By admin 
Carolina left Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday with a 25-14 win and a firmer hold on the division lead, but the Panthers also left with a franchise record nobody wanted. Thirteen flags cost them 149 yards against the Eagles, the most penalty yards in a game in team history, and Dave Canales called the total “outrageous” after the game.
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Tampa Bay comes to Bank of America Stadium at 1-5 and 2½ games back, yet the Bucs have won 12 of the last 15 meetings, per the team’s website. A loss would cut Carolina’s lead over Tampa Bay to 1½ games. Canales has said Carolina needs to get back to the basics, and three of them are worth a look before the Bucs arrive.
The penalties have to stop giving away yards
Carolina was flagged eight times for 105 yards in the first half alone in Philadelphia. Rookie cornerback Will Lee III drew two pass interference calls totaling 46 yards, and the second set up an Eagles touchdown. Robert Hunt was flagged twice for an ineligible man downfield, and penalties wiped out three good first-half returns, including a 50-yard kickoff return by David Moore. Tommy Tremble’s taunting flag after his fourth-quarter touchdown pushed the extra point back to 48 yards, and Ryan Fitzgerald missed it.
“A lot of times these are effort penalties, and guys are trying too hard in different situations,” Canales said, according to the AP. That was enough against a Tanner McKee-led offense that finished with 222 yards. Tampa Bay led Pittsburgh 16-3 entering the fourth quarter a week ago, and a team that has played that well for three quarters won’t need 149 free yards to steal a division game.
Bryce Young needs better protection against David Walker
Bryce Young has been sacked 12 times in five games, at least twice in every one of them. That isn’t on him. His pressure-to-sack rate of 12.4% ranks eighth among quarterbacks, and his 85.2 overall grade ranks sixth, according to PFF. The line in front of him has been the issue, and we wrote last week that center Luke Fortner had allowed 15 pressures and three sacks to that point.
Right tackle has been unsettled, too. Rookie Monroe Freeling struggled in Taylor Moton’s place before a knee injury kept him out in Philadelphia, and Moton has yet to play this season.
Walker is the problem for whichever tackle draws him. The second-year edge rusher has four sacks and an 84.1 pass-rush grade, sixth among 116 edge defenders, per PFF. He had two sacks in 28 snaps against the Steelers, and his 8.2% sack rate is the best in the NFL among players with at least 45 pass-rush snaps, per the Bucs. With 57 pass-rush snaps on the season, that’s a small sample, but Tampa Bay had a season-high five sacks Sunday. Young’s league-leading 309.8 passing yards per game depend on time for a shot called downfield to develop.
Derrick Brown has to win the fight with Bucky Irving
Carolina allows 132.2 rushing yards per game, 27th in the NFL, and a league-worst 5.12 yards per carry, according to the Bucs’ numbers. The Week 1 loss to Chicago, when the Bears ran for 291 yards, inflates both figures. The Panthers have held Detroit to 46 rushing yards and Philadelphia to 35 since, though the Eagles were without Saquon Barkley.
Bucky Irving is a tougher test. He has averaged 136.0 yards from scrimmage in four career games against Carolina, and he ran for a career-high 165 yards in Dallas in Week 5. Derrick Brown is the player who has to slow him down. The veteran defensive tackle has a 70.0 run-defense grade and seven run stops on 241 snaps, according to PFF, but no sacks, and he has been underwhelming for a former Pro Bowler. Tershawn Wharton’s 21-day practice window is open, and his return would give Brown help on the interior.
If Brown and the front can keep Irving under 4 yards a carry, Tampa Bay is left asking its quarterback to win the game from behind. That’s the version of this matchup Carolina wants.
“Even though we may shoot ourselves in the foot, we just find a way to keep fighting and execute when we need it the most,” linebacker Devin Lloyd said after Sunday’s game. That worked against a backup quarterback in Philadelphia. A win over Tampa Bay would put the Bucs 3½ games back, and Carolina can get there without setting another penalty record.
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This story was originally published October 21, 2026 at 8:45 AM.