Bryce Young’s year-4 leap continued on Sunday night against the Lions with what was arguably the best game of his career. He completed 70% of his passes for 329 yards and 2 TDs on the way to a 32-26 win over the Lions.
Young leads the NFL in passing yards a quarter of the way through the season, which is exactly the type of jump Carolina needed from their young QB and passing game this season.
Creating Pre-Snap Clarity
Once again, the Panthers’ success on offense was a combination of Young’s traits (pocket presence, quick processing, decisiveness, and accuracy) and offensive coordinator Brad Idzik putting Young in position to succeed.
You could see it on Young’s first touchdown pass of the game, a 32-yard beauty to Tet McMillan.
First, notice the formation and personnel distribution. The Panthers were in empty with running back A.J. Dillon aligned outside of McMillan. The Lions matched up with linebacker Derrick Barnes over him. That was an indicator of man coverage:
In response, Young got the Panthers into the right play at the line. McMillan would run a go route from inside the numbers where there was plenty of space for Young to put the ball, and Ja'Seem Reed would run a Ja’seam route (yes, I write my own material) to the back side to hold the single-high safety:
Young knew what he had, peaked at the safety to make sure he couldn’t be a factor on McMillan’s route, and then delivered arguably the prettiest throw of the NFL season:
Here’s another example from the third quarter. This one didn’t lead to quite as big of a play, but it led to a successful one nonetheless.
First, check out the empty formation with stacks to both sides and tight end Darren Waller in the middle. And once again, Idzik put running back A.J. Dillon on the perimeter: