CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Panthers owner Jerry Richardson sat down in his office Sunday night with Marty Hurney and posed two questions to the franchise’s longtime general manager: Why are the Panthers 1-5 and when are they going to get better?

Hurney said he couldn’t give him an honest answer for either question.

The following morning Richardson made the tough decision to fire Hurney, who has been with the team since 1998 and the GM for the past 11 years.

The move came one day after star quarterback Cam Newton expressed his frustration following Carolina’s fourth straight defeat, a 19-14 loss to Dallas.

Hurney took full responsibility for the team’s failures.

“Words don’t keep your job, actions do,” Hurney said. “The bottom line is we were 1-5. We’re 1-3 at home.

“We laid in egg in front of the Giants on national TV (a 36-7 loss) and came back the last two weeks and lost against teams we felt like we had a good chance to beat. It can’t continue to go this way,” he said.