The Carolina Panthers pulled off not only their biggest win of the season on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, but they also pulled off their biggest win in at least five years. The Panthers went into Lambeau Field and ground out a 16-13 last-second victory to advance to 5-4 and keep their playoff hopes alive.
Rico Dowdle took over the lead in the Panthers’ running game once again, and just like he did in his two other starts this season, he put on a show. Dowdle ran for 130 yards and two touchdowns on his way to helping carry the Panthers to victory.
Some may see Dowdle’s stat line next to quarterback Bryce Young’s pedestrian stat line of 11/20 for 102 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and question if Young even played a factor in the Panthers’ victory, but Young’s impact is one that could not be put down on a stat sheet.
Bryce Winning with His Mind
On a windy day when the pass game wasn’t effective, Bryce Young had to take what he could get. Playing quarterback isn’t all about throwing the ball, but also the chess match that happens at the line of scrimmage, and that is where Young helped put the Panthers over the top Sunday in Green Bay.
Joe Person of The Athletic wrote about how Young won with his mind against the Packers on a Rico Dowdle run play in his November 3 article.
“Just before taking the shotgun snap, Young said something to Dowdle while pointing to a Packers’ linebacker,” Person wrote. “The idea was to make Green Bay think Dowdle was staying in to protect. Instead, Dowdle took the handoff and bolted for a 19-yard gain to set up [Ryan] Fitzgerald’s walkoff.”
Young called back to a play he wasn’t even involved in the previous week, where Shaq Thompson of the Buffalo Bills intercepted Andy Dalton on a tunnel screen. Young was able to confuse the Packers with pre-snap deception this time. Dowdle described how Young pulled off this trick.
“He was acting like he was putting me in protection, just to kind of play mind games with the defense. But he was just telling me, ‘It’s still the same play,’” Dowdle said. “I think things like that definitely make a huge difference because you never know what the defense is thinking. So they’ve definitely gotta adjust.”
Young helped orchestrate a Panthers game plan that worked to perfection against the Packers.
Balanced Attack
Facing the daunting task of stopping Micah Parsons, the Panthers knew they would need to efficiently execute their game plan to have a chance of beating the Packers. That game plan was to feature a run-heavy attack, eat up clock, and get the ball out quickly on passing plays. The Panthers did just that.
Bryce Young had an average time to throw of 2.80 seconds and faced only nine quarterback pressures, the second fewest in a game this season. The time of possession battle was almost even, with the Panthers possessing the ball for 29:50 and the Packers for 30:10. In the run game, the Panthers dominated with 163 yards and two touchdowns.
Kassidy Hill, in her November 4 article for Panthers.com, wrote about how Panthers head coach Dave Canales was satisfied with how crisp the Panthers’ execution on Sunday was.
“Being able to have that balanced attack, and making yards,” Canales bragged of his group. “Rico had an excellent day picking up first downs at times to give us a new set of downs and really just running violently because the more you run the ball, the more that you can take a little bit of football out of the defense to have them out there on the field longer. It all plays into it. And so it was a great, I just thought it was a great balance of just the offensive attack last week.”
Now, once again in possession of a winning record, the Panthers will continue their pursuit of making the playoffs for the first time since 2017 when they face the struggling New Orleans Saints at home.
Bryce Young is the Secret Ingredient Behind the Panthers Run Game