Panthers found joy with Matt Rhule on Sunday. Will win over Chargers be first of many?
It felt like forever since the Carolina Panthers won a game — and indeed it had been 329 days.
And then the Panthers did it in Los Angeles on Sunday without running back Christian McCaffrey, on the road, in a game where their red-zone offense stunk. Carolina’s 21-16 win over the L.A. Chargers wasn’t decided until the final play, when the Chargers’ beautifully designed trick play went awry on a bad lateral.
Still, it was a win. When that ball hit the ground on the final play, the Panthers had broken a 10-game losing streak that seemed much longer since both an offseason and a global pandemic had come in between victories.
To put those 329 days between Panthers’ wins in a little more perspective, consider this.
A woman could have gotten pregnant on Nov. 3rd, 2019, the last time Carolina won a game. She could then have carried that baby to full term. She would now be the proud parent of a child that is seven weeks old.
For a couple dozen of the Panthers, like Rhule, their personal losing streak with this team was only two games.
It was the players from 2019 who experienced the full effect of melting down from 5-3 to 5-11 in 2019 and then going 0-2 to start this season.
“For some of these guys it’s been 10 straight losses,” said Rhule, who received a game ball from linebacker Shaq Thompson afterward in recognition of his first NFL victory as a head coach. “I don’t really carry that around — for me, it’s been two (losses) and I see where we’re headed. But when you’re a young guy and that’s all you hear, it can start to weigh on you. ... It was an ugly win, but it was a win nonetheless.”
The Panthers’ postgame locker room was unsurprisingly jubilant. The team tweeted out a video of the players establishing a new postgame tradition at Rhule’s behest, singing a verse of Neil Diamond’s standard “Sweet Caroline” while being led by assistant special teams coach Ed Foley. What the Panthers lacked in tunefulness they made up for in enthusiasm, especially during the chorus.
This was a victory keyed by defense, which allowed only 16 points after giving up at least 31 the first two weeks.
“It’s always challenging, that first one,” said Panthers’ defensive end Brian Burns, “when you have such a bad (losing) streak.”
Burns affectionately said safety Tre Boston was “acting a fool” in the postgame locker room. And emotions were running high. Running back Mike Davis choked up in his press conference later, talking about the death of his father a year ago and how Davis was thinking of him throughout the day as he started in place of McCaffrey and played well. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater spoke about the importance of joy.
“At the end of the day, we want to live in this moment,” Bridgewater said.
There is a common misconception about pro athletes that they only do it for the money, that winning or losing is immaterial as long as they get paid.
For most, that’s not true. They care.
The Panthers obviously cared on Sunday, playing an imperfect game that still ended up with the result they wanted. It was a team win in the best sense — the defense came up with four turnovers, placekicker Joey Slye made five field goals and Bridgewater was coolly efficient and turnover-free.
You scan the stat sheet and no one really leaps out at you. The Panthers had two sacks, by two different players. Each defensive turnover was caused in a different way, with the ball ending up in different hands.
Davis scored Carolina’s lone touchdown. Wide receiver D.J. Moore had only two catches, which is below average, but they went for a total of 65 yards. Long snapper J.J. Jansen hustled downfield on Carolina’s final punt and downed the ball at the Los Angeles 1.
There was no huge star of the game, but there was a constellation of good plays. And at the end there was a little luck, too. Los Angeles had two chances on the game’s last two plays to reach the end zone. But Boston made a gorgeous play to bat down one pass to Keenan Allen in one-on-one coverage. And then Allen’s lateral to Austin Ekeler was a shade off, causing the ball to hit the ground and Efe Obada to recover it as the game ended.
“At a time when our guys could have started to crack and splinter, this was a beautiful thing — to see them come together,” Rhule said.
Come together they did, for what Rhule hopes is only the first step of a multi-year journey.
An NFL head coach has to start winning somewhere. In Los Angeles, he did.
This story was originally published September 27, 2020 at 9:39 PM.
