Bryce Young’s night in Green Bay never really found its rhythm, and for most of Thursday it looked like the Panthers were headed for a rougher assessment than the final grade suggests.
Young finished 23-of-41 for 207 yards, one touchdown and one interception in Carolina’s 27-19 loss, but the box score flatters the performance a bit. At halftime, he was just 10-of-19 for 65 yards with an interception, and Carolina had only 80 total yards. Outside of Chuba Hubbard, the offense was struggling to generate much of anything.
A short week didn’t help, and Green Bay made life difficult from the start. The pass protection was shaky enough that Young often had pressure before he could really survey the field, which pushed Carolina toward Hubbard underneath. Hubbard finished with seven catches for 38 yards, while Tetairoa McMillan led the team with six receptions for 57 yards.
For most of the game, there just wasn’t much to hang your hat on. There were a few completions sprinkled in, but the Panthers couldn’t get much going through the air, and Young’s numbers felt better on paper than they did in real time.
Then came the throw that kept his night from sliding all the way down.
With 5:46 left and facing fourth down, Young hit Jalen Coker for a 26-yard touchdown that cut Green Bay’s lead to 27-19. Coker had only two catches, but that was easily Young’s best throw of the night and at least gave Carolina a late spark.
The Panthers did get the ball back, but there wasn’t enough time to do anything with it. On the final possession, Young was sacked with 22 seconds left, and Carolina never got close enough to threaten a tie.
That late touchdown is what separated a C- from a D+ in my view, but it didn’t erase the rest of the night. Green Bay also turned it over three times, yet Carolina still managed only 19 points, and Young averaged 5.0 yards per attempt while adding another interception after the Panthers had coughed it up three times against Tampa Bay last week.
None of that falls solely on Young. The protection wasn’t consistently there, and the receivers weren’t running wide open very often. But the Panthers still needed more from the quarterback.
We’ve already seen Young deliver much bigger nights, including 329 yards against Detroit, 287 yards and three touchdowns against Atlanta, and 281 yards with two touchdowns against Philadelphia. That’s why one late drive wasn’t enough to wash away everything that came before it. The touchdown to Coker saved him from a worse grade, but it didn’t change the feel of the night.
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