CHARLOTTE — Patience was always going to be the glue holding this entire operation together, however long it was going to take for the Carolina Panthers to build something worth watching and capable of winning.
And now it’s falling apart.
“This team has to grow up,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said.
If the Panthers looked at one point this season like they were ahead of schedule, especially on defense, it’s fair to look at the product on the field in Sunday’s 24-6 loss to the New England Patriots and worry that they haven’t actually made much progress at all.
If anything, they have more unanswered questions now than they did in August, especially as Sam Darnold continues to flounder. He’ll be the focal point, and for good reason, but it’s not just him.
This was never going to be a quick or easy rebuild. If Rhule’s seven-year contract didn’t underline enough how owner David Tepper was taking the long view, using every pick of the new regime’s first draft on defensive players certainly drove the point home.
But however low expectations were — or should have been — for this team, in Year 2 of the Rhule regime, they were certainly higher than this. After picking low-hanging fruit through the first three weeks, the Panthers have made a habit of throwing away winnable games. Instead of getting better, they’re somehow getting worse.
Only the truly elite NFL teams are built to win without their best players, and the Panthers predictably and mightily struggled without Christian McCaffrey and Shaq Thompson in the lineup, but they’re back now — McCaffrey limited, but still — and things, if anything, were as bad Sunday as they were without them.
“It’s all got to get better,” Rhule said.
Darnold has regressed dramatically right back into the walking disaster he was with the New York Jets, and almost impossibly fast after his commendable start. His first interception Sunday was an ill-advised throw across his body for a pick-six, the second was one of many passes tipped at the line, the third a forced throw into coverage in the end zone. Teddy Bridgewater could have done that. Kyle Allen could have done that.
The Panthers are committed to paying Darnold more than $18 million next season, or more than $1.6 million per interception (so far) this season. It seemed like a low-risk trade because of how little the Panthers gave up, but it’s a mistake that is going to hold the Panthers back not just this season but the next and beyond, because they’re no closer to finding a quarterback they can rely upon than they were two years ago.
Darnold’s errors are crippling, but the Panthers haven’t put him in a position to succeed, either. The offensive line has been a disaster, a weak spot to start and now riddled with injuries, but Darnold and the Panthers knew that coming in. It was always part of the deal for whoever ended up under center. It’s no excuse.
Even the defense, while young and talented and still with the potential to get better, has been usefully game-planned by savvy opposing coaches. And when it does make plays, forcing a pair of turnovers in Patriots territory, the offense is incapable of profiting.
The Panthers finally found a reliable kicker in Zane Gonzalez only for everything else to fall apart.
This was a pivotal game for the Panthers, a chance to build on the Atlanta win and get back on the right foot after the four-game losing streak. The way the schedule tightens at the end of the season, this was yet another home win — like Philadelphia, like Minnesota — the Panthers needed to have in their pocket if they were serious about making the playoffs.
That was always a longshot at best coming into the season, and it’s never looked longer than it does now. The Panthers put themselves in a position where it became a realistic possibility and have proceeded to throw it all away in a great hurry.
A season and a half into the Rhule regime, and they’re barely any farther along than when they started.
