{"id":378333,"date":"2026-08-22T12:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378333\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:24:11","slug":"bryce-young-panthers-play-much-better-vs-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/378333\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Young, Panthers play much better vs. Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Carolina<\/p>\n

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young hands off to running back Jonathon Brooks against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first quarter during a preseason game at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

Nathan Ray Seebeck<\/p>\n

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

The Carolina Panthers did the things you\u2019re supposed to do on Friday in a 34-17 exhibition win over Jacksonville<\/a>, and it\u2019s a good thing they did.<\/p>\n

This was almost certainly the starters\u2019 last chance before the regular-season opener Sept. 13 in Charlotte to show that the week before was a fluke. And they couldn\u2019t have had a much better shot at it than Friday night in Jacksonville, when the Jaguars decided not to play their starters on either side of the ball. No Trevor Lawrence. No Travis Hunter.<\/p>\n

Still, the Panthers had to execute, and they did. Bryce Young, benefiting from interior offensive line protection he didn\u2019t have a week ago, marched Carolina to a seven-play, 58-yard touchdown drive on his second series. (The first one had been a punt.)<\/p>\n

And with that TD, head coach Dave Canales decided he\u2019d seen enough of the starting unit and benched them for the rest of the game. Last week they got nine plays and this week they got 11. Next week against Houston at home they will surely get zero \u2014 not playing your starters in the final week of the preseason has become de rigueur.<\/p>\n

So, five total drives, and the first four (three against Buffalo, one against Jacksonville) ended up in four punts.<\/p>\n

\"Carolina Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks (25) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first quarter during a preseason game at EverBank Stadium on Friday in the Panthers\u2019 34-17 win. Nathan Ray Seebeck IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect <\/p>\n

The fifth and final drive, though, was a thing of beauty, as Young dissected the Jaguars and put every throw where it needed to be. After two completions to Tetairoa McMillan, Jonathon Brooks finished the drive with his first NFL TD of any type from 1 yard out.<\/p>\n

Said Canales afterward: \u201cA good long drive like that \u2014 that\u2019s what I\u2019m after … so it was good to get that drive going, make some critical plays there, and for the guys to kind of feel, \u2018This is what it\u2019s supposed to feel like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On that high note, Canales shut them down. Following the TD, out came the starters, and the rest of the game was mostly a backup-vs-backup affair.<\/p>\n

Carolina won that part of it, too, as a number of the other Panthers had flashy plays. Wide receiver Roc Taylor caught a pass practically off a Jacksonville defender\u2019s helmet. Cornerback Chau Smith-Wade made a diving interception on the sort of ball that defensive backs drop about 80% of the time. Placekicker Ryan Fitzgerald booted a 61-yard field goal, outdoors, which bodes well for his distance kicking this year. And the Panthers have scored in the 30s so rarely over the past few years \u2014 regular season, preseason, whatever \u2014that they felt like they were making a big play every couple of minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited to see it come alive,\u201d Canales said, \u201cand to just see more of the things that we\u2019ve been seeing in camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Carolina Carolina Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks runs the ball during the first quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday. Melina Myers IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect <\/p>\n

Every preseason game has caveats. Jacksonville \u2014 a 13-win team last season \u2014 resting its starters for this exhibition was the biggest one Friday night.<\/p>\n

But a week ago the Panthers felt like a worrisome bunch, one that got outplayed in an embarrassing 29-14 exhibition loss to Buffalo.<\/p>\n

This one felt a lot different. Carolina ran the ball well, protected Young well (with a healthier offensive line) and held Jacksonville to field-goal attempts on defense for most of the night.<\/p>\n

Last week was concerning. This one was promising.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Fowler<\/a><\/p>\n

The Charlotte Observer<\/p>\n

Columnist Scott Fowler has written for The Charlotte Observer since 1994 and has earned 26 APSE awards for his sportswriting. He hosted The Observer\u2019s podcast \u201cCarruth,\u201d which Sports Illustrated once named \u201cPodcast of the Year.\u201d Fowler also conceived and hosted the online series and podcast \u201cSports Legends of the Carolinas,\u201d which featured 1-on-1 interviews with NC and SC sports icons and was turned into a book. He occasionally writes about non-sports subjects, such as the 5-part series \u201c9\/11\/74,\u201d which chronicled the forgotten plane crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 1974.
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young hands off to running back Jonathon Brooks against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-378333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}