On third down, the Panthers were bailed out with a defensive pass interference penalty en route to scoring a touchdown on their opening drive. But then Bridgewater was sacked to take them out of field-goal range at the end of the first quarter.

The Panthers’ only successful third-down conversions on 10 attempts came on a 3-yard pass to wide receiver Curtis Samuel on third-and-2 in the second quarter and wide receiver DJ Moore‘s 42-yard catch down the right side on third-and-18 with 1:47 left in the contest.

“Those guys had a good game plan,” Bridgwater said. “They knew some of the things that we wanted to do, and they had answers for it.”

Some of the issues stemmed from the offensive line. Starting in place of left tackle Russell Okung, Greg Little was replaced in the second half by Trent Scott.