Bryce Young addresses Panthers’ playoff hopes after Buccaneers loss
The Carolina Panthers had a chance at securing themselves an NFL Playoffs spot by defeating division rivals, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on Saturday night. Unfortunately, they fell short, as Bryce Young and company lost 16-14 in a game where the Bucs left the Panthers little time to try to get into field goal range.
Since Tampa Bay (8-19) won the matchup, the Buccaneers currently hold the No. 4 seed in the NFC. However, they aren’t officially into the postseason, and the Panthers (8-9) aren’t officially out.
That will depend on the results of a final game between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon. Should the Falcons win, they’ll improve to 8-9, creating a three-way tie in the NFC South.
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With all three teams tied, the tiebreaker for the division and the final playoff spot would go to Carolina, which holds a 3-1 record against Tampa and Atlanta, both of whom have worse records against the other two opponents.
Following his team’s loss, Bryce Young took the podium for a press conference, where he didn’t shy away from taking responsibility for costly mistakes in his team’s loss.
A question surfaced about a flea-flicker play that went awry involving Rico Dowdle, who slipped on the wet field and fumbled the ball. Young accepted blame in the moment for not coming up with a recovery on the fumbled ball.
“My natural instinct was to try to pick it up, but in the end, it’s not what happened. Obviously, in the end, the ball touched my hands, so I take all the ownership for that,” he said.
“I look in the mirror first. There’s stuff that I could’ve done better. We’re all guys that take ownership. That’s not the reason—credit to our opponent. We weren’t good enough today,” he said.
Young’s performance included him throwing 24-of-35 completed passes for 266 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. However, the costly mistakes came back to bite his team with the Bucs capitalizing at home.
Speaking about the Panthers still having a shot at winning the division and making the playoffs, Young got honest about the situation.
“Again, not feeling what we want to right now, but I wouldn’t want to be in this position, this year, with any other group. So, we’ll sit by the TV tomorrow,” he said during part of his remarks.
However, Young later said that doesn’t mean he’ll watch the Falcons-Saints game to see the result. Instead, he may wait to learn his team’s NFL Playoffs fate.
“I don’t know. We’ll see. I haven’t thought about it. It’d be a tough one to- might not even watch to be honest with you. I might just see how it ends up,” Young said, adding, “It’s on us for that being our reality, so now it’s in someone else’s hands.”
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