Bills vs. Panthers: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Buffalo Bills faced the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Sept. 17 in NFL Week 2, and here are the highlights and a recap from the game.

For the most part, an NFL team has to feel good when they go into their Week 2 matchup with a 1-0 record. Having said that, that may not be the case when you look at the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers. That has nothing to do with the teams themselves and how they played, but rather who they played to get their season-opening victory.

The Bills opened their 2017 season with a matchup against the New York Jets, who you may know as the worst team in the NFL this year. They took care of business with veteran running back LeSean McCoy looking the part of a star in the big matchup. However, it’s hard to gauge what your team actually is when up against such inferior competition.

As for the Panthers, their season began with a trip to the West Coast to face the San Francisco 49ers. Luke Kuechly and the defense were predictably dominant over the lacking San Fran attack. Having said that, their offense wan’t great, but still handily put away the Niners.

Frankly, what we ultimately learned about these two teams in this game was that they are both extremely flawed. However, they both also have tremendous defenses. For the Panthers, they wouldn’t let anything get going. Be it with McCoy or Tyrod Taylor, they were stuffing them time and again throughout the day.

For the Bills, they were in Cam Newton’s face all day long — almost forcing him off the field at one point after laying a big hit on the big quarterback. That was not a great look for him, as he was sacked six times on the day.

With the defenses playing so big, it was a struggle to move the ball. All of the scoring for the day was just field goals, with the Panthers blanking Buffalo until the fourth quarter. Buffalo tried for another late score, but Carolina held on to move to 2-0 — even if it was a far cry from being pretty.

Highlights

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Because of who both the Panthers and Bills played in Week 1, it’s really hard to know what to make of either team. With that being said, this game will surely be telling of who each club actually is in the 2017 season.