The Carolina Panthers might’ve felt like they were playing against two teams on Saturday—the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Brad Allen’s officiating crew.
Sunday’s 16-14 loss at Raymond James Stadium was marred by a handful of controversial rulings from its referees. From a confusing result on a backwards throw to a pair of questionable pass interference penalties, the Panthers were set back on quite a few egregiously bad calls.
Moderately insane chain of events.
Bryce Young throws obvious backward pass to Dowdle, who picks it up with room to run but it’s whistled dead immediately by an official who ruled it a forward pass. Referee Brad Allen then announces it’s a backward pass “that went out of bounds”… pic.twitter.com/csa1XQkUKP
— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) January 3, 2026
Bucs rip the helmet right off of a Panthers player with no flag… pic.twitter.com/Jx4UUtiO0n
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) January 3, 2026
Just embarrassing that this is a pass interference call on Tetairoa McMillan, regardless of what ESPN rules analyst is claiming.
🎥 @TWDTV1pic.twitter.com/JDnk4lUu7u
— Andrew Jerell Jones, Luke 1:37 (BlueSky too now) (@sluggahjells) January 3, 2026
Otton trips over himself and the Panthers get flagged for pass interference pic.twitter.com/PkNJv7I9yj
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) January 3, 2026
Head coach Dave Canales was asked if he received explanations for the rulings.
“I did. I don’t really wanna get into that, because we just didn’t play well enough—offensively, speaking,” Canales stated. “We didn’t get our run game going, a bad day on third down—which doesn’t give us an opportunity to extend drives and really have a balanced offense the way that we can play.
“Some missed opportunities out there. So it really just has to be on us and about the execution and all of us making sure we’re in the right plays at the right time.”
Canales was then asked if he believes the calls played a part in the outcome.
“Certainly is a factor,” he replied. “But at the same time, there’s a whole game we gotta consider, and we didn’t get enough done. And that’s what we gotta look at—ourselves and the things that we missed.”
To be fair, the refs also missed—perhaps most notably on that fumble on the backwards pass from Young. The officials blew the play dead after the throw, yet tagged the Panthers with a loss of six yards—stating that the ball went out of bounds. (It did not.)
Quarterback Bryce Young explained what he was thinking in that moment.
“Yeah, I was confused, originally, just ’cause we got scooted back,” Young told reporters. “They didn’t tell us anything. Now, we’re just in a different position.”
Wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan was also involved in one of those odd calls, as he was flagged for a very light offensive pass interference that wiped out a huge 31-yard gain. He too was asked about the officiating.
“I kinda wanted to come into this game being aggressive, and I did on that specific play,” the rookie said in the locker room. “I guess it didn’t work out.”
The Panthers’ playoff hopes now hinge on the result of tomorrow’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. Carolina will clinch the NFC South and a postseason berth with an Atlanta win or a tie.
Follow @ThePanthersWire on Twitter/X for more Panthers content.
This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers asked about controversial calls from refs in loss to Bucs
