Panthers Victorious in Preseason Opener

The Carolina Panthers opened their 2019 pre-season with a solid 23-12 win at the Chicago Bears Thursday night. 

Rookies Joey Slye and Elijah Holyfield scored all of the Panthers’ points.  Slye scored the first points of the game with 4:02 left in the first quarter and went on to kick two more field goals and extra points following the two touchdown runs.

Rookie Elijah Holyfield fumbled early in the game, but quickly rebounded and scored the only two Panther touchdowns of the night. Holyfield’s first touchdown followed a 7-yard pass from rookie quarterback Will Grier. Holyfield also scored the final touchdown of the night with 1:41 left in the game. He finished the game with 11 touches and 39 yards. Holyfield was deservingly named Carolina’s ‘Keep Pounding’ player of the game following his opening night with the Panthers.

Holyfield and Slye weren’t the only standouts of the night.  Panthers’ first round pick, Brian Burns, played with the same energy and tenacity he displayed during training camp.  His first NFL sack came late in the first quarter on a Chicago third down, and he successfully made another sack later in the game.  Veteran LB/DE Marquis Haynes had two sacks as well, one assist, and four total tackles for the night.  Haynes was on top of his game, and all over defensively on the pass and rush plays.

As announced Wednesday, starting quarterback, Cam Newton, did not play, and second year quarterback, Kyle Allen started the first game of the 2019-2020 season.  Allen finished the game 7-of-11 for a total of 76 yards.  Then it was time for rookie Will Grier to showcase the skills he has been working on in the offseason. Grier started out a little shaky, but threw the 7-yard pass touchdown pass to Holyfield.  As Coach Ron Rivera stated during a press conference earlier in the week, all  of the three remaining quarterbacks would be put in the rotation, and at the end of the third quarter, it was Taylor Heinicke’s turn.  He finished 4-9 with 35 total yards.

The Carolina defense was able to hold the Bears’ offensive line back with a relatively low scoring 10 points, and only one touchdown.  The younger Carolina Panthers players were able to showcase the skills they’ve worked on during Training camp and executed a mostly well played pre-season opener on the road.

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