CHARLOTTE — The Panthers needed Eddy Piñeiro to stay as accurate as he has been. But with a pair of missed field goals in an overtime loss to the Buccaneers, they fell short of that goal.

He also lost the top spot on the league's all-time accuracy list along the way, which was far from the most important thing in a downcast locker room.

Piñeiro went 3-of-5 on field goals, missing from 45-yards and 38-yards. He did notch scores from 47, 27, and 22 yards. But the two missed kicks, in a three-point loss that was decided in overtime, can't help but stand out.

"Just got to perform better," Piñeiro said of his performance. "Didn't kick to the best of my ability today and I just got to just follow through the ball and just pick my target and go."

Before Sunday night, Piñeiro had only missed one other kick all year, going 16-of-17 through the first 12 weeks of the season. He now sits at 19-of-22, and his career percentage is 88.52 percent, moving him down to third on the list of all time NFL accuracy, behind Harrison Butker (89.21 percent) and Justin Tucker (89.03 percent). Like Piñeiro when he passed the struggling Tucker while on his bye week, Butker moved into the top spot while on injured reserve.

Those are stats for retrospective moments though, not those leaned upon when reeling from a divisional loss that saw so many points left off the board.

"Just got to pick a better target and just follow through and get through the ball," Piñiero said. "Right now, I just got to focus on making kicks so I can give the team the best ability to win the game and, you know, I take full responsibility; should make those kicks and we wouldn't even be put in that position."

— When you lose in overtime, every point obviously matters.

And Panthers wide receiver Adam Thielen believes he should have been credited with a touchdown in the first half, which was ruled incomplete even after a review.

When the pass from Bryce hit his right hand, it spun, but he gained control as he went to the ground. He got a knee and an elbow down while he was in possession of the ball. But he said officials told him they saw his right arm move when he landed, though he obviously felt he controlled it otherwise.

"I think it's a catch because I knew my left hand was locked on it the whole time," Thielen said after the game. "I knew I was obviously in, but at the same time, we should have caught the first time. So I can't put it in the refs' hands and obviously New York's either."

The play was automatically reviewed by the league, and after the game, NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth said in a pool report there was not evidence to support a reversal of the original call of incomplete.

"The ruling on the field was incomplete, and the officials were giving the bobble signal," Butterworth said. "We purposely stopped the game. For us to overturn, we need clear and obvious video evidence to change the ruling on the field. As we looked at available views, there was an initial bobble while the receiver was in the air. He then did get control which is the first part of the catch process. He did get a knee inbounds and as he is going to the ground, the third act would be surviving the ground. As he goes to the ground and turns over, there was no shot showing that he maintained possession throughout completing the process of the catch. On one of the angles – and there were not a lot of available angles, and we didn't have a shot to overturn it – as he is rolling over, you can see at least one hand come off the ball. So with an on-field ruling of incomplete, we would have to show that he had control to award him a touchdown."

Thielen did his best to make it not matter, including an eye-popping one-handed catch in overtime, finishing with eight catches for 99 yards and a go-ahead touchdown with 30 seconds left in regulation. It's the second time in as many weeks they've made that kind of play late, only to see it slip away.

"I feel like we've been doing that the last few weeks, which is definitely a step in the right direction," Thielen said. "Now we've got to be able to finish those drives when we get in the red zone. I feel like that's been kind of the theme the last few weeks: we're getting good drives, getting good movement, getting in the red zone, and aren't getting seven.

"So that's going to be the difference maker for us moving forward."

— Quarterback Bryce Young, for the second week in a row, played his best game of the year.

That's stopped the questions about his future as the starter here, as he's continued to build on the plays he made last week against the Chiefs.

Young passed for a season-high 298 yards, and led a go-ahead touchdown drive in the final minute of the game, before Baker Mayfield one-upped him with a tying field goal drive. It was his fifth straight game with a passing touchdown, and he also ran for one in the first half.

"I thought he played great," Panthers coach Dave Canales said. "I thought he made some critical throws in critical situations. He got us out of some bad ones, and threw the ball away a couple of times; it was an aggressive day. They blitzed a lot, and he handled it well again.

"And gave us a chance to win for sure."

The 298 was second to just the 312 he threw for last Christmas Eve against the Packers.