4 critical factors to blame for Panthers’ pathetic loss at the NY Giants

Carolina Panthers are clueless without Christian McCaffrey

Matt Rhule talked a big game this week about establishing a new identity for the Carolina Panthers. The head coach outlined his desire to run the football more and set the tone that way rather than rely on the struggling Sam Darnold – but it didn’t appear as if Joe Brady got the memo.

This statement obviously didn’t go unnoticed by the New York Giants, who used it as bulletin board material and came out with a fierce desire to thwart this area of the field. Chuba Hubbard found life difficult generating meaningful yards outside of one or two nice runs, and it was abandoned entirely once the contest started slipping away.

Yet more empty calories from Rhule.

How much longer can we say it’s all part of the learning curve?

The simple fact of the matter is this offense is absolutely clueless without Christian McCaffrey on the field. Even though the All-Pro has now missed 17 of the last 23 games.

This is simply unacceptable.

The Panthers have made their bed. They don’t have much in the way of draft capital to make big-time improvements before the deadline, so another campaign of mediocrity or worse awaits if things don’t start trending on an upward curve.