EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Minutes after the Panthers’ overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings last week, coach Matt Rhule admitted the Panthers lacked an identity on offense.
He was right.
They had lost their third straight game and were spiraling. Sunday’s game against the struggling and beat-up New York Giants (2-5) was supposed to be an opportunity for the Panthers to get back on track and finally snap their three-game skid.
But the Panthers’ stumble stooped lower Sunday. They’ve lost four straight now after their 25-3 defeat to the Giants. What was once a promising start to a season with playoff aspirations is turning into a disaster.
The Panthers (3-4) benched starting quarterback Sam Darnold in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game in favor of PJ Walker. Darnold has been dreadful the past four games, turning the ball over eight times (seven interceptions, one fumble), and he played poorly again Sunday. Before he was benched, he was 16 of 25 for 111 yards and an interception.
Rhule said he benched Darnold because he felt Walker could provide them a spark. Unfortunately, no such spark happened. Walker was also ineffective, completed 3 of 14 passes for 33 yards.
Also benched in the loss was starting left guard Dennis Daley. The offensive line allowed 10 quarterback hits Sunday.
Without Christian McCaffrey, the Panthers have gone from a solid offense to an incompetent one. They’ve regressed offensively, and the onus falls on Rhule and the coaching staff for not having fixed it.
In the Panthers’ three wins, Darnold threw for 888 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, completed 68% of his passes and ran for five touchdowns. The Panthers outscored their opponents 59-30 in those games.
In the four losses, all without McCaffrey, Darnold has thrown for 795 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions. He’s completed worse than 60% of his passes, and the Panthers have been outscored 116-77.
“We’re obviously not coaching Sam well enough,” Rhule said. “But this isn’t about Sam. We need more from the running game. We need some explosive plays. We need some guys to make some big catches.”
Sunday’s game was the second consecutive where the Panthers couldn’t effectively move the ball downfield, totaling 173 yards on 62 offensive snaps. The difference this week from last, though, is that against the Vikings, the Panthers managed finally break through on offense with 151 of their 305 yards on the day coming in their final two possessions to tie the score and send the game to overtime.
There was no such success story Sunday, with execution blunders abound, including two game-changers:
— With 14:56 left in the second quarter, the Panthers had the ball inside their own 5-yard line. Instead of running it and playing it safe on third-and-9, knowing their offensive line has struggled, the Panthers decided to have Darnold throw it.
The play resulted in a safety after the Giants got to Darnold to force an intentional grounding in the end zone. The Panthers were 2 of 15 on third downs.
— Later in the second quarter when trailing 5-3, the Panthers had the ball on New York’s 25. On second-and-24 with 3:19 left in the half, instead of taking the underneath throw to running back Chuba Hubbard, Darnold forced it to tight end Ian Thomas, who was not open. The pass went over Thomas’ head and into the hands of former Panthers cornerback James Bradberry.
“We have to score offensively to give ourselves a chance,” Panthers center Matt Paradis said.
Rhule said last Monday that the Panthers needed to stick to their game plan of running the football with Hubbard instead of asking Darnold to throw the ball 40-plus times in a game. Without completely throwing offensive coordinator Joe Brady under the bus, he suggested that was supposed to be the plan in last week’s loss to Minnesota but was abandoned early.
Brady echoed the sentiments about running the ball on Thursday, but Sunday Carolina relied heavily on the arm of Darnold, well before the team fell down by two scores and had to throw for a chance to catch up.
The Panthers ran the ball 17 times — only four in the second half — and passed 39 on Sunday. Seven of 17 rushing attempts occurred on the game’s first drive. Even in the first half of a game they trailed 5-3 at the break, Darnold had six more pass attempts (19) than the team did rushes.
“We wanted to run the football more, started out running it and didn’t run it enough,” Rhule said. ”Didn’t run it well enough. ... We have to coach way, way better. But we also have to play better.”
The Giants had the fourth-worst rushing defense in the league entering Sunday and the Panthers didn’t attempt to take advantage beyond the opening drive — which was also their only scoring drive. They had seven rushes (five by Hubbard, one by Royce Freeman, one by Shi Smith) that possession for 30 yards.
“When things happen like this, they fall right on my shoulders,” Rhule said. “I have not gotten that done. If we don’t become a tough team soon, then we have to make some serious changes.”
This was supposed to be the easiest stretch for the Panthers. Before Week 5 began, the Panthers’ next five opponents all had 1-3 records — the Giants among the worst. But they’ve still lost the last three games, and are back to the bottom of the NFC South.
Their next two games will be against the always troublesome Falcons (3-3) in Atlanta next week before hosting the Patriots (3-4).
The Panthers have now played 17 games in the past two seasons without McCaffrey. At some point along the way, they should have learned how to play without him. It’s clear they haven’t.
