For years, the NFL has been a toy store, full of every gadget and doll imaginable, and the Carolina Panthers have been stuck outside that store’s window, trying to wipe off the fogged glass and peer inside.
Inside the store? Teams like the Dallas Cowboys, which Carolina has beaten this year. And the Green Bay Packers, which Carolina beat Sunday. And a lot of other teams who the Panthers would like to join, simply in terms of their relevancy to the game.
On Sunday, the Panthers at least found the door to that store, with a perfectly imperfect, 16-13 road win over Green Bay. They’re not inside yet, but they’re on the doorstep.
The Panthers (5-4) made quite a few errors Sunday at Lambeau Field, and yet I’d argue that this was the best game they played all season. To beat Green Bay (5-2-1) on the road, when the Packers were favored by 14 points?
That’s a major statement, and the Panthers made it. They survived and thrived despite committing a string of errors, any one of which could have been the big “Oh, here we go again” mistake.
Instead, Carolina showed all sorts of grit, personified by Rico Dowdle’s 130 rushing yards and rookie Ryan Fitzgerald’s 49-yard, icy-hot, game-winning field goal as time expired. Carolina nullified Green Bay defender extraordinaire Micah Parsons and pulled a clever coaching maneuver at the coin toss to make sure any potential Fitzgerald game-winner in the fourth quarter would be kicked with the blustery wind, and not against it.
Quarterback Bryce Young, despite unimpressive numbers, also came up big when the situation demanded. And most of all, Carolina’s defense — a punchline throughout 2024 — threw punch after punch that landed.
To hold this Packers team to 13 points? At home? Remarkable.
“Unbelievable finish,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “And it took all three phases. Just like we imagined. Just like we pictured.”
To envision a win like this is one thing. To do it is quite another.
Given Carolina’s next game is against woeful New Orleans (1-8), the Panthers may well be 6-4 by mid-November. That puts you into the thick of the NFC playoff race, especially since seven out of 16 teams make the field.
Yes, for the first time since 2017, the Panthers just might make the postseason.
As it is, the Panthers are playing the sort of football Carolina fans haven’t seen in years. They’re not always doing it right — a 29-point loss to New England and a 31-point loss to Buffalo will attest to that — but they’re doing it pretty well most of the time.
The Panthers have gone 4-1 over their past five games. They’ve found an identity in Dowdle’s sturdy brilliance. Their defense has found its footing. And most of all, they’ve been clutch. Young led yet another game-winning drive in the final minutes Sunday.
“Our defense, I mean, balled the entire game,” Young said. “But we knew at some point we’re gonna have to go win it.”
Not incidentally, Canales finally did the right thing and gave Dowdle the starting job and the majority of the carries Sunday, over Chuba Hubbard. The results were immediate. Dowdle scored both of Carolina’s touchdowns, had a monstrous 19-yard carry on the game-winning drive and in general looked the part of an RB1 all afternoon long.
Green Bay never punted on what was quarterback Jordan Love’s 27th birthday, and yet the Packers still somehow wound up with only those 13 points. The Packers only got the ball seven times, as Carolina’s ball-control offense lowered the number of possessions.
And then the Panthers turned Green Bay over twice, got the ball a third time on downs and allowed only one touchdown.
Said frustrated Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur: “We had the two turnovers, missed a field goal. ... We deservedly got our ass beat. ... I mean, they were playing soft zone the majority of the game and making us earn and consistently move the ball. Inevitably, on every drive almost, we made a mistake.”
As for the Panthers’ mistakes, they were numerous, too And yet unlike last week against Buffalo, the Panthers recovered from them. To name only three:
Dowdle drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for pelvic thrusting in the end zone after his second TD, which meant Fitzgerald had to kick the extra point from 48 yards instead of 33, which he missed. Cornerback Mike Jackson dropped a couldn’t-have-been-easier potential interception on fourth down in his own end zone, with at least 50 and maybe 100 yards of daylight in front of him. Young threw an end-zone interception to cost Carolina at least three points.
Still, Carolina kept roaring back. This was the polar opposite of the Buffalo home game only a week ago, when Carolina could never recover from its early errors and the result turned embarrassing.
It also helped that Young returned for this one despite a nagging ankle injury. Veteran backup Andy Dalton played against Buffalo and turned the ball over three times.
Of course, in the NFL, to get and stay inside the toy store, you have to keep winning (except for the Cowboys, who for some reason have a permanent place).
As Canales put it: “Can we capture this style of football? You know, it didn’t show up for us last week. It showed up for us today.”
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