Panthers vs. Buccaneers: 'Thursday Night Football' game delayed by lightning, rain

Tom Gatto

•
Panthers vs. Buccaneers: 'Thursday Night Football' game delayed by lightning, rain image

Severe weather in Charlotte, N.C., delayed Thursday's NFL Week 2 matchup between the Panthers and Buccaneers.

The teams were ordered off the field with 8:31 remaining in the first quarter as heavy rain from a passing thunderstorm fell inside Bank of America Stadium and lightning flashed nearby.

NFL Network reported that the game would resume at 9:09 p.m. ET, then updated the new start time to 9:05 p.m. ET. Play resumed at 9:07, after a 27-minute delay.

Skies looked threatening before the game, as the Panthers showed in this tweet:

WEEK 2 PICKS: Straight up | Against the spread

The weather also forced Fox and the NFL Network to adjust their coverage of the game. On-field camera operators were moved to safety, leaving the "cable camera" that trails the line of scrimmage and a high sideline camera as the primary options to follow the play.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.