Scott Fowler’s bests and worsts from the Carolina Panthers’ 19-16 loss to the Giants
.JPG "Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has now gone 10-25 in his first 35 games as the team’s head coach, following Carolina’s 19-16 loss to the New York Giants Sunday.")
This Carolina Panther defeat didn’t have much to recommend it.
Sunday’s loss was mostly more of the same. The Panthers’ 19-16 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday included another 55-yard-plus field goal to beat Carolina in the last four minutes. And for the second straight game, the Panthers also couldn’t make a defensive stop when they needed to and stumbled all over the place offensively in the first half.
But as for the bests and worsts, they always fluctuate. Let’s take a look at what went right, and wrong, for the Panthers — and which players make both lists.
BEST: Christian McCaffrey. For the first time since Nov. 10, 2019, McCaffrey rushed for more than 100 yards in a game — 102 overall, in 15 carries. Nearly half of that was due to one 49-yard fourth-quarter run that showcased McCaffrey’s explosiveness. Carolina still isn’t getting the ball to him in the pass game enough, though (four catches, 26 yards).
WORST: Ickey Ekwonu. For the second straight game, the rookie offensive tackle from N.C. State struggled at times and allowed at least one key sack. In this case, it was on the Panthers’ final possession, when Ekwonu missed a block and allowed Baker Mayfield to be sacked, turning a third-and-6 into a fourth-and-15 on its own 37. Carolina punted then and never got the ball back. Ekwonu is going to get better, but it will take a while. One small bright spot: The pass protection in general, despite Ekwonu’s struggles, is better than it was in 2021.
BEST: Baker Mayfield, in terms of handling the ball. Yes, it seems like you should be able to take this for granted, but Mayfield and center Pat Elflein had five center-snap miscues in Week 1. This time, they had zero.
And Mayfield also improved the number of batted or tipped balls he had — in Week 1, it was five. In Week 2, it was two. And he didn’t turn the ball over.
WORST: Mayfield, in terms of explosive plays. After a Week 1 in which he connected on both a 75-yard pass and a 50-yarder, this time threw for only 145 yards and didn’t have a single pass play of 30 or more yards. Mayfield’s numbers after the game looked a lot like Sam Darnold’s or Cam Newton’s game-by-game passing numbers for much of 2021.
BEST: Eddy Pineiro. Give the new Carolina kicker credit — he made all three of his attempts Sunday, from 31, 32 and 38 yards. They weren’t hard kicks by NFL standards, but Pineiro had to make them. He also had touchbacks on all five of his kickoffs. He still got outdone, however, by former Panther kicker Graham Gano, who made a 51-yarder and a 56-yarder in the fourth quarter to account for the scoring difference.
WORST: Matt Rhule. The Panthers coach took “full responsibility” for the loss Sunday. He’s now 10-25 in his Carolina career, 0-9 in the Panthers’ last nine games and 0-2 this season. Rhule said “his heart hurts” for a team that keeps coming so close — which has historically been this team’s unfortunate mantra, given that Carolina has only had seven winning seasons in 27 years.
But Rhule knows as well as anyone that if this particular team doesn’t start winning, a whole lot of people’s jobs in the Panthers’ building will soon be in jeopardy, including his.
“We’re not punch drunk,” Rhule said after the game. “We’re not sitting there like, ‘Oh gosh, poor us.’ ”
How do the Panthers get over the hump? Rhule had an answer.
“To me, how you get over the hump is you just freakin’ push over the hump,” he said.
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BEST: Brian Burns and Frankie Luvu. After getting shut out in Week 1, Burns had two of Carolina’s three sacks in this one. And Luvu had four tackles for loss, which is really hard to do.
WORST: Luvu gets a mention for this one, too. Daniel Jones threw a possible interception right at Luvu on Sunday, and Luvu let it go directly through his hands.
It can happen, sure. But this has been Carolina’s bugaboo in Phil Snow’s defense. The two seasons in which Carolina has had the fewest interceptions in franchise history came in 2020 and 2021, under Rhule and Snow. And not only do the Panthers not have an interception in two weeks against Jacoby Brissett and Jones, they haven’t produced a turnover at all.
BEST: Defense vs. Saquon Barkley. At halftime, the Giants had an astonishing zero — yes, zero — rushing yards, as Carolina went to an unusual front that gave the Giants all sorts of problems. Barkley is a great back and got going some after that, but he still ended up with only 88 total yards on 24 touches, never had a play over 16 yards and was kept out of the end zone. Against a back that good, you take those numbers any day.
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WORST: Chuba Hubbard. Hubbard started the day off terribly for Carolina by fumbling the opening kickoff away. Then he fumbled again on a later kickoff, although fortunately it didn’t count because he was ruled to have hit the ground. This was bad news for Hubbard’s playing time, though.
“I believe in Chuba,” said Rhule, who wouldn’t commit to Hubbard continuing to return kickoffs Sunday against New Orleans. “But you can’t put the second one on the ground.”
Since Carolina did lose this game, I’m going to throw a couple more worsts in there without an accompanying best.
WORST: Shi Smith’s target-to-reception ratio. Smith had six passes directed his way. He only caught one of them and had one particularly nasty drop.
WORST: Third-down offensive efficiency. Here’s where the Panthers’ offense, more than anywhere else, lost the game.
It went 2-for-12 on third downs, with Mayfield often running for his life as the offensive line failed to pick up blitzes, or receivers didn’t get open fast enough, or Mayfield made bad decisions. The Panthers weren’t much better on third down in Week 1 (4-for-11), which helps explain a team that, once again, simply isn’t scoring enough points.
This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
