Pick-sicks: Bryce Young, the Panthers’ rookie QB, just isn’t ready to win in the NFL

Bryce Young just isn’t ready.

That became clearer after Carolina’s humiliating 27-13 home loss to Indianapolis on Sunday, a game in which both offenses produced 13 points. The difference was that Young also threw two pick-6 interceptions — to the very same guy — that resulted in 14 points for the other team.

You could also call those two interceptions pick-sicks, because “sick” is how they made all Panthers fans feel who showed up and watched another loss for another sad Carolina team that thudded to 1-7 and is now tied for the worst start in franchise history.

There’s no real shame in not being ready as a rookie. First-year quarterbacks often aren’t. And give Young credit for correctly taking the blame for those critical throws, calling them “fatal mistakes.”

“That’s not on anybody but me,” Young said afterward.

And: “I have to be better. I have to be a lot better.”

But all that doesn’t excuse the fact that the Panthers can’t put a better product on the field. Ownership. Coaching. Players. They all share blame for making this a team that’s not worth the money fans are paying to see it.

What we’re watching is ugly. And sometimes — like on Sunday — it’s so ugly that you just can’t watch anymore.

You should have seen the Carolina fans scatter like ants when Young threw his third interception of the day in the fourth quarter. On the plus side, this one wasn’t a pick-6. But at that point, most people got up en masse and headed out of Bank of America Stadium, because the Panthers were making the worst scoring defense in the NFL look like the 1985 Bears.

The Colts (4-5) came into the game allowing an NFL-high 28.6 points per game. Then the Indianapolis defense actually outscored the Panthers offense, 14-13, sacking Young four times, harassing him many more and making him look in general like a cake taken out of the oven too early. Just not ready.

On the same day that No. 2 overall draft pick CJ Stroud threw for 470 yards and five touchdowns in a 39-37 win, No. 1 pick Young had the worst game of his NFL career. He’s now 1-6 as an NFL starter.

It’s far too soon to make the final determination, of course, but the early returns on this QB debate are no debate at all. Stroud will be a shoo-in for rookie of the year honors unless he gets hurt. Young is simply trying to keep his head above water.

It’s not all Young’s fault. Not by a long shot. In his seven starts, Young has been sacked 26 times and hit 27 more. That’s way too many, as the Panthers’ offensive line continues its long-running performance of a desultory show that never will make it to Broadway. The wide receivers get less separation than teenagers at a high school slow dance. And to be fair, Young has had flashes in every game, most sublimely when he led the Panthers to their lone win with a fourth-quarter comeback against Stroud and Houston one week ago.

But two pick-6s in the same game, against what has been an awful defense?!

“Bad throws, and bad decisions, on both,” Young said, also calling his errors “Day One quarterback stuff.”

It’s not like this has never happened before to a Panthers QB — Chris Weinke, Brian St. Pierre and Jake Delhomme all threw two pick-6s in a single game. But it’s a rare occurrence. Aaron Rodgers, for instance, has thrown a total of exactly four pick-6s in a 19-year NFL career. Cam Newton averaged one per season in the NFL. Young only threw one during his entire collegiate career at Alabama.

But Young threw one in each half Sunday, both to Indianapolis cornerback Kenny Moore. Young had only 173 yards passing Sunday, in 39 attempts; Moore, by himself, boasted 115 yards on two interception returns (49- and 66-yard touchdowns).

Young was targeting running backs in both cases: throwing late to the flat toward Chuba Hubbard on the first, then overshooting Miles Sanders on the second: a screen play that was sniffed out by the Colts and was “pretty much dead,” as Sanders said.

“All I can say is that Bryce just has to throw that in the dirt,” Sanders said. “He knows that, though.”

Sanders, like the other offensive players who spoke to the media Sunday night, expressed support for Young and said he was impressed that Young told him after the play was done that he should indeed have thrown the ball away.

“I don’t have no doubt in 9,” Sanders said, referring to Young’s uniform number. “It’s just one game.”

Said Panthers coach Frank Reich, who always defends Young to the hilt: “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 do. It’s a long road. I and 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 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. ... But I told Bryce in there: ‘I’ve seen the best quarterbacks in the game have way worse games than this. Way worse. You don’t flinch.’”

So on the Panthers go with Young in the saddle.

Backup QB Andy Dalton would win more games right now, but Dalton also isn’t the future. Young is — or is supposed to be — and the Panthers are traveling the rocky road of finding that out right now. It’s not much fun for fans.

But the point of the rest of this season is and should be to get Young ready, no matter how bad it looks. The Panthers are 1-7, after all. It’s about 2024 already.

And all this is ultimately going to go one of two ways:

One day, all the key people inside the Panthers’ stadium will look back on what happened Sunday and laugh.

Or, one day, in a couple of years or far less, all those key people will be gone.