This game is so one sided it appears a waste for the visiting team to even spend money on travel and accommodations. The defending Super Bowl Champion Los Angeles Rams at home off a loss against a Carolina Panthers team that might be picking up players from the stands to fill out their depleted roster.
Carolina started the season with two one-time early first round draft picks on their quarterback depth chart. Baker Mayfield was the first overall pick in 2018, and two choices later the New York Jets selected Sam Darnold. The Panthers had acquired Darnold from the Jets last year after New York spent another first round draft choice on a quarterback, BYU’s Zach Wilson.
This year, when the Cleveland Browns determined it might be best to clear out all distractions for the arrival of Deshaun Watson, who just this week became eligible to work out at the Browns facility, they jettisoned Mayfield to Carolina. Watson will become eligible to start when his suspension ends the week Cleveland visits the Houston Texans on December 4.
After starting the season with the top two quarterbacks selected in the 2018 draft, the Panthers are now without either of them.
Darnold was already shelved with an injury when Mayfield suffered a high ankle sprain during last week’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. That hands the quarterbacking this week against the Rams to P.J. Walker.
Walker was a free agent in 2017 when he signed with the Indianapolis Colts. Since then, he had been waived three times by the Colts before being picked up by his old college coach when Matt Rhule was named head coach of the Carolina Panthers. Rhule coached Walker at Temple.
This is not exactly the highest credential for stepping in behind center on the road against a likely angry Rams squad, particularly when the coach that gave you a chance has just been fired.
But, here is an interesting twist to the Walker saga, he is 2-0 as a starter in the National Football League. Those two wins, one each last season and in 2020, were with this Panthers squad. Could he even hope for a third straight win as an NFL starter?
Most think not.
I give him a lot better chance than most.
The Rams are not special, they were only the third defending Super Bowl Champion to lose while hosting the Thursday night opener, and have problems protecting quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Rams have allowed a league high 21 sacks this season and last week Stafford endured a punishing afternoon while being thrown for losses behind the line of scrimmage five times in a 22-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
And yet, because the Rams are playing the Panthers, who got clobbered last week at home against the San Francisco 49ers, 37-15, Los Angeles is a double-digit favorite in this one. The Panthers have won only one game this year, but the Rams have only two victories and are coming off back-to-back losses against the 49ers and Cowboys. Not exactly results that would suggest a team is ready to win by double-digits.
The point spread is clearly taking only one side into consideration; the problems the Panthers are facing. And, let it be known, they are plentiful.
On Monday, they fired Rhule and later that day learned that Mayfield would be out for multiple weeks with his most recent injury. Steve Wilke has been named interim head coach, and the last time the Panthers were led by a person with that title was 2019, when Perry Fewell held that role for four games after Ron Rivera was dismissed. He lost all four games he coached.
Wilks has head coaching experience in the NFL, served one season with the Arizona Cardinals in that role in 2018, albeit a disappointing adventure and a 3-13 won/loss record. What Wilks will have going for him this week, which apparently was seldom the case in 2018, is a team perfectly inspired to play their best game of the year.
The Panthers aren’t going to win too many games this season, but surprisingly, neither are the Rams. Whether Carolina pulls off the straight-up win here and push Walker's all-time record as a starting quarterback in the NFL to 3-0, is open for debate. But the Panthers with these points against a suspect Rams squad is a done deal.
Qoxhi Picks: Carolina Panthers (+10½) over Los Angeles Rams