5 key talking points from the Carolina Panthers’ pathetic Week 9 loss
By Luke Gray
Carolina Panthers QB Sam Darnold was seeing ghosts again
“I’m seeing Ghosts” were the infamous words of quarterback Sam Darnold during a Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots back in 2019.
It seems that a change of coach, offensive weapons, and city have had little effect on Darnold when facing Bill Belichick, on that famous night he went 11-of-32 for 86 yards and a staggering four interceptions.
While things weren’t quite that bad on Sunday, it wasn’t much better.
Darnold ended the game 16-of-33 for 172 yards and three picks with a passing rating of 26.3. The question of whether or not he should even have been on the field is another matter and something that will be addressed later.
Belichick clearly knows how to get in the head of Darnold and we saw that Sunday. His first pick set the tone missing a wide-open Ian Thomas leading to an 88-yard pick-six by J.C. Jackson.
The Carolina Panthers’ defense once again did all it could to help out its struggling offense getting two first-half takeaways in Patriots territory twice. But the offense sputtered again managing to only hit two field goals from now there best offensive player Zane Gonzalez.
Again we saw an animated Robby Anderson on the sideline after Darnold threw his third pick of the day. This time we saw the wide receiver directing his anger directly at his quarterback, and who can blame him.
Carolina has now only scored one touchdown in the last 12 quarters of football. If Darnold continues as the signal-caller it’s hard to see that improving.