Sunday’s victory over Ravens was wacky in all the right ways for Panthers

Any dirt on quarterback Cam Newton’s uniform was his own doing in the Carolina Panthers’ 36-21 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

The Carolina Panthers held the NFL’s best pass rush without a sack, and Carolina outclassed Baltimore in essentially every facet of the game at Bank of America Stadium.

The Ravens’ league-leading scoring defense surrendered its season average before halftime. Carolina limited their vertical passing game to dinking-and-dunking — whenever Joe Flacco had time to throw. The Ravens offense, which had turned the ball over four times in the previous five games, coughed it up three times.

The game’s blissful wackiness was clear from the first quarter.

Baltimore took its only lead of the game on its opening drive but Carolina tied it up on a Christian McCaffrey run — during which he bounced off more teammates than Ravens defenders.

D.J. Moore cashed in on the early hilarity, scooping up a botched pitch in stride in the second quarter and charging forward for a 28-yard gain.

And two plays later, a deflected Newton pass ricocheted into McCaffrey’s arms in the endzone for the Panthers’ third touchdown of the game.

Even backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke completed a pass — before garbage time, with a healthy Newton watching from the sideline.

It was just that kind of day.

Three who mattered

D.J. Moore: Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Friday to expect more of Moore and Curtis Samuel when Torrey Smith was ruled out for Sunday’s game, but I’m not sure anyone expected the rookie’s explosive first half. Five catches on five targets for 90 yards, plus another 39 rushing yards on two carries. This is a league of opportunity and Moore might have just seized his.

Cam Newton: Cam didn’t put up gaudy second-half passing numbers — for the first time in three weeks, he didn’t need to. The former MVP was vintage Superman, completing 21 of 29 passes for 219 yards and two scores in the first half alone. He added 52 yards on 10 carries, including a 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

Donte Jackson: He didn’t intercept any passes and only had three tackles but Jackson’s contributions still show up on the stat sheet. He earned the first sack of his career in the first half, and held John Brown to 28 yards on three catches. The NFL’s third-leading receiver in terms of yards per catch had one catch for more than 10 yards, impressive considering Brown’s 19.9-yards-per-catch average.

Observations

▪ C.J. Anderson carried the ball for the first time since Week 6 on the Panthers’ opening drive. In games he was active for, Anderson had never gone two games without a carry.

▪ Carolina’s 154 rushing yards marked the most Baltimore has given up this season. The Ravens defense averaged 90 rushing yards allowed coming in.

▪ Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson threw his first career passing touchdown late in the fourth quarter. He completed four of his five passes for 46 yards, technically finishing with the highest quarterback rating of any of the four players to throw a pass Sunday.

Worth mentioning

▪ Christian McCaffrey tied Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams for the most receiving touchdowns by a running back in Panthers history. It took Williams nine seasons to snag seven touchdowns and it took Stewart 10. McCaffrey did in 22 games.

▪ The 36 points were the most the Panthers have scored since beating Miami 45-21 on Nov. 13, 2017.

▪ Mike Adams’ interception of Joe Flacco in the first half marked the second time a Delaware alumnus has intercepted another Delware alumnus. The first occurred when Adams picked Flacco off as a member of the Cleveland Browns in 2008.

They said it

▪ “Mike needs to tell his wife to start dressing him every game if he’s going to get an interception ... He usually don’t look that nice” – Captain Munnerlyn on Mike Adams, whose wife picked out his outfit Sunday.

▪ “One year, I dressed up as (Thomas Davis) and I scared myself.” – Cam Newton on his best Halloween costumes.

▪ “It fueled us a little bit, I’m not going to lie, the fact that they’re the No. 1 defense coming into our house. ... We wanted to be the No. 1 defense today.” – Mike Adams on outplaying Baltimore’s defense.

“Look at my hand. If I smack you with this one, you won’t see it coming. That’s how it works.” – Jimmy Smith on why the Panthers’ misdirection was so effective.

This story was originally published October 28, 2018 at 4:21 PM.