5 major talking points from Carolina Panthers defeat vs. the Vikings
By Luke Gray
Carolina Panther’s QB Sam Darnold must do better
I’m really stating the absolute obvious here.
If the Carolina Panthers want to be a winning team this year the man under center must do better in all aspects of his game.
Sam Darnold finished a disappointing game with stats of 17/41 for 207 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He also had 4 rushes for 48 yards.
This was a struggle for Darnold from start to finish. The tone was set on the very first play when the former first-round pick tried to force it to Robby Anderson was intercepted by veteran cornerback Bashuad Breeland.
Since Christian McCaffrey went down Darnold seems to have regressed and this is of concern. It’s not sustainable to build your offense around your running back and the fact the Panthers are struggling so much without their face of the franchise should worry for Matt Rhule and his staff.
At times it was painful to watch the Panthers try to move the ball. On social media, references were being made to the play under Jimmy Clausen, who in his solitary starting season for Carolina threw just three touchdowns as the team slumped to a 2-14 record.
A real low point for Darnold was when he was penalized for taking back-to-back timeouts. As someone in his fourth year, these are mistakes he shouldn’t be making.
It’s futile now constantly blaming all of Darnold’s failings on his protection. We know the offensive line is bad, but compared to recent weeks it seemed as though the signal-caller had a clean pocket to operate in he just couldn’t deliver.
Now to give Darnold some credit he did show his immense talent on the final game-tying drive, taking the Panthers’ 96 yards in under three minutes eventually finding Robby Anderson for the score, and then the two-point conversion to tie the game. However, there’s no way Carolina deserved to be in with a chance and can have no complaints at coming up short.
The Panthers have the perfect opportunity to respond next week when they face a struggling New York Giants defense who have just given up 38 points this past weekend.