Panthers coach Ron Rivera wasn’t trying to be a jerk to his old team. He was trying to do them a favor.Rivera took the unusual step of calling a timeout to ice the Bears kicker at the end of the first half https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Mike-Adams-Jersey , but Elliott Fry nailed the 43-yarder anyway.“You know what is funny, I did that to help the Bears because they are in a kicking contest,” Rivera said, via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com.Bears coach Matt Nagy denied that it was planned between them, yet added: “but I’m kind of glad he did it.”The Bears have been trying every gimmick they can think of in their search for a kicker to replace Cody Parkey, from having eight kickers (and also a punter) try field goals in minicamp, to their “Augusta silence” routine of having everything stop during practice while these poor bastards do their jobs.To his credit, Fry hit the 43-yard field goal into the north end zone https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Matt-Kalil-Jersey , the same length and place as Parkey’s famous double-doink playoff miss.“You could feel it,” Nagy said. “You could sense it, from all the fans, and I looked over and I said — after the completion down the middle, and then they spotted it, and I’m so used to seeing — like my math is really good right now. I can figure out real quick how far a field goal kick is from the spot of the ball, so I realized it was 43. Am I right? Yeah, then coach Rivera pops a timeout https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Captain-Munnerlyn-Jersey , too.”Fry’s competition at the moment, Eddy Pineiro, missed wide left on a 48-yard field goal attempt but hit a 23-yarder. The Buccaneers are getting the full Jameis Winston experience, but the Panthers have a significant hand in it as well.The Panthers are up 17-7 at halftime on the Buccaneers, thanks in part to three Winston turnovers.He’s thrown a pair of picks and fumbled once, but he’s under near-constant pressure.The Panthers have six sacks, which moves them into the league lead with 26 this season (New England has 25, and the Panthers entered the game second with 20).That https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/David-Mayo-Jersey , plus the usual couple of Christian McCaffrey touchdowns (he has 57 of their 121 yards at halftime), has them comfortably ahead.It could have been even more, but for a missed opportunity. With a fair catch of a punt just before the half, the Panthers had a 60-yard free kick for a chance at three points. Joey Slye‘s kick went wide right, but watching English fans confused by the arcane rule was kind of fun.