4 glaring factors behind another dismal Panthers loss at the Giants

Baker Mayfield couldn’t get the Carolina Panthers going

While Matt Rhule is certainly the biggest reason the Carolina Panthers have continued to struggle over the last two seasons, his quarterbacks have hardly helped.

Sam Darnold was an abject disaster once Christian McCaffrey was hurt and in all honesty, Baker Mayfield hasn’t been much better. And his impressive comeback that ultimately fell short last week is hurt by the fact that the same Cleveland Browns defense just lost to Joe Flacco while up two scores with two minutes to go.

It is 2022 and Flacco just beat a team that the Panthers were unable to compete with until the fourth quarter in Week 1. Add in a very forgettable performance at MetLife Stadium and Mayfield is going to have to shoulder a lot of blame for the first fortnight of Carolina’s campaign.

While fans may be hesitant to blame Mayfield, it is fair considering he completed less than half of his passes and failed to pass for 150 yards. Even Mariota and Geno Smith have been able to surpass this number in bridge roles on rebuilding teams.

Mayfield has two good receivers and an elite one in D.J. Moore, so putting up good numbers shouldn’t be difficult. One cannot help but root for the No. 1 overall selection in 2018 considering how things ended with the Browns, but more games like this will soon have fans convinced he isn’t the answer.