CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sam Darnold never bought into the Sam Darnold Revenge Game storyline, even after sticking it to his former Jets team for nearly 300 yards and a pair of touchdowns Sunday in the Panthers’ 19-14 win.
Robby Anderson thankfully had more to say about beating his old team, which declined to pay him in free agency two years ago.
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Anderson, who signed to two-year, $29.5 million extension last month, only had one catch Sunday, but it was a big one — a 57-yard touchdown in the second quarter that was the longest play of the day for either team. Anderson celebrated by extending his arms out like an airplane, something he planned during the week.
“I had told DJ (Moore) when I score, I’m gonna do the jet,” Anderson said.
When he scored, not if?
“Yeah, when,” Anderson said. “Speak it into existence, feel me?”
DARNOLD TO ANDERSON!
Just like old times. #KeepPounding@Panthers | @chosen1ra
📺: #NYJvsCAR on CBS
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/rrUVjnrXfT— NFL (@NFL) September 12, 2021
Darnold let Anderson do all the talking, but teammates knew how important the game was to Darnold, who was traded to Carolina for three draft picks in April when the Jets decided they were drafting BYU quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 pick.
Christian McCaffrey said the emotions are real when a player faces his former team. But Panthers coach Matt Rhule wasn’t worried about the 24-year-old Darnold being too amped up for the game. Rhule told GM Scott Fitterer late in the week that Darnold was the least of his concerns.
“It’s a good first step, good first game. For him, I think this was probably a real step forward,” Rhule said of Darnold. “He was in the moment the whole game. I was anxious to see how he would be in terms of playing the Jets in that moment. It looked like he had fun the whole day.”
Darnold completed 24 of 35 passes for 279 yards and a 102.0 passer rating, and also scored on a 5-yard draw. He didn’t throw any interceptions, something he did a lot of in New York. And though he fumbled near the goal line early in the game, Rhule said it was tough to know whether Darnold or fullback Gio Ricci was at fault.
All in all, Darnold’s performance looked a lot like most of his training camp practices at Wofford: A solid showing with a lot of underneath throws but none to the other team. Asked what he was most pleased with, Darnold mentioned his efficiency.
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“We should have scored more points,” Darnold said after the Panthers managed just one touchdown on four drives inside the Jets’ 7-yard line.
“But whenever you can be efficient, just get completions and let your guys do what they do with the rock, that’s always a good thing.”
While the Panthers treated Wilson rudely (see below), Darnold took a bit of a beating himself. Darnold was only sacked once, but the Jets hit him seven other times, including on several plays in a row in the third quarter.
“We weren’t great up front. But he hung in there, moved around, slid around the pocket,” Rhule said. “He found guys down the field and made key, third-down throws.”
Josh Allen said recently that Darnold throws one of the prettiest spirals he’s seen. Darnold’s touchdown throw was one of them as he slid to his left and lofted a ball that hit Anderson in stride on a deep post for a 9-0 lead.
“That’s kind of how we drew it up and how we saw it playing out throughout the week,” Anderson said. “It hit like that in practice and it came through in the game how we expected at the right time.”
Darnold, who grew up in southern California, had about 20 family members come in for the game. He spent a few minutes after the game visiting with several of his former teammates near midfield, but insisted he felt no sense of vindication in having beaten them.
“No,” Darnold said, “not for me.”
How Darnold treated the entire week was very on brand for the No. 3 pick from the 2018 NFL Draft.
“He’s a nice guy. He’s not really with the vengeance kind of thing, ya feel me?” defensive end Brian Burns said. “He’s really just trying to focus on getting his job done and leading the offense.”
Numbers switch a bit of gamesmanship?
The Panthers threw a lot of different things to try to confuse Wilson in his debut. Their tactics actually began before the game, when the Panthers waited until an hour or so before kickoff to announce that linebackers Shaq Thompson and Jermaine Carter had switched to single-digit jersey numbers.
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Tom Brady was the loudest critic of the NFL’s decision to allow the switch, saying the single digits would make it hard for quarterbacks to identify defensive fronts and set protections. So springing a couple of changes on Wilson at the 11th-hour seemed like a classic case of skullduggery.
Rhule said Thompson (who went from 54 to 7, his number at Washington) and Carter (56 to 4) approached him on either Labor Day or before the holiday weekend about switching numbers. No. 7 didn’t come available until the Panthers cut Will Grier, and Thompson said he didn’t want to change right away out of respect for Grier.
Players were not allowed to change their numbers once the regular season started, and NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said there’s no rule requiring teams to make jersey number changes public. Expect that to come up when the competition committee meets during the offseason.
“There’s no rule about when you tell that. So didn’t see a reason to go announce it ahead of time,” Rhule said. “It wasn’t like it happened two weeks ago or something. It was kind of late in the process, (so the team decided to) just announce it at the inactives. I figured pretty quickly they’d figure out that Shaq was in 7 and Jermaine was 4.”
The Jets didn’t complain publicly about the situation after the game.
Thompson wore 54 and Carter was in 56 at last week’s practices, despite the fact that the changes were being processed or had already been approved. The Panthers kept it quiet to the point that Burns said players didn’t even know about number switches.
“It was a surprise for us,” he said.
And for Wilson, too.
“Yeah, it was,” Burns said, laughing.
Thompson turns in an all-around game
At least the switch paid off for Thompson, who filled the stat sheet during what he called the best game of his Panthers’ career. Thompson finished with 10 tackles, a sack, his second career interception and two other pass deflections.
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It was the kind of performance the Panthers were looking for when they took Thompson with the 25th pick in the 2015 draft. Rhule had video highlights of his players rolling on the monitors at Bank of America Stadium last week. Thompson’s included replays of him in a No. 7 jersey playing multiple positions at Washington, including running back.
“He kind of had that rebirth in the No. 7, going back to his college days. I thought he was all over the place,” Rhule said. “He’s played a long time. But he’s feeling good about where he is, and anxious to see him take off.”
Thompson has started 77 games for the Panthers, but played in the shadows of Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis early in his career. He’s never been to a Pro Bowl, but played at a different level Sunday.
“I felt like me, just putting that 7 back on. I feel that’s why the Panthers drafted me because all the plays I made in college — all the strip-sacks, picks, stuff like that,” he said. “I just felt like putting it back on, brought me back to that person.”
Edge rusher Haason Reddick said Thompson showed him something with his interception of Wilson, when Thompson tipped the pass, pulled it in and returned it 29 yards to set up a Ryan Santoso field goal.
“I’ve seen him do some impressive things in camp. But to tip the pass to himself, catch it (was) impressive, man,” Reddick said. “He’s more athletic than I thought he was.”
Pass rush was salty
Defensive coordinator Phil Snow had an aggressive scheme for Wilson that included disguised fronts and coverages and blitzes from every angle. It worked, as the Panthers beat up Wilson and racked up six sacks, their most since a Week 6 win against Tampa Bay in London in 2019.
Six players combined for the six sacks, including 1.5 from Reddick, who also forced a fumble that Wilson fell on.
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“The strategy was to hit him a lot, be in his face a lot. Disguise, try to confuse him,” said Burns, who had the first sack. “Just make his first game hell.”
Things will get tougher next week against New Orleans, which blew out Green Bay, 38-3, behind five touchdowns from Jameis Winston, who attempted 20 passes and wasn’t sacked.
“Today I feel like we put the league on notice,” said Reddick, who had 12.5 sacks last year in Arizona. “And if not, just keep letting ’em sleep and I believe that we’ll continue to go out there and keep doing what we did today.”
McCaffrey the blocker?
In his first game since Week 9 last year, McCaffrey did what he usually does — get a ton of touches (30) and approach 100 yards rushing and receiving. McCaffrey, who missed 13 games in 2020, had nine catches for 89 yards, and rushed 21 times for 98 yards. His 18-yard run around the left end with 1:51 left sealed it.
But Rhule was most impressed with McCaffrey’s block on Anderson’s long touchdown catch. Jets defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins beat right guard Dennis Daley with a spin move, but McCaffrey was there to bail him out and give Darnold a chance to get the pass off.
“We whiffed up front and Christian blocked the defensive tackle himself,” Rhule said. “That play doesn’t happen (without the block). That might have been Christian’s best play of the day.”
Said McCaffrey: “We knew we were gonna take a shot there, so just important for me to stay in and block. … It’s my job, if I see color in the A gap or B gap, especially on those shot plays, I’ve gotta help. … It’s just good, complementary football and that’s what it’s going to take to keep growing.”
(Top photo of Sam Darnold: Bob Donnan / USA Today)
