There were more moments of competence from Kyle Allen Sunday, when he continued the kind of adequate play that had helped him win five of his first six starts.
But there were also the two turnovers, continuing a trend that could torpedo a team’s best efforts as he continues to grow into the job.
Allen threw an interception (his sixth in his last three starts) and fumbled (his fifth lost this season) in yesterday’s last-minute loss at Green Bay.
“For me to turn the ball over twice, it put us in a bad position,” Allen said, via Jourdan Rodrigue of TheAthletic.com. “And I think at the end of the day, that’s the main reason why we lost — turnovers.”
Of course, it’s not Allen’s fault the Packers ran for 163 yards, and he did throw for a career-high 307 yards in the snow. Teammates lauded his ability to keep them in the game, with Christian McCaffrey saying he “fought his ass off” to give the Panthers a chance to tie the game late. But he’s also still limited, which is only fair when you consider he’s a backup quarterback who was unemployed in September 2018.
“The more mistakes I make, the more I learn from them,” Allen said. “But at the same time, I’m a young guy but I’m the quarterback of this team. I can’t be doing that. This is a very talented team. And when we play clean football, we can win a lot of games. It doesn’t matter what age I am, it doesn’t matter the starts I have. I have to play clean football, or else it’s not fair to this team.”
The Panthers are 5-4, still on the fringes of the NFC playoff race. But for them to remain there, Allen knows he can make the big mistakes.
