Miles Sanders responds to Panthers being booed by home crowd: 'It's not cool'
The Carolina Panthers had the home crowd turn on them during Sunday’s loss against the Minnesota Vikings. The 21-13 drubbing was the Panthers’ fourth loss of the year and resulted in the emergence of the boobirds in Bank of America.
Running back Miles Sanders commented on the booing from the home crowd after the game, calling it “not cool.” However, the fifth-year player knows enough about the league to know fans expect more when they’re shelling out large sums to attend games.
“It’s not cool. It’s not cool at all. Especially at home. It’s not a good feeling,” Sanders said.
Sanders came to Carolina on a four-year, $25.4 million contract this offseason. It’s been far from a fairytale beginning to his Panthers tenure. So far, he’s racked up just 158 yards on 54 carries this season. On Sunday, he gained just 19 yards on 13 carries. He’s now considerably behind pace on his 1,200-yard season last year.
Not wanting to point fingers, Sanders insisted after the game that the team must get better from almost every angle.
“The urgency and getting out of the huddle stuff, and delay of games, is what’s really killing us – you know, trying to get into a real rhythm,” Sanders said, via Panthers.com. “We can’t really get into a rhythm. Honestly, we’re not playing good football right now.
“There’s no pointing fingers at anybody but everybody. It’s not just one person. This is everybody that has to do with this. It’s the whole offense. And it’s something we’ve got to change quick, or it’s going to be the tale of this year.”
Panthers QB Bryce Young returns from ankle injury
The Carolina Panthers returned rookie quarterback Bryce Young to the field on Sunday after missing week 3 due to an ankle injury. Young now has 503 passing yards through three games with a 65% completion rate and two touchdowns to two interceptions.
On Sunday, he threw for a season-high 204 yards, but lost the football at a critical moment, resulting in a fumble recovery for a score for Minnesota.
“Obviously, turning the ball over is something we talk about a lot,” Young said post-game. “That was a huge, huge, huge swing of the game. And that’s solely, single-handedly on me, stuff we talked about. … That’s no one else but me, and there’s stuff on top of that that you want to unpack. We have to turn around.”
To add insult to injury, the Panthers offensive line also allowed five sacks on the rookie QB.
“They really didn’t do anything that we didn’t practice against or work against,” head coach Frank Reich said after the game of the Minnesota defense. “But at the same time, they executed well. We knew they were going to show us a lot of blitz looks. … So we knew coming in, they might get us once or twice. And they did.”
With a lot to work on this week, the Carolina Panthers prepare for a Week 5 showdown against the 1-3 Detroit Lions.