Carolina Panthers Throttled in Week 7 by Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Carolina Panthers are going to want to forget about Sunday's Week 7 performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a hurry. And the best thing they can do is have the 24-hour rule. 

You look at the game tape and flush it within 24 hours. I think they would agree with that assessment after what we saw on Sunday afternoon.

Tampa Bay went into Carolina and left no doubt with an impressive 43-13 thrashing of the Panthers. It got ugly in the first half and then it continued to get bad for Carolina as they never got it closer than 11 points in the loss. 

The Buccaneers did this all with quarterback Baker Mayfield throwing for just 64 yards on 7-of-11 passes in his return. Instead, it was a really good run game and a stout defense that paved the way for Tampa Bay. Running back Bucky Irving finished with 106 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns while Kenneth Gainwell had 88 rushing yards on 14 attempts.

Carolina's defense had no answers, allowing 21 first downs, 322 net yards and gave up seven third-down conversions on the game. 

After Irving found the end zone for a four-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, the two teams remained scoreless until early in the second quarter. And from there on out, it was all Buccaneers. 

Chase McLaughlin connected on a 22-yard field goal, and the Tampa Bay got a 32-yard fumble recovery on the next Panthers' drive to extend the lead to 17-0. Even though Carolina did something right as Bryce Young hit Darren Waller for a 50-yard touchdown, the Bucs blocked the extra point attempt and returned it for a two-point conversion and a 19-6 lead. 

That's the closest the Panthers would get.

Irving added another touchdown run and Tyler Johnson caught a pass from Mayfield to wrap up the scoring in the first half and give Tampa Bay a 33-6 lead at the break. In the third quarter, McLaughlin opened the scoring with another field goal and then Sean Tuker's 46-yard touchdown run ended the scoring for the Buccaneers. 

Anthony Tyus III got his first career rushing touchdown late in the fourth quarter to provide the final points for the Panthers.

Young finished the game 14 of 27 for 163 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions with a passer rating of 51.9. He was replaced by Kenny Pickett in the fourth quarter. 

The Panthers now fall to 3-3 on the year and to make matters worse, the Atlanta Falcons upset the San Francisco 49ers to go to 3-4 on the season and pull to within a half game of the Panthers. 

It will be a short week for the Panthers as they travel to Green Bay to face off against the Packers on Thursday Night Football.