Monday Morning Thoughts: The Key Card Might Not Work for Much Longer

Breaking down the Panthers' loss to the Rams.

Through the first five games of the season, the Carolina Panthers' offense lacked an identity. Well, that's not entirely true. Their identity was that they were unable to stay on the field on third downs and struggled to muster up any sort of success in the passing game. 

On the opening drive of Sunday's game in Los Angeles, it felt like the Panthers found the identity that they want to carry - a ground-and-pound offense that moves the ball efficiently. There have been times this year when Christian McCaffrey disappeared from the game plan for no logical reason. Questions would be asked after each game about why they went away from putting the ball in 22's hands. Not this week. McCaffrey notched 27 yards on four carries and 31 yards on three receptions, leading to a field goal by Eddy Pineiro.

After that, the Panthers ran a very conservative offense which featured maybe a handful of throws beyond five yards down the field. Interim head coach Steve Wilks said earlier in the week that they would do what they could to help out PJ Walker and what that meant was a lot of quick outs, screens, and dump-offs to the flat. Those quick throws caught the Rams off guard early but they quickly adjusted and offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo did not. 

I understand you want to be cautious with what you ask Walker to do but it's not like you have anything to lose at this point in the season. The team, and really the offense itself, is reeling. You have to be willing to take some shots here and there even if it is with your so-called fourth-string quarterback. Banking on the defense and special teams unit to win the game is asking a lot considering how much they've been on the field already this season. 

You would think that after going three and out on five consecutive drives, you would realize that whatever you're doing or trying to do, isn't working. When you run a vanilla offense and there's a massive lack of execution within that offense, you get the results that you see. Sometimes teams can hide some of their deficiencies because they get the defense looking in the wrong spot or confuse them with certain looks that are being presented. 

That offense is not this offense. And it might not be Ben McAdoo's offense for much longer if he doesn't find some answers to all of the Panthers' problems. 

"In this business, you keep your head down, you keep working and that's always a possibility," McAdoo said last week when asked if he ever thought he would be fired along with head coach Matt Rhule. "Every day you come in and your key card works is a good day. You just keep your head down, keep working. I don't walk around thinking about myself or my job security or anything like that."

After six weeks, the Panthers rank dead last in total yards per game (260), 29th in passing (169.7 ypg), 26th in rushing (90.3 ypg), 28th in scoring (17.2 ppg), and 32nd in third down efficiency (23.6%).

How is it possible that you have a healthy Christian McCaffrey, an improved offensive line, and Baker Mayfield (prior to this week) and the unit is performing that poorly? Yes, Mayfield has played awful to this point but why does he look worse than Sam Darnold did a year ago? Why does he look like a completely different quarterback than he did in Cleveland? 

More importantly, why is it so hard to get the ball to your top playmakers? DJ Moore has worked with some of the worst quarterbacks the league has to offer but still found ways to eclipse the 1,100-yard receiving mark. I think it's safe to say that's not going to happen this year.

Panthers WR stats

DJ Moore - 20 rec, 204 yards, 1 TD 

Robbie Anderson - 13 rec, 206 yards, 1 TD 

Shi Smith - 8 rec, 105 yards 

Terrace Marshall Jr. - 4 rec, 30 yards 

Laviska Shenault - 2 rec, 90 yards, 1 TD 

Rashard Higgins - 9 snaps, zero catches

If things don't change for the better anytime soon, this will go down as one of the worst offenses in NFL history and that's something you don't want your name attached to as the play-caller.

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