The Carolina Panthers had a chance to take over first place in the NFC South. Instead, San Francisco laid a broken egg, falling 20-9, making for an uncomfortable land flight home.
“It’s going to be a boring flight back,” quarterback Bryce Young said in the team’s official transcript. “But we have a short week, so we have to turn the page. We have to flush it quickly. It’s not the result we wanted, but we’re moving on.”
Coming off an explosive, franchise-record 448-yard, three-touchdown performance in Week 11, Young returned to his flashy play in what has been an at-times promising season.
Carolina was unable to take advantage of the defense that stopped Brock Purdy three times in the first half, yielding a measly three points on the trio.
The most devastating mistake came from Young, who threw a horrific interception in the end zone after Jaycee Horn’s first pick of the game. After Young Scramble set up a first-and-goal at the 1, Carolina called a punt. Young had tight end Mitchell Evans open right away, but held onto the ball and tried to force it to the TE a few plays later. The delay allowed San Francisco safety Ji’Ayir Brown to break free and grab the ball.
Noting that he couldn’t “endanger the ball,” Young took ownership of the misconduct that affected the tenor of the contest.
“We just need to execute. There are no dream plays or pep talks,” he said. “I need to do better at performing myself. I have to think about the ball. I had to do a better job of getting the game going today. I didn’t do well enough. I take full ownership of it. We have a locker room full of guys who do that, so we just have to be better. There is no magical fix. We are the ones who finished and played good football today. miserable, but it’s a quick week, we have to be able to wash it off quickly and move on to the next one.”
Young completed 18 of 29 passes for 169 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions for a 60.8 passer rating. It was his seventh game of the season with fewer than 170 yards passing, the most by a starting quarterback in 2025.
The quarterback looked off early and only found his rhythm on a drive in the third quarter, which he completed with a single to rookie Tetairoa McMillan for the Panthers’ only touchdown of the day. It wasn’t like the 49ers were over Young. He was pressured on just 7 of his 29 pass attempts, according to Next Generation Stats, and was sacked once.
A lack of rushing attempts – nine carries – and an inability to convert first downs (1 of 7 on third down) didn’t allow the Panthers offense to get into gear. They just sputtered all night, giving up 12 first downs (the 49ers had 13 in the first half alone), 230 yards and only 43 rushing plays (70 for San Francisco).
A win would have vaulted the Panthers ahead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for first place in the NFC South. Not only did Carolina lose, but it also showed that it couldn’t hang with a conference contender for very long.
“Again, it’s miserable right now,” Young said. “We don’t have the luxury of the big picture, not in this league. It’s all about going 1-0 this week, it didn’t happen. So that’s what we’re disappointed about. We’re disappointed for the flight. We get back to Charlotte, we’ve got to get back to work and just worry about next week.”
On a short week, the 6-6 Panthers host the NFC-leading 9-2 Los Angeles Rams before a Week 14 bye. All is not lost in Carolina. Tampa (6-5) hasn’t run away with the league and the two meet twice in the last two weeks. However, Young will have to play better than he did Monday night if the Panthers are going to turn things around.