On Sunday, the Carolina Panthers dropped to 3-5 on the 2026 NFL season with a tough home loss to the Denver Broncos. The loss did not occur without controversy, as the Broncos were ruled to have made an interception late in the third quarter of this one, with the Panthers on the verge of scoring.
Making the play puzzling was the fact that the Panthers ran another play between the time the pass was initially ruled incomplete and when it was ultimately ruled an interception, and now, quarterback Bryce Young has shared his reaction to the fiasco.
“That’s a first for me in football at any level,” he said, per Joe Person of The Athletic on X, formerly Twitter.
However, Panthers head coach Dave Canales later said that the referees confirmed to him that Broncos head coach Sean Payton had indeed dropped a challenge flag before the next play was run.
The Panthers sure would have loved to have had things turn out differently in the controversial moment, as they would have had a few more chances to punch the ball into the endzone and take control of the game.
Instead, the Broncos took the interception and marched down the field to hop in the driver's seat themselves, and wound up winning to push their record to 7-2.
The Panthers have now lost three games in a row, although they still sit in first place in the NFC South due to the ineptitude of the division as a whole.
The Panthers are next slated to hit the field next Sunday for a key road game vs the New Orleans Saints.