It was hard to know what to expect from this year’s Carolina Panthers coming into today’s opener with the Giants. But I never expected what I witnessed today — it’s hard to describe the Panther’s play as anything other than shockingly bad in multiple facets of the game.
It’s easy to blame QB Matt Moore for three end zone interceptions. He certainly made some bad decisions but the Panthers problems extend well beyond that. As a run-first team, the Panthers were simply unable to get first downs by running the football. In fact, they got exactly two first downs on the ground. Oh, and one of those came on a Matt Moore scramble on a third-down pass play. Overall, 21 rushes for 72 yards — 3.4 yards a carry — by Double Trouble is just a troubling stat. If you take away a DeAngelo Williams 29-yard run, the other 20 running plays gained the grand total of 43 yards.
The offensive line’s pass protection also left much to be desired. It’s hard to figure out who was getting beat the worst out there.
The play calling did not help matters. Nor did the drops by receivers.
Still, as bad as all that was, the Panthers worst unit was their secondary. Charles Godfrey, despite catching two tipped balls, did not look like an NFL-level safety. The rest of the secondary was only marginally better.
While the Panthers did a good job most of the time stopping the run, their defensive line generated no pass rush.
Realize that you’re never as bad as you look on your worst day. And this was (hopefully) the Panthers worst day. But unless this team does a lot of things better, it’s going to be a very long season. And that’s regardless of whether Matt Moore or Jimmy Clausen starts.
