A change at head coach and a different starting quarterback wasn’t enough to spark an immediate change for the Carolina Panthers—as they lost, 24-10, to the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
Here are our studs and duds from Sunday’s Week 6 defeat.
Stud: RB Christian McCaffrey
A staple in the studs portion of this series, McCaffrey easily made the list once again with his stellar performance.
The versatile running back took a lot of pressure off quarterback PJ Walker, and he did so right away. McCaffrey, both on the ground and through the air, accounted for 58 of the team’s 61 yards—setting them up to take a 3-0 lead after their opening possession.
From there, the offense relied heavily on the do-it-all weapon, who finished with 158 yards from scrimmage. That made up 74.5 percent of the team’s total yards—the second-highest percentage by a player in a single game over the last 20 seasons.
Dud: WR Robbie Anderson
Anderson created some drama on the sideline for the Panthers. In fact, that drama may be talked about more in the coming days than the loss itself.
In the first half, Anderson and receivers coach Joe Dailey got into a heated argument. Then, the wideout was spotted sitting away from the rest of the team on the sideline before he was finally kicked out of the game by head coach Steve Wilks following another brief (and likely unpleasant) exchange in the fourth quarter.
Although it’s very possible that we’ve seen Anderson’s final game with the Panthers, he showed composure in his postgame press conference—telling reporters he was “confused” by the decision to send him into the locker room.
Stud: CB Donte Jackson
Jackson scored the only touchdown of the day for the Panthers. While that speaks volumes about the ineptitude of the Carolina offense, it also reflects on the corner’s big-play ability.
Late in the first half, defensive end Brian Burns tipped a Matthew Stafford pass intended for Cooper Kupp—allowing Jackson to pick the ball off and return it down the sideline for a 30-yard score. The play helped give the Panthers a 10-7 lead at halftime.
Jackson later left the game with an ankle injury, adding to a multitude of injuries in the Panthers’ secondary room.
Dud: QB PJ Walker
Even though a lot of the blame might fall on offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo for overly conservative play-calling, Walker had a forgettable outing under center.
He finished with just 10 completions for 60 yards, many of which were check downs to McCaffrey. Although he didn’t throw any interceptions, that’s probably because he never threw the ball downfield—focusing, rather, on handing the ball off and tossing quick passes at the line of scrimmage.
To add injury to insult, Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and headed directly to the medical tent after a nasty hit on a sack. He cleared the concussion protocol, but remained out of the game due to a neck injury— which he clarified as being nothing more than soreness after the game.
Stud: DB Myles Hartsfield
With much of the Panthers secondary out recovering from injury, Hartsfield took advantage of an expanded role. The third-year defender totaled eight tackles, ranking second only to linebacker Cory Littleton on the day.
Although he didn’t have many flashy plays, Hartsfield played well at nickel and safety throughout. One of his highlight-worthy moments came in the first quarter, when he sniffed out a screen pass intended for wideout Brandon Powell to make a quick tackle and force a Rams punt.
Dud: WRs Shi Smith and Terrace Marshall Jr.
The Panthers haven’t been able to get their passing game going all season. While the most obvious victim of that is DJ Moore—who has the skill to be one of the league’s receiving leaders—the players further down the depth chart have hardly seen any targets.
On Sunday, Walker looked Smith’s way just two times and Marshall Jr.’s just once. All three passes were incomplete, as neither receiver could haul in the targets.
Smith also had a poor game on special teams, returning three punts for just 12 combined yards. Even that low number is skewed by one 11-yard return, since his other two attempts involved getting wrapped up as soon as he received the punt.
