It was bad enough that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to Bank Of America Stadium and demolished the home team 32-6. To make matters worse, chants of “Fire Rhule” pierced the Charlotte skyline.
And many would say, “rightly so.”
The loss was a shamelessly lopsided farce that dropkicked the Panthers out of playoff contention. Here are some observations from Week 16’s blowout.
QB Carousel
As expected, head coach Matt Rhule alternated between Cam Newton and Sam Darnold. Also as expected, the results were disastrous. The Bucs’ defense ate – registering eight sacks on the day. The two-man rotation didn’t produce any touchdowns and barely moved the chains. Which brings me to ask once again, what was really the gain from this? What is the endgame?
As far as I’m concerned, the endgame here is making it seem like the Panthers didn’t waste their money. They tried their best to make Darnold look good. Even tried to put him in positions for a touchdown. To no avail, the only points the Panthers had all afternoon came from field goals.
I have never seen a QB rotation situation be successful in the NFL. This “Newton/Darnold compromise” is only the latest failure.
No Line
The Bucs’ defense had a field day with Newton and Darnold because, once again, Carolina’s o-line breaks down more than a hooptie. Neither Darnold nor Newton had enough pocket room to throw, which made them susceptible to hurries, hits, and sacks. A leaky offensive line has been a problem with the Panthers for years. Giving up eight sacks is just the latest example in a long line of reasons why this unit is in desperate need of an overhaul.
Rhule’s Presser
In his postgame presser, Rhule made some interesting comments that come off as tone-deaf. Here are a few.
“I believe it’s 1000 percent working, I just know no one can see it and I apologize. As I tell our team all the time, it took Jay-z seven years to become an overnight sensation. It takes time.”
What is exactly working, Coach Rhule? Today’s loss eliminated the Panthers from the playoffs for the fourth year in a row. You created a “quarterback controversy” where it shouldn’t be. You fired Joe Brady as if he were the problem. You have national pundits like Skip Bayless calling the team a “clown” show. What is exactly working? A plan to return to the college ranks?
“We saw a lot of good things from Sam today.”
Look, I get it. You want to justify paying Darnold $18.8 million in 2022 and this was a game where you wanted to re-introduce him to the team and to a frustrated fan base. You wanted to put him in favorable positions to make him look good. Okay fine, but why lie about his performance? Granted he had more completions than Newton, but what good is that if he can’t stay off the ground? What good things are you seeing by not being able to score against the Bucs’ second unit defense?
“I haven’t done a good enough job as the head coach to allow Cam, Sam, and PJ to be successful, because they don’t have 200 yards rushing next to them, they don’t have a clean pocket and all those things.”
So it’s CMC’s fault that he can’t stay on the field. Is that what Coach Rhule is on here? Just like the QBs don’t have a clean pocket to pass out of, CMC, Hubbard, Abdulah, etc don’t have adequate blocking for an efficient ground game either. So again, what about this system and process is working?
