Carolina Panthers: 3 Standouts vs. Buccaneers in Week 2

The Carolina Panthers fell to 0-2 with a home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Were there any bright spots for Ron Rivera’s team?

Last year, the Carolina Panthers won six of their first eight games. Off an 11-5 campaign and a wild card berth in 2017, the franchise appeared prime to do something it had never done and that was to post consecutive winning seasons.

But Ron Rivera’s club would drop seven in a row after that promising start. And you could argue if the playoff-bound New Orleans Saints had not opted to rest many of their starters, the Panthers may have run the table in a bad way. Carolina finished 7-9 and in third place in the division.

However, it’s a new year. Off a tough 30-27 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1, the Panthers looked to rebound against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ club that self-destructed last Sunday at home vs. the San Francisco 49ers. Rivera’s club was home for the second time in five days. But that didn’t seem to matter as Cam Newton and company failed to score a touchdown in a frustrating 20-14 loss.

So what went wrong for a team that has now dropped nine of its last 10 outings following a 6-2 start a season ago? When it was all said and done, the Panthers settled for four field goals despite amassing a respectable 343 total yards and Rivera’s team dropped to 0-2 for the first time since 2013.

Still, there were a couple of solid performances despite the team’s six-point loss.