NFL Winners and Losers: Bryce Young falls flat and Panthers get embarrassed by Saints

Hopefully David Tepper didn’t have any drinks nearby on Sunday. Or anything else the Carolina Panthers team owner could throw in anger.

The Panthers spent and spent this offseason to improve after going 2-15 last season. They hired a new head coach, Dave Canales. They improved the team around quarterback Bryce Young. And nothing was different on Sunday.

The Panthers’ renewed optimism was burned to the ground before halftime of the season opener. They trailed the New Orleans Saints 30-0 before their season was even two quarters old. Young, who struggled badly as a rookie after being the first overall draft pick following the Panthers’ monster trade to go up and get him, threw a bad interception on his first pass of the season. He threw a worse interception to start the second half, throwing well past an open Adam Thielen. The Saints turned that interception into a touchdown and a 37-3 lead. At that point, Young’s line was horrific: 6 of 14, 50 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions and a nearly impossible 13.1 passer rating.

Young padded his stats a bit after the game was completely out of hand, and the Saints rolled to a 47-10 win. Young finished 13-of-30 for 161 yards.

If Young wasn’t the first pick of last year’s draft, there would probably be talk of benching him. Canales is one game into his NFL head coaching career and because his team owner is so impatient, he has to be a little worried about how long he’ll get if Sunday’s result is what we can expect the rest of this season.

One game isn’t enough to make any conclusions. But the Panthers’ performance was so bad, it’s hard to not think the worst. Especially since Carolina was the worst team in the NFL last season and Young was dreadful. The Panthers spent more than $150 million on two guards in free agency, drafted a receiver in the first round, and a running back and tight end in the early rounds, traded for receiver Diontae Johnson and made other additions. Yet it all looks like a waste.

Tepper isn’t patient in any situation, and you have to imagine losing so badly in Week 1 after all of those investments will have him on edge more than normal.

Young’s struggles Sunday are the biggest concern. The Panthers already presumably figured out they made a mistake picking Young over C.J. Stroud. But one season wasn’t enough to throw in the towel on Young. Yet there can’t be a ton of optimism after Sunday. If Young is as bad as he has looked through one game of his second season, that will set the Panthers back years, especially considering what they gave up to trade for him.

There’s a long way to go this season, and perhaps the Panthers won’t be as bad as they looked in the opener. If they are that bad though, major changes will be coming. And it might not take Tepper until the end of the season to make them.

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 1 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Jim Harbaugh: It has been a long time since Harbaugh lost a football game.

Off a 15-0 season with the University of Michigan, Harbaugh won his first game back in the NFL. The Los Angeles Chargers beat the Las Vegas Raiders 22-10.

Harbaugh wants to run the ball and the Chargers did so on Sunday thanks to J.K. Dobbins. The oft-injured former Baltimore Ravens back had 135 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. The Chargers’ defense played well, holding the Raiders to one touchdown.

There will be bigger challenges on the schedule. Presumably Harbaugh isn’t going to have another undefeated season. But it was a productive return to the NFL.

Dallas Cowboys: There will be plenty of time to talk about the Cleveland Browns and the horrific performance by Deshaun Watson. But don’t forget to credit the Cowboys along the way.

Once again, the Cowboys had an offseason with nothing but negative headlines and then played well once the regular season started, rolling past the Browns 33-17 on Sunday. They were excellent on offense, defense and special teams in blowing out the Browns. Watson struggled, but the Cowboys’ defense had a lot to do with that. Dak Prescott played a clean, efficient game. And a punt return for a touchdown by KaVontae Turpin practically put the game away.

Whether Dallas can do anything in the playoffs is a storyline for a long time from now. On Sunday, Dallas looked as good as it has in each of the past three seasons.

Buccaneers receivers: One of the reasons Baker Mayfield turned his career around last season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was he had a good group of receivers to throw to.

That carried over to this season’s opener. Chris Godwin and rookie Jalen McMillan each scored a touchdown and Mike Evans had two. Mayfield’s season got off to a great start with 289 yards and four touchdowns in the Buccaneers’ 37-20 win over the Washington Commanders.

The Buccaneers won the NFC South last season. This season the Falcons were the popular pick to win the division. Based on how mediocre the Falcons looked in Week 1, Tampa Bay might be tough to overtake in the division.

Joe Mixon and Stefon Diggs: The Houston Texans knew they had a window to win before C.J. Stroud eventually signs a contract that makes Dak Prescott look like a bargain. The Texans’ two big moves were trades for Mixon to upgrade at running back and Diggs to improve an already good receiver room. Both moves paid off big in the opener.

Diggs caught two touchdowns, the second being a massive one on fourth-and-goal in the fourth quarter that pushed the Texans’ lead over the Colts to 29-20. Mixon looked like a huge upgrade at running back, rushing for 159 yards. On third-and-3, with the Colts looking to get the ball back in the final two minutes, Mixon rushed for a huge first down to clinch the 29-27 win.

The Texans had a strong finish to last season and made some aggressive moves in the offseason. Through one week, those moves look smart.

Dolphins pass game: The Miami Dolphins once again can pass the ball really well.

Tua Tagovailoa passed for 336 yards, Tyreek Hill had 130 receiving yards, including an 80-yard touchdown, and Jaylen Waddle added 108 yards as the Dolphins came back to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-17. Jason Sanders nailed a 52-yard field goal as time expired for the win.

The Dolphins are going to be good offensively again. Tagovailoa will put up great numbers and probably still not get the respect he deserves. But as long as Miami keeps winning, it’ll be OK.

Steelers pass rush: Pittsburgh might have its offensive issues this season, but it can still get after the quarterback.

Led by T.J. Watt, the Steelers’ defense carried Pittsburgh to a big season-opening 18-10 win at the Atlanta Falcons. New Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins struggled, often under pressure. With less than three minutes left and the Falcons trailing 15-10, he threw under pressure and it was easily picked off. That essentially ended the Falcons’ hopes.

The Steelers had to start Justin Fields with Russell Wilson injured, and he was solid. The Steelers will have a quarterback decision to make before Week 2. No matter what though, they know the defense is going to show up every week.

Buffalo Bills, barely: The Bills won, and on a day when plenty of teams were upset, that’s the most important thing.

But it was a lot closer than expected. The Bills trailed the Arizona Cardinals 17-3 in the first half. They came back, with Josh Allen doing everything as usual, and held on when the Cardinals had the ball in the final two minutes for a 34-28 win. Allen had two touchdown runs and two touchdown passes in the comeback.

The Cardinals could be a difficult out this season because of their offense. But if the Bills want to be a Super Bowl contender again, almost losing to Arizona at home in Week 1 isn’t a great sign. At least they’re 1-0, which is better than some other top NFL teams can say after one week.

LOSERS

Bo Nix: It’s understandable why Denver Broncos fans were overly excited for Nix. It has been a long time since they had decent quarterback play. But Nix wasn’t a sure thing because he did well in a couple of preseason games against backup defenses.

Nix wasn’t terrible in his NFL debut, a 26-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but he’s still a rookie who was the sixth quarterback selected in his class. He’s not going to be C.J. Stroud from his first game on. Nix didn’t get much going, was lucky he wasn’t intercepted three or four times in the first half (he was picked once) and he played way too safe to give the Broncos their best chance to win. His yards per attempt was under 3 yards until a late touchdown drive. He had just 138 yards on 42 attempts. And with the Broncos barely clinging to hope late in the fourth quarter, Nix threw to a crowd of three Seahawks defenders and it was intercepted by Riq Woolen. That’s a learning moment.

Nix has a chance to be good, especially with Sean Payton coaching him. It just won’t be an immediate success right away.

Brian Daboll: Maybe the Minnesota Vikings turn out to be one of the NFL’s surprise teams. But it’s probably more likely we saw Sunday just how bad the New York Giants will be this season.

Daboll was considered one of the head coaches on the hot seat coming into the season, and it’s about to get a lot worse. The Giants got embarrassed 28-6 at home by a Vikings team practically everyone picked to finish last in the NFC North. In the first half, the Giants had 87 yards and five first downs in 30 plays. The defense was being shredded by Sam Darnold. When Darnold threw his second touchdown of the game, the Giants trailed 21-3. Darnold was very good, completing 16 of 21 passes for 208 yards, but that might say something about the Giants’ secondary.

It’s not good. It’s not good for general manager Joe Schoen either, who went against co-owner John Mara’s wishes and let Saquon Barkley leave to the Philadelphia Eagles. Barkley had three touchdowns in the opener. If the Giants are as bad as they looked on Sunday, Daboll in particular might be in trouble early this season.

Will Levis: Levis is capable of making big plays for the Tennessee Titans. The worry was the plays he’ll give away.

The Titans led the Chicago Bears for most of Sunday’s game, but Levis made an inexcusable mistake. With the Titans leading 17-16, Levis was under pressure and going down when he flipped a pass backhanded. It was nowhere close to the intended receiver, but right to cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. Stevenson had an easy pick and a 43-yard return for a go-ahead touchdown.

Then, in the final two minutes, Levis threw a game-clinching interception to close out the Chicago Bears’ 24-17 win in Caleb Williams’ debut. Williams wasn’t great, with just 92 yards passing, but at least he didn’t throw the game away on a backhanded flip.

Levis has a season to prove he can be the Titans’ quarterback of the future. To solidify himself in the Titans’ plans, he can’t have more mistakes like the back-breaking pick-6 on Sunday.

Zac Taylor: It’s not too early for a head coach to make one of the worst decisions of the NFL season.

The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-1 with a 16-10 loss to the New England Patriots that crushed survival pool picks and also will be a regret the Bengals live with all season. And Taylor’s fourth-quarter decision wasn’t the only reason the Bengals lost, or even the biggest reason, but it was terrible.

With the Bengals trailing 16-10, they had fourth-and-5 with less than 2:30 to go. It was at their own 15, but that shouldn’t matter so late in the game. And Taylor punted. It wasn’t hard to figure out what would happen next. The Patriots got a first down, the Bengals never got the ball back and lost 16-10.

The Bengals played terribly, with very little offense as they missed Tee Higgins, who was out with a hamstring injury. There are plenty of things to correct this season. But the Bengals’ coach shouldn’t forget to take on some of the blame himself.