The Panthers entered Week 1 as one of the hot stories of the NFL with new quarterback Baker Mayfield facing off against his former team and hoping to prove to the Browns that they made a huge mistake letting him move on to greener pastures.
Things didn’t start out smoothly for the Panthers. For the entirety of the first quarter, the Panthers only picked up one first down, and that was due to a (very weak) roughing the passer penalty on third down that gave the Panthers an extra 15 yards they did not deserve. The team had four drives and gained a total of 6 yards on 11 plays (-1 yards passing and 7 yards rushing).