After another disappointing loss last week—a 13-3 defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens—the Carolina Panthers will look to reboot their offense with a change at quarterback. In his first start this season, Sam Darnold will supplant Baker Mayfield to take on, perhaps, an equally bad Denver Broncos attack.
Nonetheless, let’s dive into our six things to know about this Week 12 matchup.
Long Super Bowl hangover
It has been six years since the Panthers and Broncos met on the world’s biggest stage to duke it out in Super Bowl 50. We, of course, all know how that eventually worked out (sorry, Panther fans)—but what has happened since is a bit of a doozy.
Since their Super Bowl rematch—the 2016 season opener that followed their Santa Clara clash—both teams have a nearly identical record. With the Panthers still awaiting this year’s bye week, they’ve gone 42-66 while the Broncos have stood at 42-65.
This is obviously not ideal and neither team, with zero combined playoff wins since, has really been able to get back on track.
Big packages of regret
Although at differing costs, both teams have made a few notable moves at trying to pin down their franchise quarterbacks.
Denver dropped two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick and three players in order to nab Russell Wilson. To this point, however, he hasn’t been close to meeting the expectations of that large price.
The Panthers made two similar moves, though not nearly on the same scale. They sent a second-rounder, fourth-rounder and sixth-rounder for Sam Darnold in 2021 and a conditional fifth-rounder for Baker Mayfield in 2022.
Each case can serve as a precautionary tale, at least right now, of dumping draft capital (and big-time cash) at the position.
A dominant history
The Panthers do not have an entirely favorable history against the Broncos. Including that crippling Super Bowl 50 loss, they’re 1-6 all-time in matchups with Denver.
They will look to put a dent in that record this Sunday and end the four-game losing streak the ponies have them on.
Darnold vs. Denver
Though the overall record against the Broncos is downright abysmal, this does not include when Darnold has been on the roster.
The new starting quarterback had one of his best games at Denver’s expense earlier in his career, and split his two games against them in New York. Darnold has scored four touchdowns, three of them through the air, and has a quarterback rating of 82.0 in those two games.
That's a lot of quarterbacks
Neither team has been able to nail down a long-term starter since Peyton Manning and Cam Newton left their respective franchises.
Since the start of the 2016 season, Denver has started 15 different quarterbacks—one of which was even a wide receiver. Over that same stretch, the Panthers have been a tad luckier in getting more out of the tank from Newton, but have started nine quarterbacks in that same stretch.
Defensive kind of day
No one is expecting an offensive outburst this Sunday, especially with Darnold making his first start and Wilson playing at a suboptimal level. Both offenses may be relying on their top-tier defenses to make plays and put them in good field position to maximize their limited scoring opportunities.
Both teams have defenses that rank in the top half of the league, with neither team giving up more than 22 points in each of their last two games. And outside of a few blowouts, they’ve been some of the most consistent defenses in the league.
