With Mahomes, Chiefs coming to Charlotte, Carolina Panthers have a real chance to soar
If you have been a Carolina Panther fan throughout this seven-year tunnel of darkness — well, first of all, I’m sending you my hopes and prayers. I know it hasn’t been easy.
But second of all, you may have forgotten what a big home game in mid-November feels like. By this time, the Panthers have usually either fired somebody or hired an interim head coach or are playing mostly for top-five draft position. Or all three.
But here we are, with the Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) visiting Charlotte Sunday and quarterback Patrick Mahomes about to play in Bank of America Stadium for the first time ever.
And here we are with the Panthers (3-7) having actually won two games in a row and coming off a bye week that has allowed them to get significantly healthier. And here Charlotte is in the NFL spotlight again, albeit briefly, as Mahomes and the Chiefs — still stinging from their first loss of the season Sunday at Buffalo — try to start a new winning streak against a Carolina team that will once again start Bryce Young and has looked quite respectable in its last two outings. Kansas City is favored by 11 points.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales is preaching to his guys to stay wedded to their routines. “The bigger the moment, the smaller the focus,” he said Monday in his press conference.
And the Chiefs, now barely in front of Buffalo in the race for the No. 1 seed in the AFC, are bound and determined not to have another one of those one-score nailbiters they have specialized in this season. Four of Kansas City’s wins weren’t decided until the game’s final play, and their luck finally ran out Sunday when Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen scored on a remarkable fourth-down run to secure the win.
“The undefeated thing was cool,” Mahomes said in his press conference following Kansas City’s 30-21 loss to Buffalo Sunday. “But that’s not our ultimate goal.”
Kansas City’s ultimate goal is a three-peat. Riding Mahomes’ brilliance, the Chiefs have won the last two Super Bowls in a row. They have been thriving in a different ecosystem entirely compared to the Panthers, who are 34-80 overall since their last playoff game following the 2017 season.
It’s been so long since Kansas City played in Charlotte that the last time, in 2016, Carolina’s quarterback was Cam Newton and Kansas City’s was Alex Smith (who led a 20-17 win after Carolina blew a 17-0 lead). Mahomes was a pretty obscure college quarterback back then, rolling up big numbers for Texas Tech.
Now the Panthers are about to have Mahomes in their backyard as well as head coach Andy Reid, tight end Travis Kelce and many more.
Speaking of people who haven’t played in Bank of America Stadium before, I would doubt we will have a Taylor Swift sighting Sunday. Kelce’s significant other is scheduled to star in another Eras Tour concert stop in Toronto Saturday night. Technically Swift could make it to Charlotte by private plane by 1 p.m. Sunday, but her appearances at regular-season Kansas City road games have been few and far between.
Canales named Young as the Carolina starter on Monday. There wasn’t much doubt about that, as Young has won his past two starts and shown some glimmers of the player the Panthers believed they were getting when they traded up to draft him No. 1 overall in 2023.
Still, it’s not exactly a fair fight at quarterback. Let’s compare the starting records of Mahomes and Young in terms of wins and losses:
Young: 4-17 (19.0% win rate)
Mahomes: 83-23 (78.3% win rate)
What Young will really need to even the playing field is a good ground game that can rush for 150 yards and serve the dual purpose of keeping Mahomes off the field. Chuba Hubbard will start at running back as usual for Carolina, but rookie Jonathon Brooks is also scheduled to make his NFL debut as the No.2 back since Miles Sanders is hurt. Seeing Brooks’ long-awaited debut will be fun.
And Sunday as a whole will be fun, too, or at least significantly better than that Jake Paul-Mike Tyson snoozefest Friday night.
The Chiefs are the closest thing we have in the NFL to royalty, and it follows that a win against Kansas City would make national headlines in the sort of way the Panthers just aren’t used to making them anymore. It’s unlikely, for sure. But there’s always a chance.
And in the meantime, enjoy the hype, Panthers fans.
Your team hasn’t lost a game since Oct. 27. You deserve a little happiness.
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
