Inside the locker room: P.J. Walker goes from XFL starter to beating the Lions in 8 months

P.J. Walker was starting for the short-lived XFL’s Houston Roughnecks less than a year ago. Walker had been in and out of the NFL since coming out of Temple but was unable to stick until his old college coach Matt Rhule came calling at the next level.

Walker drew his first NFL start in Carolina’s 20-0 defeat of the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was deemed unable to go after a pregame test, clearing the way for Walker out of the gates. While many will point to Walker’s stellar play in the XFL, it’s still quite the embarrassing footnote for Detroit that its defense couldn’t control this game, even if only for a moment. Walker last started for the Roughnecks back in early March, completing 27 of 38 passes for 351 yards with three touchdowns and two picks against the Seattle Dragons.

“It was awesome,” Walker said of his first start. “I felt like once I got a little comfortable after the first couple of drives, it was just go out there and play football again; go out there and have fun. I’ve been playing the game for a while, so just to go out there and execute and lead the guys. I was just trying to lead the guys to a victory and execute and move the ball up and down the field.

“It’s crazy because I didn’t actually envision this start; my mom did. About a year and a half ago, two years ago, she called me, and she was like, ‘I had a dream that you were playing with the Panthers.’ I was with the Colts still at the time, so I’m like, ‘really? That’s weird with me being in Indianapolis at the moment.’ And life has just come full circle -- her dream came true. Mine did too today.”

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Walker was shaky in the red zone, throwing two interceptions, but there was still more to like about his play than not. He showed off his arm talent, firing the ball without concern on outs toward the sideline. Walker also put the cherry on top of a 52-yard shot for receiver D.J. Moore downfield. Moore did the heavy lifting, leaving Lions cornerback Jeff Okudah in his dust, but Walker dropped her in there with precision before the safety was able to recover. He finished hitting on 24 of 34 passes for 258 yards with one touchdown and those two picks.

“It’s amazing,” Walker said. “Just to have the guys around here believing in me the same way the guys in the locker room when I was in Houston believed in me as well. Just to know that these guys believe in me when I’m on the football field -- that we have every chance to win, we have every chance to be successful on the football field -- it just means the world to me. I know those guys have my back. The process of me coming from the XFL, it’s been amazing. I’ve learned so much playing in the XFL, as well in my previous years playing in the NFL, so just continuing to learn and continuing to grow as a player, it’ll help me moving forward.”

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Walker didn’t show the wheels much but was able to get out of the pocket when needed without issue and extend plays. Rookie defensive tackle John Penisini was credited with a sack on an impressive chase down, but Romeo Okwara was the lone Lions defender to notch a quarterback hit.

Walker said Okwara’s hit, which came the play before his 52-yard shot to Moore, was the moment that helped settle his nerves, oddly enough.

“I’ve always had this mentality since I’ve been playing where I try to run the ball on the first play or something like that, ever since I was in college, just to get comfortable,” Walker said. “Being that this was my first start in the NFL, I didn’t really get to run the ball until we got down to the goal line. For me, it was just take what the defense was giving me; just try to move the ball up and down the field, be smart with the football as best I can. Those two interceptions are still going to bother me for the next week. But for me, it’s don’t move on but move on -- learn from it and move on from there.”

See below for more from inside the locker room after Carolina’s 20-0 win against the Lions:

Lions coach Matt Patricia on what his offense was looking to accomplish: “I mean, obviously some guys are out, but some guys have to step up and play well in their spots. Certainly we feel we have enough ability to have done that and get that done. I think obviously, for us, we always want to try to run the ball. We didn’t run the ball well enough today and protect the quarterback. I think they were able to get some different pressure packages dialed up against us, and certainly we fell behind there -- then obviously kind of spin it from that end and just didn’t do some fundamental things well enough to execute.”

Lions QB Matthew Stafford on Carolina’s defense: “It wasn’t so much the game plan as it was our execution, you know? It was both run and pass, we weren’t efficient enough to get them out of it and it’s every defensive coordinator’s dream to be up 17 late in the game and being able to dial up every fun blitz you can never think of. That part of it is not the part where we won or lost the game. We got to be better early on in that game.”

Stafford on if the losses are stacking up ala Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson in Detroit: “I just continue to work, continue to play. I love playing this game. I like doing it here in Detroit. It’s disappointing to lose, there is no question, it’s not fun to go out there and lose football games and answer these questions from you guys after a loss. I do everything I can. I work my tail off to try and help us win and, obviously, I didn’t do a good enough job of that this week.”

Patricia on if he feels he’s losing the locker room: “Yeah, we have really good guys here. We got guys who are fighting every day and working really hard, so, I mean, that’s the one thing -- I just, I love this locker room. These guys are strong, they want to win, they are trying to compete, they are trying to do everything right, and that’s really the best part for me, is when you get into things like this, you get into meeting rooms, you get into classrooms, and you get to just coachin’ and teachin’ and the guys, you see how much they want to be successful. I mean, that’s the joy of coaching. So, those are the fun parts.”

Lions CB Amani Oruwariye on Carolina’s late QB decision: “Yeah, we had an idea of what kind of guy he was. He came in, played a little versus Atlanta. The game plan didn’t change. We wanted to go out there and do what we do best and so, he gave us a couple, but at the same time, he did what he needed to do to win the game for them and we got to do better on defense. It’s a learning process, so we’ll learn and get better from it.”

Oruwariye on if Patricia is keeping the faith of the team: “I mean, that’s our coach. I don’t worry about all that, logistics of all that, I just worry about playing ball and he’s going out there, he’s coaching his ass off and we’ve got to play better as well. So I don’t worry too much about that.”

Panthers coach Matt Rhule on Walker’s performance: “I thought he practiced well and I thought he played really well today. I thought there were some things in the first half that, a lot of things in our offense, receivers have to make decisions, have to make reads and if the receivers are a little bit off, you know Teddy sometimes because he has so many reps, can adjust. I thought there were a couple chances or big players where PJ was right, and the receivers were maybe a little off in his decision and it didn’t quite connect. I thought in the second half, I thought the receivers really stepped up. Robby (Anderson) made a huge catch on an over route and I thought everything kind of took off from there.”

Stafford on if this feels like rock bottom: “It’s one football game. Two weeks ago, we played well. Believe me, I got here in 2009 and from where we are then to where we are now, we’re a better organization, a better football team, more talented. At the moment, we don’t have as many wins as we wish we had this year. But it’s one football game. We got to move on from it and get ready to play another one and hopefully score a bunch of points and win the game.”

Patricia on if his confidence in himself is shaken: “Nope. We just come to work every day and go. So I think from that standpoint, we just gotta quick turnaround here so we just gotta get going.”