Carolina Panthers: Week 8 awards in loss vs. the Falcons

Carolina Panthers Awards: Curtis Samuel – Offensive Player of the Game

After placing Curtis Samuel as the Underrated Player of the Game last week, he moves up to the game’s offensive player for the Carolina Panthers.

He continues to find ways to impact the game in significant ways week after week, and this Thursday was no exception. Samuel was the best offensive player for the majority of the game and played a leading role in Carolina getting off to a hot start.

The ground game struggled for the vast majority of the contest, and key receivers D.J. Moore, who failed to catch a pass until the last drive of the game, and Robby Anderson didn’t provide the offense much life.

The offense was stale, and the only player to give it a boost, in the beginning, was Samuel.

Samuel found the endzone twice on Thursday, with one coming on the ground, and the other through the air courtesy of a beautifully-ran flea flicker by the offense. Both plays were crucial to the Panthers’ offense as not much else was going right for them.

The real question lies in how Joe Brady will get Samuel involved moving forward. This will be critical to their success even when they get star running back Christian McCaffrey back into the lineup.