What Frank Reich said about Carolina Panthers’ offensive identity after loss to Colts

The Carolina Panthers have struggled to a 1-7 start, and to make matters worse, head coach Frank Reich can’t seem to figure out how to get more efficiency out of Carolina’s offense.

Following Sunday’s 27-13 loss to his former team, the Indianapolis Colts, Reich acknowledged that the Panthers’ offense is struggling to find its identity, despite the head coach’s background as an offensive expert.

“We want to be able to run the ball,” Reich said. “We want to be able to run the ball with our three core runs, run our play-action stuff off that — or movement stuff. Listen, I’m not going to sit up here and give a seminar . . . on how we define what our identity is. Obviously, we’re struggling to find our identity. There’s no question about that. But it does start with running the football. And I thought we showed flashes of that tonight.

“Then, when you can run the ball, you need to be able to get some play-action shots down the field and get some chunk plays. We’re not getting that right now. And then, we have some things in our identity, as far as who we are in the red zone that I don’t want to talk about for competitive edge reasons. And how we approach the red zone, and then on third down and situational football, we need to be a team that spreads the ball around and does some unique matchup things — again, that I don’t really want to go into details about — that when you start defining how your identity is that’s the way we talk about it internally.”

Reich, who handed over play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Thomas Brown before the Week 7 bye, was visibly frustrated as he discussed another letdown loss. The Panthers were blown out by the Colts at Bank of America Stadium, and Reich’s quarterback, rookie Bryce Young, threw two game-defining pick-6s on once-promising drives by the offense.

Young finished with an abysmal 48.3 passer rating. He completed 61.5% of his passes, but produced just 173 passing yards, a touchdown and three interceptions in an ugly performance for the offense.

“What I just talked to Bryce about in (the locker room), I said, ‘Listen, I’ve been around for a lot of years, I’ve seen games like this many times,’” Reich said. “And it’s not all just on the pick-6s, I know it seems that way, but we’ve put him in a hard position a couple of times. Obviously, Bryce owns his share of it — we’re all part of it. We’re all part of it, so we need to do a better job.”

Despite Young’s sluggish outing, Reich said a scenario involving the benching of the rookie for veteran Andy Dalton is not on the table.

“I can honestly tell you that thought (has) never even come close to entering my mind,” Reich said.

While Reich’s post-game press conference mostly revolved around Young and the offense, the head coach also weighed in on the defense’s strong performance, the quick turnaround for the team’s Week 10 matchup against the Chicago Bears and more:

Reich on Young’s poor performance:

“I have to obviously look at the film to see why. The one thing you don’t do as a coach, this isn’t about finger-pointing, but you do try to find reasons. We’re looking at things that we have to correct, so that’s what we do. We’re not going to finger-point. It all starts with me as the head coach, so we have to get ready to play, and we have to play at a higher level.”

Reich on Young’s confidence heading into Week 10 on a short week:

“I think his confidence level will be great. Listen, I’ve seen this happen to the best quarterbacks in the history of the game. They all have games like this. Sure, it’s easy to put it on the quarterback, but you bounce back. That’s what makes the great ones. It’s a long road. It’s a long road. I’ve said this many times. The quarterback journey, developing into the franchise quarterback, it’s a long road. I/we believe very strongly in Bryce. Coming into this game I felt like he was hitting a rhythm and a stride. This is a step backwards for us as an offense. We were starting. We thought we had several games in a row where we’re making good strides, and then we went out and laid an egg today offensively. Credit the Colts’ defense. Credit Gus Bradley and their players, how they played us. We have to do a better job, but it was one game. In reality, it’s not that we were lighting up the scoreboard, but Bryce has been playing good football. This is one game, so I’m not even thinking twice about it.”

Reich on offensive letdown amid strong defensive performance:

“That (Colts) offense had a streak going of scoring 20 points or more, 350 yards every game. Their offense is very explosive. The whole year they’ve been very consistent. Our defense came in, and we did what we wanted to do against them and did a great job. It’s a credit to (defensive coordinator) Ejiro Evero and the defensive staff and the players.”

Reich on costly penalties:

“Very frustrating. Early in that game we had three penalties that were devastating penalties. Two of them extend drives that they end up getting points on. You can’t do that. You can’t do that and be a good football team. We talk about those things all the time. We watch tape on it. The things that came up, we’ve talked about. We’ve sat in here in meetings. We show tape. As coaches and players, we have to figure that out. I mean, there’s just too many of those mistakes. That’s frustrating.”

Reich on the referee’s feedback about Xavier Woods’ roughing the passer penalty:

“They talked about launching, you know, and (they) thought that he hit him in the head and neck. If he did hit him in the head and neck, it’s a penalty. I don’t know. I would have to see the tape. If it’s launching, launching isn’t a penalty. Launching and hitting in the neck area, head or neck area, is a penalty. Launching and hitting in the body is not a penalty. So, I don’t know. I didn’t see the replay, but what I was told was that he launched, and he hit him in the head and neck area. If, in fact, that’s what it was, then that’s a penalty. If he launched and hit him in the body, then that’s one that they got wrong, but it happens.”

Quick hits

▪ The Panthers suffered several in-game injuries against the Colts.

Following the game, Reich said pass rusher Brian Burns and cornerback CJ Henderson suffered concussions. Burns and Henderson will have a tough time coming back on a short week, Reich acknowledged.

Along with Henderson and Burns, the Panthers lost linebacker Chandler Wooten (ankle), tight end Stephen Sullivan (shoulder), safety Xavier Woods (thigh) and pass rusher Luiji Vilain (knee) to injuries as well.

▪ The Panthers held the NFL’s No. 2 rusher, Zack Moss, to just 26 rushing yards on seven carries. Former league-leading rusher, Jonathan Taylor, had 47 rushing yards on 18 carries for an average of 2.6 yards per carry.

▪ Young threw the big passing play of his career to tight end Hayden Hurst, who broke free from a busted coverage for a 48-yard completion. On the next play, Young threw his second pick-6 of the night.

▪ Veteran defensive lineman DeShawn Williams produced his first sack of the season against the Colts.