Ben McAdoo Takes the Blame for Carolina's Offensive Struggles

Better late than never, they say.

The Carolina Panthers have had their fair share of struggles on the offensive side of the ball this season. 

They enter Week 14 ranked 25th in points per game (19.2), 29th in yards per game (291.3), 32nd in plays per game (56.4), 31st in 3rd down conversions (27.1%), 22nd in yards per play (5.2), 29th in passing yards per game (174.6), and 17th in rushing yards per game (116.8).

Offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo took ownership for the offensive struggles on Thursday, noting that it took time to figure out the true identity of what his unit does best.

"I think what you're seeing is it took us a little bit to figure out how we needed to play. It took us a little while to figure out who our offense was," said McAdoo. "We've played with some different quarterbacks and as you get going through the season and you're in the first year of an offense, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to figure things out and get going. That's my job and I was a little slow there. Certainly, we don't have everything figured out. We're still a work in progress but we have guys with a lot of confidence. We're just trying to put guys in position to be successful."

A big reason for the inefficient offense stems from the below average quarterback play. Whether it was Baker Mayfield or P.J. Walker, the Panthers failed to push the ball down the field and because of it, defenses keyed in on the underneath game. There was a clear lack of confidence in either of those two to really test defenses throughout the duration of the game. Sure, Walker had the beautiful touchdown pass to DJ Moore to tie the game against the Falcons, but they had no choice. They had to start taking shots with not much time left on the clock.

Before the bye week, interim head coach Steve Wilks turned the offense over to Sam Darnold, who operated a clean game completing 11-of-19 pass attempts for 164 yards and a score. It appears that he will be the guy moving forward and if that is the case, it will give McAdoo some stability at the game's most important position. 

"It's not easy, but I'm in the room every day," McAdoo said when asked about gameplanning with three different starting quarterbacks. "We try to have open lines of communication as much as possible. But yeah, I'm in the room with those guys every day. I trust them. When you have guys in and out sometimes, it does make it challenging but we're more than capable of overcoming it."

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