Darnold leads Panthers to win vs. Denver, makes strong case to start final 5 games
Carolina quarterback Sam Darnold has been forgotten all season, a 6-foot-3 elf on the shelf who had been gathering dust while two other QBs split the Panthers’ first 11 starts.
But the Panthers found Darnold and took him off that shelf out of necessity Sunday. And in his first playing time all year, Darnold led Carolina (4-8) to a convincing 23-10 win against the Denver Broncos and made a decent case to start the team’s final five games.
In fact, interim head coach Steve Wilks said after the game that Darnold would start at least Carolina’s next contest, at Seattle on Dec. 11 after the Panthers’ bye week.
On Sunday, Darnold threw for one touchdown, ran/fumbled/rolled for another, never made the big mistake and thoroughly outplayed Denver’s Russell Wilson, the former N.C. State quarterback who has tormented the Panthers many times but who looked like a shell of his former self in this one.
The Broncos (3-8) aren’t exactly the NFL’s toughest competition, but then again the Panthers have struggled against almost everyone this year. This game was a post-Thanksgiving feast for the Panthers, though, who dominated throughout the afternoon (and, if you’re playing Debbie Downer, messed up their 2023 NFL draft position a little bit in the process. A projected No. 2 before the week began, the Panthers now find themselves a projected No. 6).
“As long as I get to play football, I’m happy,” Darnold said afterward. But by that standard, this was the first Sunday he had gotten to be happy all season.
Darnold went 4-8 as the Panthers’ starter in 2021 — beginning 3-0 but ending 1-8 — and had missed this entire season with a high ankle sprain sustained in the preseason, followed by a lengthy injury rehab. He watched from the sideline as Baker Mayfield started six games and PJ Walker five. In the middle of all that, head coach Matt Rhule got fired (and later hired by Nebraska) and was replaced by Wilks, who is now 3-4 in his interim stint after Rhule began the season 1-4.
Darnold finally got his chance to play Sunday, because Walker is hurt and Mayfield has gone 1-5 as a starter and looked nothing like the QB the Panthers thought they were getting when they traded for him over the summer.
“He came out calm, cool and collected, which is usually how Sam is, so I wasn’t expecting nothing different,” said wide receiver DJ Moore, who had four catches for 103 yards against Denver. “And he went out there and showed what he can do.”
With the Panthers’ running game gouging Denver for 185 rushing yards, Darnold’s play-action passes were effective. He was never sacked as Carolina’s offensive line had a strong game.
Of Darnold, offensive tackle Taylor Moton said: “He had a lot of confidence, great leadership, ultimately just a great controlled focus. He had a killer instinct today and I saw it in his eyes and how he was conducting himself.”
And Darnold, who has always had a big arm but often struggled with his decision-making, played a complete game while not being asked to do too much. “On the surface, pretty good” was Wilks’ assessment of Darnold.
Darnold went 11-for-19 for 164 yards, with one TD pass, one TD run and no turnovers. He had a gorgeous long ball to Moore that went for 52 yards — predicting the play and telling Moore exactly what angle to take in the huddle beforehand. He also hit Moore in stride with another sterling throw, with pressure in his face, that resulted in a 5-yard TD. He was far from perfect, though, as the Panthers went only 2-for-12 (16.7%) on third downs.
Darnold was also the beneficiary of some luck. On a goal-line carry from the Denver 2 he fumbled after being hit, only to see the ball fall directly in front of him. Darnold gratefully fell on it and, with no one touching him, rolled into the end zone for an unorthodox TD.
Darnold joked later that the play reminded him of “rolling in the grass when I was young. ... It’s a good highlight play to add to the repertoire.”
With the Panthers’ defense shellacking Wilson — the veteran QB was sacked three times and had 35 attempts that netted only 142 yards — he didn’t have to do a lot more than that.
Darnold started his career in Charlotte with a bang, winning his first three games in 2021. But after that he disintegrated, often seeming to have trouble processing all the on-field reads. He ended up with nine TD passes and 13 interceptions in 2021, then lost the starting job to Mayfield in the 2022 training camp despite having a massive head start in offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo’s system.
But Mayfield has since lost his touch, Walker has played well at times but got hurt (the same high ankle sprain that Darnold sustained) and now it’s Darnold’s turn again — this time with a better offensive line than he played in front of throughout 2021.
Darnold is getting paid nearly $19 million this season, and his contract — like Mayfield’s — expires shortly after the 2022 season does. It’s likely both QBs will be gone next year. But it’s at least conceivable that Darnold would be brought back at a far lower price (Mayfield likely won’t be after all the on-field issues he’s had this season) to compete with Matt Corral and whomever the Panthers draft in the first round for the 2023 starting job.
In the meantime, however, the Panthers have five games left and aren’t yet out of playoff contention due to the woeful NFC South. Darnold appears to offer them the best chance, however slight, to get there.
This story was originally published November 27, 2022 at 5:51 PM.
