Carolina Panthers: Top takeaways from preseason victory over Buffalo Bills

These are the top takeaways from the Carolina Panthers victory over the Buffalo Bills in the first preseason game of 2018.

Football is officially back and the Carolina Panthers have come away with their first preseason victory of 2018 with a 28-17 win over the Buffalo Bills. While preseason games aren’t about wins and losses, there was plenty of good, and some bad, to takeaway from the game on Thursday night outside of the result.

The Panthers’ first team offense got off to a slow start after picking up only one first down to start the game. The defense wasn’t able to do much better as the Bills drove down the field, led by Nathan Peterman, to put the first touchdown on the board as he connected with former Panther Kelvin Benjamin.

However, the Panthers responded with an excellent drive of their own as they drove down the field thanks in large part to Christian McCaffrey. The second-year running back was able to finish the drive off with a one-yard touchdown run.

The second quarter was all Bills as they scored 10 unanswered points to take a 17-7 lead into halftime.

The second half though belonged to the Panthers as they scored 21 straight points, thanks to touchdown pass by Garrett Gilbert, a four-yard run by C.J. Anderson and a touchdown pass by Taylor Heinke.

This was the deciding factor as the Bills closed the gap with a late touchdown and a final score of 28-23.

These are the top takeaways from the Panthers’ first preseason game.