A brilliant opening drive by head coach Dave Canales, quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers’ offense turned out to be fool’s gold in a 42-13 blowout loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

The stellar start was essentially a prologue for pain for Carolina, as special teams gaffes and situational blunders buried the Panthers down deep in the first half. Canales and company never recovered from their early mishaps, as the defense and offense bent to the Patriots’ will with the score largely out of hand.

The weekly blowout tipped heavily in the Patriots’ favor, as the Panthers, following a 30-0 home debut in Week 3, looked — once again — like NFL fodder.

After 21 games, Canales is 6-15 during his head coach tenure, and the squad still looks like it’s learning how to walk on most weekends. Sure, the Panthers could bounce back from this latest embarrassment — as they did against in Week 3 after the letdown in Arizona in Week 2 — but at some point, they need to show some crumb of consistency.

Until then, the interest and trust in the Mint Steet mediocre will continue to dwindle.

Special teams turns into a pumpkin

Following three weeks of fantastic play by special teams coordinator Tracy Smith’s unit, the group fell off the steepest of cliffs in New England.

The first half was an utter disaster from a special teams standpoint, as a host of problematic moments popped up like trick-or-treaters at 3 p.m. when the holiday is on a school night.

First, rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald — who had been perfect through three weeks — missed an extra point on the game’s opening touchdown. Fitzgerald followed up that doink with a touchback on the accompanying post-score kickoff, setting the Patriots up with great field position. That miscue didn’t seem to matter though, as the Panthers defense came up with a stop.

From there though, it was a pile-on session. Carolina punted twice in New England territory in the first half, and both plays led to touchdowns. The first punt return led to an 88-yard touchdown by returner Marcus Jones, as cornerback Akayleb Evans — a gunner on punt coverage — failed to secure a tackle at the catch point. Jones was able to avoid contact all the way to the end zone after that.

Punter Sam Martin hit a touchback on the next punt, which set up the Patriots at the 20-yard line. After a long delay on the sideline, the Panthers’ defense looked lackluster as the Patriots marched down the field for another trip to pay dirt.

After being spurned by back-to-back punts, Canales decided to finally test Fitzgerald’s leg with a 55-yard field goal attempt. Fitzgerald missed on the distance kick, setting the Patriots up for another strong touchdown drive.

Down 21-6 late the second quarter, the Panthers punted again. Jones, again, slighted the punt coverage with a 61-yard return to the Carolina 14-yard line. Predictably, the Patriots’ offense took advantage with a quick drive that ended with another touchdown.

One could argue that Canales could have been more aggressive situationally, especially on the second and third drives of the game, but special teams essentially no showed the entire first half. With 1:57 remaining in the second quarter, the Patriots took a 28-6 lead.

New England quarterback Drake Maye only had to throw nine times in the first two quarters, because the Panthers’ special teams unit essentially coughed up half of the Patriots’ field position in the matchup. For the third time in four games, the Panthers were sunk with a third-score deficit before halftime because one unit completely let the rest of the squad down.

Not to be outdone, with David Moore (elbow) sidelined in the first quarter, punt returner Trevor Etienne was forced to field a punt by the goal. He predictably made a poor decision and fielded the punt within the 5-yard line for field positioning on the 1-yard mark.

The Panthers’ special teams unit went from being the top of the class to bombing a big exam.

Canales has to do a better job with situational football

The offense got off to a really nice start on Sunday. Even with Moore going down after the opening play, Young looked the part in the first quarter. The quarterback connected on his first six passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.

Even with the constant turmoil on special teams, the offense routinely made it into Patriots territory. Young led the Panthers past midfield on four of the offense’s first six series. However, Canales’ play-calling became pretty cautious once entering New England’s domain.

The kicker, Fitzgerald, made a 57-yard field goal last week against the Atlanta Falcons. However, Canales decided to punt in that range after the second drive of the game. Prior to that punt, Canales called a run with running back Rico Dowdle on third-and-10 from the New England 45-yard line. The carry gained two yards. Instead of going to the air to pick up a decent chunk of yardage, Canales played it safe and suffered the consequences.

By the time Canales decided to go for a long field goal with Fitzgerald, from two yards closer, the game was somewhat out of hand in the second quarter. Fitzgerald missed the 55-yarder, making Canales’ initial hesitation somewhat valid, but that doesn’t dismiss the meager situational play calls along the way.

Canales’ offense produced 160 net yards in the first half and had six points to show for it. The Patriots had 166 net yards and had 28 points to show for it. Yes, the point difference was largely due to special teams misgivings, but Canales’ situational choices led to some of those miscues.

This team isn’t competing for the playoffs, as of now, and the expectations around the team are largely minimal. But that’s all the more reason to take chances and risk for big rewards. Canales didn’t do that in the first half, and he dealt with the follow through playing not to lose.

Young was largely a non-factor when going got tough

Young isn’t playing on punt coverage last time this beat writer checked. He’s also not kicking field goals.

But he also didn’t do a whole lot to get the Panthers out of their rut once things started getting out of hand, either. Young had an excellent start to the game, but he wasn’t dynamic beyond the occasional throw on the run.

Young biggest first-half completion went for 16 yards. After completing his first seven passes, he went four of 13 to end the first half. The Patriots’ defense started to outclass Young and the Panthers’ offense once New England built an 8-point lead in the first half. When the second-quarter lead grew to 22, Young and his playmakers had little to fight back with.

Young’s biggest miscue of the second half came on a deep ball on fourth-and-5 to wideout Tetairoa McMillan. The rookie wideout broke free from his coverage assignment on a possible touchdown shot play, and Young’s throw sailed past him. It was a clear overthrow which led to a turnover on downs in the third quarter with the Panthers trailing by 29 points.

Young completed 18 of 30 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown in the game. He was pulled in the fourth quarter with the Patriots up 42-6 in the fourth quarter and replaced by veteran backup Andy Dalton, who led a touchdown-scoring drive late.

McMillan was limited to four catches for 62 yards on eight targets.

After the initial drive, the offense just couldn’t finish. That’s largely on Canales, but Young and his playmakers — or lack thereof — also own a large piece of the blame pie.

Defense struggles with big deficit

The Panthers’ defense sat on the sideline for most of the first quarter, as a punt return touchdown by the Patriots was sandwiched between offensive series for the Panthers.

However, once the defense returned to steady action, the New England offense was consistently set up with strong field position due to special teams and offensive gaffes. Still, the defense did little to overcome the adversity, as the Patriots’ rushing attack tore the unit to shreds.

Maye only threw the ball nine times in the first half. He completed eight of those tosses for 95 first-half yards. The running game did most of the work with 15 carries for 71 yards and three touchdowns. Again, special teams blunders set the defense up in poor position, but the defense ultimately coughed up big gains on the ground.

Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson both had runs of more than 20 yards in the first half. The Patriots used motion to set up fakes and trick the Panthers defense, and for the most part, the illusions paid off. The defense then crumbled in the red zone for a hat trick of first-half scores.

With the game already out of hand, the Patriots continued to cook to start the third quarter. Maye took advantage of a mismatch in coverage, sending a ball to tight end Hunter Henry over the middle of the field. Henry had pass rusher DJ Johnson on his heels, as the tight end ran 31-yards to pay dirt with cornerback Jaycee Horn also trailing.

Maye finished with 203 passing yards and a touchdown on an 82.4% completion mark after being pulled from the blowout with 10 minutes left in the game.

The Patriots picked up 103 total rushing yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries.

Panthers’ running game getting phased out by scoreboard

The Panthers can’t avoid blowouts, one way or another, and that has impacted running game. Chuba Hubbard has essentially been neutralized by the scoreboard to begin the season. Dowdle, the main backup, hasn’t really shined consistently either, due to similar circumstances.

The Panthers’ running game picked up 59 yards on 15 carries in the first half against the Patriots. New England had allowed 2.78 yards per carry in their first three games, so the 3.9 yards per tote was an improvement. However, with the game largely out of grasp before the first series of the second half, Hubbard and Dowdle continued to take a backseat on offense.

Hubbard picked up a quick first down on a big run to begin the third quarter, but the pressure continued to mount on the passing game. The Patriots’ defense forced the Panthers’ passing game to stage a comeback (which failed), and Carolina’s running backs were limited to 15 carries in the second half.

Hubbard finished with 49 rushing yards on 10 carries. Dowdle had 32 rushing yards on nine totes.

Hubbard has yet to score a touchdown on the ground through the first month of the season.

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