 1-10. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” Tabor said of this loss, but he really could have been talking about the entire season.

Carolina’s next job: Find a head coach to fix this mess.

Counting interim coaches, the next head coach will be the Panthers’ seventh in Tepper’s six-year tenure. Whether general manager Scott Fitterer sticks around is also to be determined soon. The Panthers have gone 14-37 in Fitterer’s three-year tenure, worst in the NFL in that time period.