Rookie QB Bryce Young made his NFL debut for Carolina Panthers. It didn’t go well

Carolina Panthers rookie Bryce Young’s first NFL preseason experience Saturday was, in a word, unimpressive.

In three offensive series and 11 total plays, Young generated only one first down and zero points. Much of the problem came from an extremely porous offensive line, as Young got sacked one time and drilled to the ground twice more on his seven dropbacks.

Young’s final numbers for the game, which the New York Jets led 3-0 at the time he left in the second quarter: 4-for-6 passing, for 21 yards, one sack, no interceptions and no points.

On the plus side, the rookie didn’t get hurt and didn’t have any turnovers, despite sustaining three big hits in his 11 plays. No QB should really have only 11 plays and take that sort of beating, but Young did. Welcome to the NFL, as they say. Young’s day went much like the day for the rest of the Panthers, who got stomped, 27-0, by the Jets.

It was an inauspicious debut for new Panthers coach Frank Reich, too — although, thankfully, it didn’t count. It was the first time the Panthers have been shut out in a preseason game since 2000, and it ended on a final-play interception from third-string quarterback Matt Corral. Second-string QB Andy Dalton didn’t play in the game, nor did Jets No. 1 QB Aaron Rodgers.

Reich said later he was “willing to take it on the chin” a little bit in preseason in return for hiding some of the Panthers’ more exotic offensive schemes. “We were very generic — we did nothing with our scheme,” Reich said.

Still, it was a disappointing day for the Panthers. Reich said of the joint practice in Spartanburg with the Jets and then the preseason game: “It was a good week that ended up just on a bad note.”

Reich also said of the poor offensive line play: “Obviously, we had a little too much pressure at times.”

Young said of the offense’s zero points: “We have to own it.” He also said he felt “fine physically” after the big hits and that the offense had “a lack of execution, starting with myself.”

Of the overall performance, Young said: “That’s on us. That’s on me.”

A quick rundown of Young’s brief time in front of what looked like a crowd of 40,000 actual fans (the Panthers distributed 71,021 tickets) on a 93-degree Saturday in Charlotte:

Bryce Young’s first series

Young’s first series was undone by poor protection by the offensive line. On his first throw, a second-and-8 from his own 27, Young made a sharp throw to Adam Thielen for 8 yards and a first down, but also got smacked to the ground by Jets defensive end Solomon Thomas. Thomas beat offensive tackle Ickey Ekwonu badly on the play and hit Young on the blind side.

“The first hit was pretty big,” Reich said. Reich asked Young later how he had handled the hit, and Young said he “barely felt it.”

Young got up quickly, and his second throw in the series was a short pass to the sideline to DJ Chark for 5 yards. But then on a third-and-6 from the Carolina 39, Young tried to find Chark again on a deep sideline throw of about 20 yards.

The play was short-circuited, however, as Young was under serious pressure for the second time in three pass plays. This time the Jets ran a stunt and linebacker Jermaine Johnson came from the interior and banged Young to the ground again just after he threw, while Ekwonu’s man also applied pressure. “It’s part of the job description,” Young shrugged later. “You’re going to get hit.”

It was the second time in one series Young was knocked to the ground, and that was two more times than anyone knocked him to the ground in two weeks of training camp in Spartanburg. He survived both hits with no problem, after making a first start in an NFL game that he described as a “surreal” and “crazy” feeling, but the Panthers had to punt.

Bryce Young’s second series

Young’s second drive had far worse field position, as he began it from the Carolina 2 after a long Jets punt. It was an unimpressive and conservative series, as the Panthers ran the ball and then had Young throw a 3-yard pass to Chuba Hubbard. That set up third-and-5, where Young got the ball out quickly toward the left sideline but with no chance to a well-covered Laviska Shenault. The ball sailed out of bounds and Young had his first three-and-out.

Bryce Young’s third series

And then came Young’s third and final possession, which started from better field position but wound up just as poorly. After a first-down throw of 5 yards to Hayden Hurst and a second-down run of 1 yard, Young faced a third-and-4. This time the entire pocket broke down and Young was sacked for the first time, ducking down and taking a 9-yard loss. It was Young’s second three-and-out. Reich would say later that Young perhaps could have gotten the ball out quicker on the play to avoid the sack, and Young agreed.

Still, this wasn’t nearly as bad as CJ Stroud’s first preseason game Thursday night for Houston. The No. 2 overall draft pick in April, just behind Young, Stroud was 2-for-4 for 13 yards, an interception and a sack.

If you want to stretch back a dozen years, let’s take a look at Cam Newton’s first preseason game as a rookie, in 2011. Against the New York Giants in August 2011, head coach Ron Rivera took a long look at Newton, letting him throw the ball 19 times (Rivera started Jimmy Clausen in that game, and Clausen promptly threw a pass that was intercepted and returned 56 yards for a TD).

Newton ended up with some good and bad moments in that 2011 game, going 8-for-19 for 134 yards, with no interceptions, no TDs and two throws of 30-plus yards (30 to Greg Olsen, 36 to Armanti Edwards) that portended well for the future.

Young had no plays like that in a very vanilla scheme. That generic scheme, Young said, “was no excuse.”

Young threw only once down the field for more than 5 yards (it was incomplete). His receivers didn’t help him with separation, and his offensive line hurt him. An ineffective running game meant that he very quickly ended up in three third-down situations, none of which were converted.

The Panthers will undoubtedly try to make it look better for Young in the second preseason game, on Friday at the New York Giants, although Reich after the game wouldn’t commit to whether Young will actually play Friday or not (my guess is he will). The coach did say not to read too much into a 27-0 exhibition loss.

“I have a lot of years in this league that tell me preseason scores aren’t the most meaningful thing,” Reich said.

But for this one:

Young played Bank of America Stadium three days after Beyoncé did, to a sold-out crowd.

Let’s just say Beyoncé had a lot more highlights.