CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Seldom do you see Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin without a smile or being playful in the locker room.
He wasn’t smiling or playful after Thursday night’s 28-10 loss to New Orleans. His voice was low, and his mood somber.
“I just have to be more mature," the 28th pick of the draft said. “Just come in more focused, more ready."
Benjamin was struggling for the right words as much as he struggled to make plays as Carolina fell to 3-5-1. He was targeted 10 times and caught only two passes.
He dropped a pass in the end zone and was called for holding to negate a 13-yard run by Jonathan Stewart.
He’s looking like a rookie, something he seldom did during the first four games, when he was the NFL’s Rookie of the Month for September.
Benjamin’s number of completions compared to targets has dropped considerably in recent weeks. He caught 58.3 percent of the passes thrown to him during the first four games, compared to 45.2 percent over the last five.
Take away seven catches on eight targets four weeks ago and that percentage drops to 35.2.
That tight end Greg Olsen has only been targeted seven times during the past two games with four receptions while Benjamin has been targeted 17 times with six catches leads one to believe quarterback Cam Newton has become to fixated on the player he affectionately refers to as “Benji."
Olsen was having a career season through seven games with 41 catches for 493 yards and five touchdowns. He has 46 yards and no touchdowns the past two games.
The fact Newton was throwing wild and high much of the night didn’t help Olsen or Benjamin, two 6-foot-5 receivers who are hard to overthrow.
But when one is getting more than twice as many looks as the other and catching at a much lower rate it might be time to re-evaluate.
To his credit, Olsen didn’t blame one person for Thursday’s debacle.
“You name it," he said. ‘We were bad. We didn’t play well. We hurt ourselves. We didn’t make positive plays. Just a poor effort by the offense."
And, as Olsen said, it won’t fix itself.
“It’s got to be a group thing," he said. “There is no magic formula -- one answer. We have a lot of work to do and it falls on every one of us. If that’s not the approach, we’re not going to get it fixed."
The Panthers can begin with finding a way to get Olsen the ball more and not getting overly focused on Benjamin until he starts coming up with more catches.
“We were open," Benjamin said softly. “We just have to come down with the catch."