Time to celebrate, Carolina Panthers fans: your NFL team has actually won 2 games in a row
Wait, the Carolina Panthers have won two games in a row?!
In case you weren’t tuned in Sunday morning, the Panthers played the early NFL game in Germany and edged the New York Giants, 20-17, in overtime.
Now the Giants are hardly giants — they are 2-8 and in contention for the No. 1 NFL draft pick in 2025. But the Panthers, considered the worst team in the NFL for most of the past two years — now are 3-7 and have won more games than they did all of last season under first-year coach Dave Canales.
So go ahead, Panthers fans. Celebrate a little. Your team just won two games in a row for the first time since 2022. Carolina isn’t the worst in the NFL anymore! Say Auf Wiedersehen to that No. 32 spot in the power rankings!
This victory was led by Carolina running back Chuba Hubbard, recently made rich with a deserved contract extension but showing no signs of a fat wallet slowing him down. Hubbard ran for a career-high 153 yards and a touchdown. The Panthers’ offensive line gave him all sorts of holes and Hubbard did a lot on his own.
The Panthers just about blew this one anyway. Leading 17-7 going into the fourth quarter, the Panthers’ offense regressed and their defense played too soft on the final drive, allowing Daniel Jones (a Charlotte Latin product) and the Giants to tie the game in regulation with five seconds to go on former Panther Graham Gano’s 42-yard field goal.
Then Carolina lost the coin toss to open overtime, meaning New York would get the ball first. Carolina fans everywhere shook their heads and said: “Here we go again.”
But instead, Carolina’s veteran defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson poked the ball out of the hands of Giants rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. on the very first play from scrimmage. Linebacker Josey Jewell recovered his second turnover of the day, at the New York 23 — he had also made an extraordinary red-zone interception against Jones.
While Tracy buried his head in his hands on the sideline and seemed inconsolable, the Panthers quickly took care of business. They ran Hubbard three times in a row and then had Eddy Piñeiro come on for a walk-off 36-yard field goal to win it. “Sweet Caroline,” sung by thousands, echoed through the stadium in Munich.
So what can we take away from this one? Here are five things:
▪ Carolina’s defense is finally getting better. The Panthers have keyed both of these wins, allowing just 22 and 17 points in their past two games. The three forced turnovers in this game was the biggest reason Carolina won. Cornerback Jaycee Horn was a force Sunday, as was Jewell, as were several members of the defensive line. After Carolina allowed 34, 36, 38 and 40 points in consecutive losses earlier this year, this unit is no longer a laughingstock.
▪ Young at least isn’t making the big mistake. And it was good to see him obviously enjoying the game — his first-down signal after a long scramble was reminiscent of Cam Newton. I won’t go overboard here praising Young’s throwing like the TV broadcast did. Yes, he made some nice first-half throws, but he also only had a handful of completions after halftime, threw for just 126 yards the entire game and missed several very makeable throws late. Carolina had a great chance to run out the clock on its final possession, but Young and company couldn’t do it (this also had to do with Canales’ unimaginative playcalling).
Still, Young didn’t turn the ball over and Jones threw two red-zone interceptions for the Giants. All of that was huge.
Once 2-17 as a starter for Carolina, Young has now improved to 4-17. Which is still terrible, but objectively not as terrible. Young has done enough to start again when Carolina plays next after its upcoming bye week — at home vs. Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes on Nov. 24. Whew! Good luck winning three in a row, Carolina.
▪ Piñeiro is clutch. He made a 53-yarder earlier in the second quarter while Gano was missing a 43-yarder. If those two kicks had flipped, this game’s result would have flipped, too. Remember that Piñeiro also hit walk-off field goals in both of Carolina’s wins last season, too.
▪ Jones, a huge Panthers fan growing up and both a Charlotte Latin and Duke alum, started the game 1-for-8 and later threw those two red-zone interceptions. But he also led a decent fourth-quarter comeback to get the game into overtime and ran for a touchdown himself. If not for Tracy’s fumble in overtime, I think Jones would have gotten the Giants some overtime points on that first drive. He was hot. But the fumble short-circuited everything for him, and after the game it sounded like the Giants would think hard about benching him for the next game.
▪ If only the Panthers could play overseas all the time. They won five years ago in London, too. These international games are fun, where you get scenes like Panthers legend Thomas Davis bending NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s ear or referee Shawn Hochuli making a call in both German and English.
This story was originally published November 10, 2024 at 1:52 PM.
