Christian McCaffrey made his move from Carolina Panthers to the San Francisco 49ers in an attempt to place himself in a more formidable offensive unit. After his departure, it seems like his former team rose to new heights, even after plenty of their stars were placed on the bench against Tom Brady’s Bucs in Week 7.
How did Carolina Panthers win? Without Christian McCaffrey, this team just handed Tom Brady one of the most brutal losses of his career. After beating the Bucs 21-3 on Sunday, Panthers ensured that fans, including Skip Bayless acknowledge about their potential and that they do not depend upon any player in particular.
Bucs D just got gashed for two long runs, TD. 14-0 Carolina. They are not missing CMc.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 23, 2022
To make matters worse this is the first time since 2022, that Tom Brady has gone sub -.500 record after his team has now posed a record of 3-4 in the first seven games of the 2022-23 regular season.
Carolina Panthers storm past Tampa Bay Bucs without Christian McCaffrey
To bring everyone on the same page – the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were a 13-point favorite against Carolina Panthers, who had lost 5 out of their past 6 games. Moreover, they had lost 12 of its past 13 games dating back to last season. Brady’s biggest upsets in terms of point spreads were in 2007 against the New York Jets (12.5 points), 2012 to Arizona (13.5 points) and 2019 to Miami (17 points).
This is why the Panthers' asking price for Brian Burns is so high. He managed to sack Tom Brady without a flag getting thrown. That's an incredibly rare skill these days. pic.twitter.com/S0RnU4Zjok
— Andrew Schnittker (@aschnitt53) October 23, 2022
The domination of a Christian McCaffrey less team was stamped to an extent that the Panthers held Bucs scoreless in the first three quarters. After the game even PJ Walkers acknowledged the importance of McCaffrey into the team and how the entire unit felt when he got traded away.
PJ Walker is 11 of 12 passing, with 11 straight completions. And that incompletion was a drop by Terrace Marshall.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) October 23, 2022
He has a passer rating of 137.8.
“It was a heartbreak for all of us,” he said of the trade, as per ESPN. “We all knew what Christian meant to this team, this program in general. But for us to go out today and put up (173) rushing, that’s a big up to that O-line. That O-line played really good today.
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