Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about Christian McCaffrey’s monster game against the Rams?
Carolina’s star running back broke through to another level in his team’s Week 1 loss against Los Angeles. McCaffrey was already one of the league’s elite dual-threat running backs, but this particular performance was in Bo Jackson Tecmo Bowl territory. McCaffrey led the Panthers in both carries and receptions, finishing the day with 29 touches, 209 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns.
Naturally, McCaffrey graded out as Carolina’s best player on offense, according to Pro Football Focus. Unfortunately, the rest didn’t do so great. Here’s how the top five offensive players did on Sunday.
Cam Newton’s rating is behind a pay-wall above my pay-grade, but we can probably assume it was significantly lower than Trai Turner and Curtis Samuel’s 65.2 grades.
As for the Panthers defense, cornerback James Bradberry earned the top grade of the game, followed by defensive tackle Kawann Short and linebacker Shaq Thompson.
That said, overall the unit was a disappointment.
The Rams got another below-average performance from their “franchise” quarterback Jared Goff, who missed a number of wide open throws and finished the game with just 186 passing yards. Carolina could not take advantage, though.
The major problem was run defense. Todd Gurley averaged 6.9 yards per carry and the team averaged 5.2 for the game. Gurley makes a lot of defenders look bad, but missed tackles were a recurring theme last season as well as in this game.
Until coach Ron Rivera turns that element around, it’s going to be very difficult for the Panthers to compete with playoff contenders.
