Meet the new Carolina Panthers; same as the old Carolina Panthers.
After firing Matt Rhule on Monday, the Panthers put on a performance that looked almost identical to those of the Rhule era Sunday in a deflating, 24-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Compounding issues: Wide receiver Robbie Anderson, whom the Panthers (1-5) were already trying to trade, might never play for the team again after the tantrum he threw Sunday.
Wearing his helmet, Anderson got face-to-face on the Carolina sideline with wide receivers coach Joe Dailey after being taken out of the game, and yelling ensued.
Anderson then was basically not on the field for the rest of the game — he had zero targets and zero catches — and FOX cameras showed him getting sent back into the locker room early after another conversation with interim head coach Steve Wilks. Anderson was screaming back toward the sideline on his way off the field.
When you’re trying to establish you have control of the locker room, as Wilks is, that’s the sort of thing that’s hard to stomach. At the least, Wilks should bench Anderson for a game or two, if not release him entirely.
“No one is bigger than the team,” Wilks said about the Anderson incident afterward, although he didn’t discuss it in any detail. He called it a “sideline-type situation.”
In his own postgame press conference, Anderson said he was “confused and upset” about being sent off the field early by Wilks.
When asked directly if he could envision Anderson being part of the team going forward, Wilks deflected.
“Right now, everybody is being evaluated, as well as myself,” Wilks said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s going to be the right chemistry to put out on the field.”
The Anderson fallout was sadly about the most interesting thing that happened to the Panthers on Sunday. Their offense, as usual, was ridiculously poor — Carolina’s only touchdown came from a Donte Jackson pick-6 interception. Their game plan was far more conservative than usual — run, run, screen pass was the general theme — but that didn’t work, either.
Carolina had five first downs in the first quarter, led 10-7 at halftime and then didn’t make another first down until the fourth. Again, the Panthers defense wore down and the offense had nothing when it counted. The Rams outscored Carolina 17-0 in the second half, as Carolina’s offense gained only 203 total yards, ran just 44 offensive plays and went 2-for-10 on third downs.
Of those 203 total yards, Christian McCaffrey accounted for 158 of them via rushing and pass-catching. Everyone else had a lousy 45.
By the end, quarterback PJ Walker had been knocked out of the game (neck injury, although he cleared concussion protocol) and the Panthers were reduced to playing former practice-squad quarterback Jacob Eason, who threw an end-zone interception to snuff out a final chance for an offensive touchdown.
In other words, it was pretty much the same as it ever was.
And that’s not surprising.
Rhule was the highly-paid scapegoat, but the Panthers’ problems go a lot deeper than one head coach and the two assistants who were fired along with him.
The team is now 23-48 in the time that Dave Tepper has owned the team, and all of this may well get worse before it gets better. The Panthers sustained several more significant injuries Sunday, none more so than the one to Walker.
Walker was the fourth Carolina quarterback to get hurt so far this season, joining Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and rookie Matt Corral. It’s quite possible that Eason will have to start against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next Sunday in Charlotte, and that, my friends, is another mismatch.
Then again, the Panthers seem mismatched against almost everyone these days. After losing early by just a few points per game, they’ve lost by 22 and 14 points in the past two weeks. They can’t score, which is the surest way to make fans turn the TV off or sell their tickets to somebody who cheers for the opposing team.
To get back to that sideline altercation for a second: It paled in comparison to the one that star linebacker Kevin Greene and linebackers coach Kevin Steele had in 1998. In that one, as Steele addressed the linebackers, Greene suddenly lost his composure, grabbed Steele’s jacket with two hands and pushed him backward about 10 feet. It was one of the low moments of Hall of Famer Greene’s career, and he would apologize for it repeatedly (Greene wasn’t kicked off the team and coach Dom Capers allowed him to continue to play in that game — certainly a mistake in my book — although Capers then suspended Greene without pay for the next game).
Anderson never touched Dailey based on the FOX replays, but the two weren’t mincing words. It has been reported in several quarters, including by The Charlotte Observer, that the Panthers would like to trade Anderson if they could get a decent price. Anderson, who played for Rhule at Temple, has been an inconsistent player for the past two seasons, catching less than half of the passes thrown toward him in 2021 and so far in 2022.
It was another issue for a team full of issues. But at least there’s one thing every loss does make clearer, if you’re losing hope entirely, Panthers fans: This forlorn team may well have the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2023 and be able to pick any quarterback it wants. At least there’s that.
