Panthers’ offense anemic in loss to Rams as Carolina loses another quarterback to injury
Playing without starting quarterback Baker Mayfield, an already stagnant Carolina Panthers offense generated even fewer explosive plays in interim head coach Steve Wilks’ first game.
The team’s lone touchdown came via a second-quarter pick-six by Donte Jackson, and the Panthers offense did not cross the Rams’ 20-yard line until there were fewer than four minutes to play.
Without putting up much of a fight, Carolina lost 24-10 to the Rams at SoFi Stadium.
“I wanted to make sure that we established the run game,” Wilks said. “We did a great job of that in the first half. When you look at time possession, we were good then lost control in the second half. so I thought we executed the game plan the first half.”
PJ Walker started and protected the football by throwing every type of wide receiver or running back screen possible. Carolina started fast, scoring an opening-drive field goal on a 12-play drive that covered 61 yards. But the team had six consecutive punts after that and five three-and-out drives.
Walker left the game with a head injury late in the fourth quarter. He completed 10 of 16 passes for 60 yards. Jacob Eason, who spent all week on the practice squad, finished the game for Carolina.
“The biggest thing for us offensively and defensively, we didn’t do a great job on third down,” Wilks said. “So that’s when you saw the shift in the swing right there with time of possession in the second half.
Carolina converted two of its 10 third-down tries. The team entered with a league-low 24.1% third-down conversion rate. Defensively, the Panthers allowed Los Angeles six first downs on 12 third-down tries.
The offense executed a run-heavy first-half game plan. Carolina picked up five first downs on its two first drives and only one first down on the following seven possessions.
Donte Jackson’s touchdown kept the score tied late into the third quarter. The Panthers gained 105 first-quarter yards compared to only 24 first-quarter Rams yards. But Los Angeles outgained Carolina 257 yards to 28 during the second and third quarters.
The Panthers had a chance to chase points before halftime but Wilks decided to play conservatively rather than open up the offense.
“I didn’t want to be aggressive at that point in time. I felt like we were in a good rhythm,” Wilks said. “I didn’t want to put PJ in a situation where we started having to get aggressive and spread out. If you recall a couple of weeks ago, with the pick-six right before half. So I was really trying to manage the game at that time.”
With 11 seconds left in the third quarter, Rams receiver Ben Skowronek scored on a 17-yard jet sweep that put Los Angeles up a touchdown. The Panthers did not have an offense capable of keeping up with the Rams from there, though they were hurting, as well. Already down multiple offensive linemen, Rams tackle Joe Noteboom left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury. He is their only remaining offensive lineman to start in the Super Bowl.
Most of the excitement for Carolina took place on the Panthers’ sideline courtesy of receiver Robbie Anderson. In the first half, the Fox broadcast showed Anderson standing toe-to-toe with wide receivers coach Joe Dailey. The two exchanged words until fellow receiver Rashard Higgins separated the two.
“No one is bigger than the team,” Wilks said. “I’m not gonna focus and put a lot of attention on one individual. We can talk about the game. But I’m not putting a lot of energy into one individual.”
After halftime, Anderson was spotted sitting alone on the sideline away from his teammates during a between-series meeting. He only played two second half plays. Early in the fourth quarter, the Fox broadcast showed Anderson yelling at several coaches before Wilks sent him to the locker.
The team officially announced Anderson’s absence was not injury-related. Anderson did not receive a target on Sunday despite starting his sixth consecutive game. His removal from the game came hours after reports surfaced that Carolina is listening to trade offers for Anderson and other players.
“You shouldn’t be okay with not being on that turf. You should want to make a play. Losing is not acceptable,” Anderson said. “We don’t play this game to lose. You could consider me a loser my whole life growing up. I didn’t get this far in life to continue to be a loser. It’s not what I work for.
The Panthers’ offense generated an abysmal passing attack.
Offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo used pre-snap motion a lot more this week. There were new wrinkles to the Panthers offense that served as window dressing. Running backs Christian McCaffrey and D’Onta Foreman shared the field often. At times, McCaffrey started in the slot and motioned into the backfield to join Foreman and Walker in a shotgun formation. Then McCaffrey would race laterally toward the sideline to either catch a swing pass or serve as a decoy.
“We just trying to figure out how to get rolling,” Walker said. “We know once we get one we got to find a way to build, establish and get more than one in a row. We got to get going. It’s a confidence thing for a lot of guys in the locker room.”
The team looked confident on the game’s opening drive. But the Panthers never built upon McAdoo’s sideline-to-sideline tendencies. The Rams never felt vertically threatened. Walker’s longest completion was 16 yards. He averaged 3.8 yards per passing attempt.
McCaffrey got his numbers, finishing 158 total yards. He had a long reception of 49 yards on a check-down pass from Eason. The Panthers again proved they can run the ball, but a 4.4-yard per-carry average is not explosive enough to purposely be one-dimensional.
“Every loss sucks,” McCaffrey said.
The Panthers (1-5) will be back at Bank of America Stadium in Week 7 to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This story was originally published October 16, 2022 at 7:15 PM.
