‘What you get when you play the Packers.’ Carolina Panthers react to controversial plays

Bryce Young shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’m just a quarterback.”

Interim head coach Chris Tabor said “there are a lot of great stories that can be written about that.”

And Adam Thielen, the Carolina Panthers’ veteran wide receiver — who was right in front of the game’s most controversial play that had everyone talking after the Packers’ 33-30 win that came down to the literal last second — summoned a smile and shrug.

“Kind of what you get when you play the Packers,” Thielen told reporters postgame.

The play all three were referencing was the most memorable one of an exciting game in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Sunday. It came with 2:39 left in the game, on third-and-4, with the score tied at 30. Packers quarterback Jordan Love dropped back and, under pressure, launched a high-arching pass near the Panthers sideline. Romeo Doubs was under it, appeared to catch it, and the sideline official ruled it a catch on the field.

But the moment the play was called a 36-yard catch, the Panthers sideline erupted. The key play happened right in front of a bunch of guys — among them Thielen, Young and Tabor, who eventually threw the challenge flag — and they all pleaded with the official that they saw the ball pop out.

Thielen, even postgame, was convinced it was a drop.

“I saw the whole play,” Thielen said. “I saw a catch and then ball moving. As he was going to the ground, the ball moves. Controls it again, hits the ground, and then loses it again. So in my opinion, the ball moved twice, two different times. So there really wasn’t enough time to control the ball. They say, ‘Control and then a football move.’ There was no football move.

“And then he rolls out of bounds. So you can slow-mo it and say, ‘one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three’— well that’s in slow-mo. In full-speed, that’s a no-catch. So that’s kind of what you get when you play the Packers.”

What do you mean by that?

Thielen, who spent a bulk of his career with Green Bay’s biggest rival, the Minnesota Vikings, expounded with a smile: “Usually they get the benefit of the doubt on some calls.”

Thielen later credited the Packers for playing well on Sunday and was largely complimentary to the winning team.

“The Packers did a great job moving the ball and putting up points against a really good defense,” Thielen said. “So credit to them. They played a great game and made some big plays in the moment — even that catch, which was controversial or whatever. It was still a great play by that kid and a great play call.

“They did a great job. It’s not to take anything away from them because they did a great job, and they obviously earned the victory.”

Tabor was careful with his words but his tone of frustrated disappointment was clear on the play and end result.

“We were going to end up taking the timeout there anyway,” Tabor said of the decision to challenge the Doubs ruling. “Saw that the ball got bobbled. There was a lot of conversation (with the on-field officials) from New York. They went with the ruling on the field. We were going to burn the timeout anyway, so you might as well try to get the ball back.”

Packers react to Doubs catch, too

Love ran down the play from his point of view postgame. The play was one of many big ones from the first-year starting quarterback, who finished 17 of 28 for 219 yards and two touchdowns and a passer rating of 109.1.

“Yeah, the one to Romeo (Doubs), we got one high coverage, man coverage, we ran a stomp route with him, and he made a fantastic catch right there on the sideline, which was a huge play in that drive,” Love said.

He added: “One high man, we love that option to Rome. He’s just got to go outside and win on that route, and that’s what he did. But if not, we had some other in-breakers coming from the right side, but I think O-line was able to pick that up, they did a great job with that. The running back stepped in and handled that protection, but like I said, the play was kind of designed for that coverage and it worked out.”

Added Doubs: “I mean, I stepped on the ground about three times before the ball even moved. So yeah, it was a catch.”

NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson spoke with Joe Person of The Athletic in a pool report and was asked about the Doubs catch.

“The ruling on the field, obviously, is where we start,” Anderson said. “It was a catch and the receiver maintained control throughout the process as he was going to the ground. We actually did see the ball touch the ground, but we also saw that he had control of the ball in his left hand. The left hand never came off the ball, and there were no available shots that show that he actually lost control of the ball in his left hand, even though the ball touched the ground.

“The ball is allowed to touch the ground as long as there’s not evidence that he lost control, and we didn’t think it was clear and obvious that he did. And since the ruling on the field was a catch, we stayed with the ruling on the field.”

Was there 1 second left for Panthers?

That Doubs catch put the Packers on the Panthers’ 31, well within game-winning field goal range for Anders Carlson. It was then followed up by a 20-yard catch up the middle from Packers tight end Tucker Kraft, which eventually set up a 32-yard field goal that soared true.

That put the game at 33-30.

But that wasn’t the end of difficult calls on the field to make.

The Panthers ultimately got the ball back with 19 seconds to go, starting on their own 25-yard line. They needed to traverse 35 yards, really — to get it to a 58-yard field goal — with no timeouts. And they nearly did.

Young found DJ Chark for 22 yards near the sideline which stopped the clock. And then, with 13 seconds left, Young fired a pass to Thielen over the middle for another 22 yards.

The Panthers didn’t get to the line fast enough to snap the ball, though, officials ruled on the field. Young’s spike landed with zeroes on the clock.

When asked if he thought there was time remaining, Tabor responded without a second thought: “Absolutely.”

Said Young: “We’re just out there playing. Out there playing. Obviously we wanted to get that. They got cameras. They got (everything) — we were just trying to get the snap in as quickly as possible.”

Thielen said the team had practiced these end-of-game scenarios before — throwing the ball in the middle of the field and spiking it before time expires.

“I think there was enough time there,” Thielen said. “I think we got it off. Obviously it was close. ... But I honestly have no idea because I didn’t see the play clock. I was just trying to get lined up.”

Anderson, from the league office, said that replay officials in New York confirmed what officials ruled on the field before the game was called over.

Tabor said that despite the result, he was impressed with how his team fought and how the offense played.

“In regards to the game, I tip my hat to the Packers,” Tabor said. “They made one more play than we did. That’s what it was. I love the fight in our guys. We ran out of time. That’s what happened. We ran out of time.”