‘Same story every week.’ Andy Dalton has cooled off, and Panthers are reliving bad dreams

The starting quarterback took responsibility for his bad day.

The running back resorted to “trust the process” platitudes.

And the team’s best cornerback — and unquestionably the Carolina Panthers’ best defender now on a defense that’s so bloodied and so bruised — had six words for a question about facilitating chemistry: “Just execute. Everybody do their job.”

Forgive me if you’ve heard this story before; Carolina appears to be stuck in a time warp.

The Panthers, who fell to 1-6 after a never--in-it 40-7 loss to the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium, relived the same bad dream on Sunday.

The offense turned the ball over. The defense gave up 5.8 yards per carry and 421 total yards to an offense that operated three-plus quarters without this year’s darling rookie quarterback, Jayden Daniels.

And the postgame locker room was deplete of answers — again — a trend among the past three teams and three head coaches, not including the interims.

Jaycee Horn, the aforementioned Panthers defensive back, indicated he was tired of answering the same questions prompted by the same performance. The Panthers were without six of the team’s seven predicted front-seven starters on Sunday — with injuries to Jadeveon Clowney, Josey Jewell, Shaq Thompson, DJ Wonnum, A’Shawn Robinson and Derrick Brown — and when asked on how difficult it is to live up to the team’s expectations with all the injuries piled up, Horn shrugged.

“It’s the same story every week,” the 2021 first-round draft pick said. “Nobody cares (how injured we are). There are new pieces. So it matters as far as chemistry and all that, but we gotta get stops. We gotta do better at the end of the day.”

There was a moment this season when “the same old Panthers” trope was cast aside. It started when veteran quarterback Andy Dalton took the mantle and threw for 300-plus yards and three scores against the Raiders Week 3 and showed that this offense was capable of doing things it hadn’t been doing under the direction of second-year QB Bryce Young.

But Dalton has cooled off now, it seems. And with it, the hope that accompanied him has vanished. He struggled against the Chicago Bears Week 5, didn’t do enough against the Falcons Week 6 — and struggled mightily Sunday. He finished 11-for-16 for 93 yards and two interceptions. The first interception punctuated a promising game-opening drive with a bad decision to flick it to Miles Sanders on an intended screen pass that landed in the arms of linebacker Dante Fowler Jr., who took it 67 yards for a touchdown. The second, he said, was “a miscommunication on the route.”

When asked if there were any positives from the offense that emerged Sunday, Dalton shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Not this game.”

So now that it is gone with the hope brought in by Dalton — the 36-year-old quarterback the Panthers initially brought in to mentor Young, only for the 2023 No. 1 overall pick to lose the starting job to him — the same story keeps repeating. Panthers-jersey-wearing fans wore brown bags on their heads, as some had earlier this season. Carolina lost the third-down battle (30%—50%), the turnover battle (2—0) and the run-game battle (214 yards—95 yards).

And on and on it goes.

Diontae Johnson, the team’s leading receiver coming into Sunday who only had one catch for 17 yards all day, even rehashed his own familiar responses. He lamented giving the same answers to the same questions he had prior to Sunday, too.

“I don’t know,” Johnson said of the offense’s struggles. “I can only control what I can control. Go out there and play football. All the playcalling and stuff, that ain’t got nothing to do with me. That’s on the coaches. As players, it’s our job to go out there and play.”

When asked about his lack of involvement in the offense: “It is what it is. Next game. I don’t play quarterback, so I can’t control that.”

The rest of the locker room was equally despondent. Backup quarterback Young said he couldn’t control when he plays. Running back Chuba Hubbard, a bright spot in a dark season so far for the Panthers, said “we’re going to keep working.”

“That’s the only thing we can do,” Hubbard continued, a futile shrug to the bad dream the Panthers are reliving.