Sam Darnold’s limited debut for Panthers leads to more questions than answers

Sam Darnold’s debut as a Carolina Panther came Saturday night, but only in a “blink-and-you-missed-it” sort of way. And it offered no answers, just more questions about how effective this Panthers offense will be.

After not playing at all in the Panthers’ first preseason game, this time Darnold started against Baltimore in the Panthers’ 20-3 loss in front of a lively but disappointed home crowd at Bank of America Stadium.

Darnold played only one series, completing 1 of 2 passes for 16 yards but getting zero points out of a drive in which the Panthers ran four plays at or inside the Baltimore 6. Two of those plays came at the Baltimore 1.

The Panthers are being so careful with Darnold that he is on a Cam Newton sort of schedule. Newton had a lot of exhibition games in his latter years with the Panthers in which he would only play a series or two. Darnold, though, is only 24, was traded to Carolina a few months ago from the New York Jets and obviously still needs a lot of reps with the Panthers’ first-team offense.

I would have given the quarterback at least a second series in this game — throwing two total passes in two preseason games isn’t nearly enough action. Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson didn’t play a single snap Saturday, but he’s a different case — an established star who was already an NFL Most Valuable Player in the very same offense in 2019. The Panthers do at least plan to play him for most or all of the first half Friday night against Pittsburgh in the preseason finale.

Darnold’s first pass Saturday came on his first play, from the Baltimore 33 after a Haason Reddick interception off a Derrick Brown tip and Reddick’s ensuing 26-yard return gave Carolina great field position.

Darnold threw a short pass to a wide-open Robby Anderson, who stumbled out of his break but then reset himself and gained 16 yards. The rest of the drive was mostly a series of five runs by Chuba Hubbard — starting tailback Christian McCaffrey, although healthy, didn’t play.

Darnold’s only other throw came on first-and-goal from the 6 when he had some time but couldn’t find a receiver and threw the ball well out of the end zone once the pressure came.

“I just felt like the best decision was just to throw it away there,” Darnold said. “Live to see another down.”

That would be Darnold’s final throw of the night, however. He lived to see three more downs, and on all of them he simply handed the ball off. The Panthers should have at least let Darnold throw once on either third-and-goal or fourth-and-goal, both from the Baltimore 1, but instead they called for two straight runs to Hubbard. Both were stuffed.

“We were trying to establish can we get that yard or not,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said. “We didn’t get that yard tonight.”

“We got down there,” Darnold said, “and we’ve just got to put it in the end zone. You don’t get those opportunities much.... We should be able to go down there and score with our base plays.”

In a real game, Rhule offered, it would be more likely that the Panthers would give Darnold a run-pass option on that play rather than try to pound it up the middle.

“It’s not something where we’re game-planning it and trying to be tricky,” Rhule said. “We’re trying to run good old-fashioned football plays and get in.”

After that unsuccessful fourth-down handoff, Darnold retired to the sideline and put on a baseball cap, along with almost all of the other offensive starters. He did enjoy the home crowd at least.

“Coming off a season where there weren’t a lot of fans,” Darnold said, “it was awesome to be able to see them back out there. It was great to feel that atmosphere.” The Panthers announced a paid attendance of 68,061, although the actual attendance appeared to be more like 30,000.

Darnold was replaced by Will Grier, who got the primary backup snaps ahead of P.J. Walker in this game and who played well at times (11 for 14, 144 yards). Grier, however, couldn’t get the ball into the end zone, either. And then the second half, which featured Walker and the Panthers’ awful third-string offense, was an embarrassing display of football in which Carolina averaged only 1.2 yards per play and never made a single first down. If you didn’t leave this game early, you were either a true Panthers junkie or a major Ravens fan.

Rhule has said all along that Carolina would point to the third and final preseason game — at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday — as the one where Darnold and the first-team offense will get the most work. Rhule said he would likely play Darnold for around a half in that one.

And that’s what is needed — at least a half. Maybe more.

Darnold — and this offense — could really use the work.

This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Sam Darnold’s limited debut for Panthers leads to more questions than answers."