Panthers QB Report Card: Baker Mayfield’s scary slump continues vs. Arizona Cardinals
The Carolina Panthers have a quarterback problem.
A month into the Baker Mayfield era, the Panthers’ passing offense is in a never-ending slumber, and Sunday’s 26-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals (2-2) at Bank of America Stadium only reinforced the listlessness at the position. Mayfield, a former first overall pick, led the Panthers’ offense — which features the likes of DJ Moore, Robbie Anderson and Christian McCaffrey — to just nine points during a miserable afternoon in Uptown.
Even with Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray dealing with struggles of his own on the opposite sideline, Mayfield couldn’t take advantage, as he made off-the-mark throw after off-the-mark throw in a grind of a game.
“Just didn’t make the plays when they were there,” Mayfield said in his post-game press conference. “Not a whole lot — got to look at the tape — but we just didn’t make the plays that were there.”
With Mayfield’s continued struggles in the first quarter of the season, The Observer put the Panthers quarterback under a microscope to grade out his performance against the Cardinals. The results weren’t pretty.
Overall Numbers
Mayfield completed 22 of 36 passes (61.1%) for 197 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Mayfield led two scoring drives against the Cardinals. His top target was McCaffrey, who caught all nine of his targets for 81 yards and a touchdown. Moore was also heavily targeted, as he caught 6 of 11 passes for 50 yards.
Accuracy
Mayfield had another rough outing from an accuracy standpoint. He made several off-the-mark throws, including a stone-skipper to a wide open Anderson in the third quarter.
Mayfield’s inaccuracy led to an interception in the second quarter, and he made quite a few late tosses that led to incompletions and smaller gains. Through the first nine drives of the game, Mayfield’s best toss came on a 16-yard over-the-middle strike to tight end Tommy Tremble.
Mayfield had just 106 passing yards and two interceptions through the first nine series of the game. During those drives, Mayfield also had three tipped passes.
“Just got to look at the tape and see what we need to do,” Mayfield said, regarding the tipped passes. “There’s really not a whole lot I can give you right now. Got to look at the tape and see whether they were rushing or not. It’s not like they were really getting home on pass rush, so when they’re doing that, they’re stopping their feet and putting their hands up. That’s part of when your O-line plays well in the passing game. We’ve got to find a way to get around it.”
Mayfield’s best throw of the game came with the score completely out of hand. Down 26-10, Mayfield led a late touchdown drive that was capped by a 13-yard toss to McCaffrey on a well-defended jump ball for a score.
Mayfield completed only 61.1% of his passes against the Cardinals. Believe it or not, that was his best completion percentage through the first four games of the season. It’s a problem with no immediate solution in sight.
Grade: D
Decision-Making/Explosive Plays
The Panthers’ only explosive offensive play in the game came on a 34-yard catch-and-run from McCaffrey in the flat. Yeah, it was that kind of afternoon for the Panthers’ passing game, which continued to struggle mightily.
“I know there were definitely plays to be made there that we didn’t,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield was somewhat sharp when taking his immediate read, but unfortunately for the Panthers, that outcome was rarely the case. Even when he had open receivers, the ball was either off the mark or late, which led to minimal gains if the pass was caught.
He had five total passes batted at the line.
“They showed up to today, so there’s no denying that we need to get it fixed,” head coach Matt Rhule said. “I think, for us, we need to go back and watch the tape. ... I can’t you a definitive, ‘We have to do this,’ but we have to get it corrected. There’s too many, and then obviously, one leading to a back-breaking interception, that led to — I think it was 10 points off of turnovers.”
Grade: F
Mobility
Mayfield’s continued struggles with QB sneaks came back to bite the Panthers in the first quarter. On third-and-1, Mayfield got stood up while attempting a sneak. The thwarted sneak didn’t stop Rhule from being aggressive, as the offense attempted a fourth-down conversion on a handoff to McCaffrey, which also faltered, leading to a change of possession.
Mayfield wasn’t much of a runner on the day, but his pocket mobility kept some plays alive, sometimes to the determent of the Panthers. He was only sacked twice and hit three times against the Cardinals.
Grade: C
Turnovers
Mayfield was credited with a fumble in the second quarter, but the turnover wasn’t really his fault. The quarterback handed off to wideout Rashard Higgins on an end-around exchange and Higgins double-bobbled the ball and fumbled. The ball was recovered by the Cardinals. It was a wasted opportunity for the Panthers, who were in Cardinals territory. Mayfield and Higgins were teammates with the Cleveland Browns, and that play showed little chemistry between the two. Again, more on the wideout than the quarterback.
“When I handed it off, I thought he had secured it,” Mayfield said. “Obviously, that’s one of those things you have to double check, so like I said, got to look at the tape.”
However, Mayfield’s second-quarter interception was a poor throw by the quarterback. With 1:12 left in the second quarter, Mayfield had Moore wide open on a corner route in Cardinals territory. Instead of hitting Moore in stride, Mayfield put the ball on the wrong shoulder, and Moore reached back to grab it. The ball bounced off Moore’s outreached hand and into the mitts of Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson.
“We had that kind of dialed up all week,” Rhule said. “D.J. ran that corner route, got in behind [the defender], looked like the ball was a little bit behind him. Again, I don’t want to say it was on this guy or that guy. I have to go back and watch the tape to see the angle, because we set certain angles — and Baker saw it, he made the throw, and it was right there, just they weren’t able to connect on it.”
The interception probably cost the Panthers at least three points. Luckily for the offense, the Panthers defense quickly forced the Cardinals off the field and Mayfield was able to lead a field-goal scoring drive to end the second quarter. Mayfield needed Eddy Pineiro to make a 54-yard field-goal attempt to get points on the board for the offense.
Mayfield’s first pass of the fourth quarter was batted at the line by Cardinals pass rusher J.J. Watt and the ball was picked off by linebacker Dennis Gardeck, who returned it to the Panthers’ 5-yard line. Again, that pick was on Mayfield. The third tipped pass of the game was the charm for the Cardinals. Arizona’s offense scored a touchdown two plays later.
Grade: F
Overall Grade
Mayfield’s fourth tipped pass of the game came on a fourth-down play in the fourth quarter. The home crowd, which had just chanted “Keep Pounding” a few minutes earlier, changed its tone and launched into heavy jeers and boos as the offense slowly walked back to the sideline.
Mayfield, through four games, has thrown for 753 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions, while completing just 54.7% of his passes. That’s not what the team or the fans had in mind when he was acquired to upgrade the position over Sam Darnold.
Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals might have been Mayfield’s worst game as a Panthers, and that bar was pretty low due to the three previous weeks.
Overall: F
This story was originally published October 2, 2022 at 7:52 PM.
