QB Baker Mayfield makes late charge, but Panthers still lose to Browns in season debut
Baker Mayfield gave the Carolina Panther fans a big dose of “Shake and Bake,” but it wasn’t enough.
With Carolina trailing 20-7 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Mayfield directed the Panthers to 17 fourth-quarter points and a brief lead. But he was trumped by Cleveland kicker Cade York, who banged home a 58-yard field goal with 0:08 to go, as Cleveland won a topsy-turvy game, 26-24.
Mayfield’s final quarter was some of the best quarterback play coach Matt Rhule has gotten in his 34-game tenure with the Panthers. But the Panthers played conservatively with two running plays inside the Browns 20 on Carolina’s last drive and decided to count on the Panthers’ defense. That backfired, even though Carolina made the field goal to go ahead 24-23. But Cleveland then drove the ball down the field — helped by Brian Burns’ 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalty — and won the game.
Still, Mayfield’s debut went from nasty to very nice in a hurry. He ended up 16-for-27 for 235 yards, with one interception, one passing TD and one rushing TD. He also had five of his passes tipped and several bobbled snaps and was sacked four times.
After a horrendous beginning to his Panther career in the first half — “We’ve got to go out there and believe in the plan and don’t wait for things to happen before we wake up,” Mayfield said — the quarterback led the team on a remarkable comeback in the fourth quarter. Mayfield scrambled for a 7-yard TD on a third-down play, then threw a 75-yard touchdown dart to Robbie Anderson. The Anderson TD cut Cleveland’s lead to 23-21 with 6:13 left.
After a Carolina stop, Mayfield and the Panthers got the ball back with 2:14 to go, on their own 20, with one timeout and needing a field goal to take their first lead of the game.
Mayfield directed the Panthers to the Cleveland 16, then played conservatively to set up new kicker Eddy Pineiro for a 34-yard field goal. He made it, giving Carolina its 24-23 lead with 1:13 to go — the Panthers’ first and only lead of the game.
Still, scoring a touchdown on that drive would have meant Cleveland couldn’t trump the Panthers with a field goal. But Mayfield fumbled the snap on first down from Cleveland’s 14.
On second and third downs, he handed the ball to Christian McCaffrey. On the third-down play, there was a pass option if the Browns were in a certain defense, but because they weren’t, Mayfield took the option he was supposed to on the play, handing to McCaffrey, who was bottled up most of the day, only had 14 total touches and lost a yard on the play.
“There’s nothing wrong with putting the ball in your best player’s hands,” Mayfield said of the play.
But then came Cleveland, under former N.C. State quarterback Jacoby Brissett, playing in place of the suspended Deshaun Watson. Carolina’s defense, which couldn’t cause a turnover the entire game and was gashed for 217 rushing yards, was unable to slow the Browns down, and York made a big-time field goal that would have been good from 70 yards to end it. The Panthers thought that Browns QB Jacoby Brissett should have been called for intentional grounding just before the field goal, but a flag that was originally thrown was picked up, with no foul marked off.
A terrible first half for Mayfield
The most telling symbol of how Mayfield’s first half went for the Carolina Panthers wasn’t the batted pass on his first throw, or the early interception, or the 21 total yards in the first five series.
Instead, it was the boos.
They rained down from the home crowd in Charlotte with only 20 minutes of game time gone, after Mayfield had thrown a pass into the dirt to avoid pressure. This was early in the second quarter, the Panthers were playing in their widely anticipated season opener, and Mayfield (and the rest of the team, and its coaching staff) were already hearing major displeasure from the home crowd.
“It took us way too long to get started,” Panther coach Matt Rhule said.
The boos didn’t come from everyone, and of course they were understandable. The Panthers have made a lot of people unhappy while going 22-44 over the past four-plus seasons, and they are now on an eight-game losing streak dating back to 2021. Mayfield was — and still is — Carolina’s best chance at finding consistent quarterback play, which the team has never had under embattled third-year coach Rhule (now 10-24 in 34 games).
The Panthers traded for Mayfield in early July. By the time they got to the regular season, quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Matt Corral had already been hurt, so having Mayfield — even as a one-year rental, since his contract runs only through this season — seemed like a very good idea.
On Sunday, though, in the first half, the whole proposition seemed suspect. Carolina was having quarterback problems once again, having trouble scoring once again and losing once again. Carolina’s first five possessions hardly could have gone worse for Mayfield. He began the game with a pass batted down at the line of scrimmage, and that became an early theme. By halftime, Mayfield had already had four passes tipped or batted down — something that has been an issue too many times in the career of the 6-foot-1 quarterback. (Also an issue: Mayfield’s numerous bobbled snaps. He took the blame for all of them).
In Carolina’s first five possessions, the team had only 21 total yards and just two first downs — one of them coming only because Cleveland got called for roughing-the-passer against Mayfield. Mayfield also had fumbled two snaps, recovering both but losing two additional plays because of it.
And, most worrisome of all, Mayfield overthrew a pass on the Panthers’ fourth possession that was intercepted and quickly led to Cleveland’s first touchdown. It was during that stretch, with 10 minutes still left in the second quarter, that boos rained down on the offense after Mayfield purposely threw a pass into the dirt to avoid the pass rush.
But Mayfield then was able to finally get something going on Carolina’s sixth possession. With some time in the pocket, he found DJ Moore for a critical first down and then found tight end Ian Thomas uncovered on a 50-yard seam route. Thomas ran the ball down to the 2, and two plays later, McCaffrey leaped over the top from the 1 and cut the Browns’ lead to 14-7. Cleveland added a field goal to make it 17-7 at halftime.
A turnaround second half
By the time Carolina got the ball back in the third quarter, it was 20-7, Cleveland, after a long Browns drive. That march was short-circuited when Cleveland All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett blew by Carolina rookie left tackle Ickey Ekwonu for consecutive sacks — the second one a strip-sack that Mayfield was fortunate to recover.
But in the fourth quarter, it all changed. Mayfield started acting like Jake Delhomme in 2003, who led a comeback from 17-0 down against Jacksonville in his first-ever game in a Panthers uniform. Delhomme had said before the game that he saw similarities between himself and Mayfield, particularly in the area of risk-taking, and it would have been nice if the Panthers had risked more at the end to try and score a touchdown inside Cleveland’s 20.
Instead, they ended up with a field goal, and lost. But Mayfield, and the offense’s 17 fourth-quarter points, did provide some hope.
“I’m a fighter,” Mayfield said. “I’ve fought my whole life.”
And, Mayfield said, this was only one game out of Carolina’s 17, even though he said some had portrayed it as the “Super Bowl.”
“The world is not ending,” Mayfield said, “despite the feeling right now.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2022 at 4:38 PM.
