Dwayne Haskins struggles mightily in Steelers preseason loss vs Panthers

Dwayne Haskins didn’t have his finest hour vs the Carolina Panthers. Here’s how the Pittsburgh Steelers fared in their final preseason game. 

Things did not go swimmingly for the Steelers in their final preseason game against the Panthers. The odds were already stacked against Pittsburgh in this contest, as they started the game deploying their second-string against Carolina’s starters.

Defensively, Pittsburgh did their best to hold Sam Darnold and his talented group of wide receivers in check early in the contest. Though they surrendered just three points in the first quarter, things went downhill from there.

Robert Spillane was embarrassing in coverage and routinely dusted against running backs and tight ends, as the Panthers nickeled and dimed their way down the field all game – eventually resulting in a 34-9 win for Carolina. But as bad as the Steelers defense was at times in this game, the offense was worse… Much worse.

Steelers QB Dwayne Haskins was awful vs Panthers

With Mason Rudolph getting the night off, it was Dwayne Haskins who led the change for this team most of the game (if we can call it that). Unfortunately for him, things did not go well at all.

One drive after another stalled for the former first-round pick and moving the chains seemed to be a chore. While a few untimely drops didn’t help, Haskins checked the ball down far too often and it resulted in 0 points on the board for the Steelers in the first two quarters and change.

Partway through the third quarter – after Haskins still hadn’t put points on the board – the team turned to Josh Dobbs who managed to get his game in field goal range for three points on his second drive. However, Dobbs was injured in the fourth quarter, and Haskins had to step back in to finish the game.

It’s probably a good thing for Haskins that he was asked to step back on the field, as his statistical production was embarrassingly bad. Prior to the final drive of the game when the time was winding down on the clock, Haskins had mustered up just 38 passing yards and just over a 15.0 passer rating through roughly three-quarters of play, according to ESPN.

His despicable production was somewhat salvaged with a touchdown drive in garbage time that allowed him to finish with a more respectable stat line (9 of 16, 108 passing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 71.9 passer rating).

It seemed unlikely that Haskins was going to be able to leapfrog Mason Rudolph – even if he had really impressed against the Panthers. However, this game certainly didn’t help his cause. Still, a recent injury to Dobbs almost certainly secures him a spot as the team’s third quarterback this year (if he didn’t have it already).

After fans hyped up Dwayne Haskins all summer, he ended up playing very much like the player we saw in Washington this preseason. Any hope of him becoming the Steelers next franchise quarterback is fading away quickly. This was not his finest hour.