Panthers biggest mistake was not lifting Kyle Allen
By Luke Tucker
On Sunday, the Carolina Panthers (5-5) suffered a humiliating 29-3 loss to the visiting Atlanta Falcons (3-7).
For the seventh time in the last eight matchups, the Carolina Panthers have fallen to the Atlanta Falcons. Sunday’s blowout in Charlotte hurt perhaps more than the defeat in San Francisco, as it was a game they should’ve won, it was against a division rival, and most importantly, it put a huge dent in the Panthers’ playoff chance. The Panthers are now 5-5, with two games remaining against New Orleans, the Falcons in Atlanta, and a date with a hot Seahawks squad in mid-December. Carolina’s season is quickly heading south, and it leaves the franchise’s future very much up in the air.
In Sunday’s loss, Kyle Allen threw for a career-high four interceptions, with three of them coming from inside the 25-yard line.
Unfortunately for Kyle Allen and the Panthers, it seems as though the more he plays, the better read opponents get on him. Early in the year, there was virtually no tape on Allen. In fact, Allen hadn’t been given consistent starts since 2015 when he was a sophomore at Texas A&M–his final season before transferring to Houston. That being said, he was a relative unknown for opposing defenses.
With nine career starts now under his belt, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that he struggles when faced with pressure and on the run. To be fair, this is a problem with most young quarterbacks. However, as Allen noted in his post-game presser in each of the last two weeks, it’s no excuse. He threw four interceptions to an Atlanta defense that had just two in the nine games prior. The Falcons entered Sunday with the worst pass defense in the league, and although Allen passed for 325 yards, it took him 50 attempts to get there–and a good portion of those yards were freely allowed by Atlanta, who played most of the second half in more of a prevent-type defense.
When Allen first took over, he was winning football games, but even then, it was largely thanks to Christian McCaffrey and the defense. It has seemed that when the defense fails to create sacks or force turnovers, an Allen-led offense stands no chance. Even yesterday, in a game where McCaffrey totaled almost 200 yards of offense, Allen failed to get anything going. Now, part of that was due to terrible offensive line play, but there comes a point where he has to make plays on his own, and if not, then someone else will. That’s what makes Cam Newton so hard to defend. Unfortunately for Allen, it seems as though the more he plays, the uglier the results get. Following Sunday’s beatdown, he now ranks third-to-last in QBR, ahead of only Mason Rudolph and Marcus Mariota.
Carolina drafted quarterback Will Grier in the third round of this year’s draft. He has yet to see any regular-season action.
Perhaps the Panthers’ biggest mistake on Sunday was keeping Allen in. By halftime, it became obvious that the offense had no rhythm under Allen. It was time for a quarterback change. Fans on Twitter, in the stadium, and at home watching on TV knew it, but the change never came. In April, the Panthers drafted Will Grier with the 100th-overall pick in hopes that he could be the backup or even the long-term answer at the position. With that being said, Sunday would’ve been the perfect time to give him his first look at the NFL.
Less than a year ago, Grier was busy establishing himself as a legitimate Heisman candidate at West Virginia. As a senior with the Mountaineers, the Charlotte-native passed for nearly 4,000 yards and finished fifth in the country with 37 passing scores. He also finished with just eight interceptions on 397 attempts. It’s no question that NFL defenses are exponentially harder to play against than those in the Big 12, however, Grier wasn’t far off the numbers Kyler Murray was putting up–and they competed in the same conference. Looking at Murray so far in his first professional season, he has looked like a rookie at times, but more often than not, he’s shown enormous flashes that justify his status as a top-overall pick. Grier isn’t on that same level, but he proved throughout college that he isn’t far behind
Throwing a rookie quarterback into the fire never seems like a great idea, however, Grier isn’t your typical rookie. He was one of the oldest signal-callers in the draft, is married, and has a child. That alone should suggest that he is quite mature for a rookie. It also wouldn’t be the first time he’s battled adversity. After going 6-0 in his freshman year at Florida, he was suspended for a year by the NCAA for taking a banned substance. To this day Grier claims that it was completely unknown to him, and to his credit, it seems awfully out of character. Rather than let it ruin his collegiate career as so many players would, he transferred to West Virginia and developed into one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
Ultimately, not playing Grier is a bad look on Ron Rivera.
With the game slipping (or already slipped) away by halftime, Sunday was the perfect time to get Grier his first NFL action. This is true not only because of Allen’s struggles, but also because of Carolina’s playoff situation. The loss to Atlanta puts the Panthers three games out of the division lead and two-and-a-half out of the final wild-card position. Had Ron Rivera elected to put Grier into the game, he may have performed just as poorly as Allen. But maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would have performed well and given the franchise some optimism heading into what is now virtually a playoff game next week in New Orleans. Maybe he would have even postponed the Panthers’ need for a new quarterback.
The bottom-line is this: the Panthers needed a spark on Sunday afternoon, and Kyle Allen wasn’t it. We’ll never know what would have happened had Grier taken over in the second half against the Falcons, but what we do know is that doing so would’ve left no stone unturned. Failing to do so may well end up costing Rivera his job.