Ron Rivera said this week that one of the reason the Panthers had been so disciplined on the field was the way they were holding each other accountable, both during games and during practice.
It didn’t seem that way during the first quarter.
In a sloppy first segment of their 27-24 win over the Detroit Lions, the Panthers collected seven penalties for 78 yards before finally settling in to the rhythm that had them as the least-penalized team in the NFL through four games. The Lions were the beneficiary of multiple “self-inflicted wounds” committed by the Panthers between the penalties and multiple missed tackles in the first quarter, including a rarely-seen missed tackle by all-world linebacker Luke Kuechly. The Panthers started the game with four penalties on their first two drives, including a 30-yard pass interference on a free play that saw linebacker Thomas Davis jump offsides. Daryl Worley, who was targeted multiple times by Matthew Stafford on the first drive, interfered with Marvin Jones and gave the Lions first-and-10 at the 12-yard-line before the defense stiffened to force a field goal.
Worley appeared to be battling with the shoulder injury that forced him to miss the Patriots game, as he was replaced on the second drive by second-year cornerback Kevon Seymour, who drew the start in Worley’s absence last week, before returning for the third drive, where he was promptly attacked again by Stafford. Stafford drew another pass interference call on the starter Worley, this one in the endzone. After the Panthers had held the Lions to a field goal on their first red-zone trip, they couldn’t overcome three red-zone penalties and surrendered a one-yard touchdown run to running back Zach Zenner. It was a painful start.
The pain wouldn’t last long for Carolina.
Following his best game of the season last weekend in New England, Cam Newton did even better it in Detroit, starting the game 15-for-17 for 237 yards in the first half before finishing 26-for-33 for 355 yards and three touchdowns. He was aided by some terrific play design and playcalling from offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who dialed up a play-action bootleg pass that resulted in a 57-yard-gain and a quadruple option shovel pass in the red zone that resulted in Christian McCaffrey’s first NFL touchdown. “It was just a little shovel pass, Cam did a great job, Stew did a great job selling the defense; I had it open as soon as I got the ball, I had an open lane. It’s my job to get in the endzone,” said McCaffrey after the game. “It’s a great feeling to get in the endzone, obviously. Hopefully I get a lot more of those.”
Newton also received help from an unlikely source, as tight end Ed Dickson frequently found himself open and collected five catches for 175 yards, including a 64-yard catch-and-run that had the backup tight end showing some open-field prowess as he broke multiple tackles to get the Panthers inside the red zone. Dickson, who has replaced Greg Olsen as the receiving tight end in the Panthers offense, has settled into the Olsen-role quite nicely after struggling in his first outing against the Saints. He followed his three-catch, 62-yard day last week with the second-best day receiving by a Carolina Panthers tight end in history, behind Greg Olsen’s 9-181 last October in Tampa Bay.
4-1 #KeepPounding. Decent game @EdDickson84 😂👊🏻
— Greg Olsen (@gregolsen88) October 8, 2017
Detroit native Devin Funchess would combine with fellow receiver Kelvin Benjamin for another successful day for the wideouts, with Funchess totaling 7 catches for 53 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown catch as the first half rolled down to put the Panthers up 17-10 heading into halftime. Newton would come out firing on the first drive of the second half, leading the Panthers to another touchdown, this one a beautiful pass dropped over the shoulder of Kelvin Benjamin on the left side of the endzone to put the Panthers up 24-10; head coach Ron Rivera said it was his best throw of the afternoon.
“That’s solid Cam.”
After allowing Tom Brady to complete a 14-point comeback last week in Boston, the Panthers defense was not interested in having to make Newton and the offense complete another game-winning drive, as Kawann Short would have a strip-sack on Matthew Stafford that was recovered by Thomas Davis and turned into a Graham Gano field goal to put the Panthers up 27-10 in the third quarter.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, wins in the NFL don’t come easily.
While the Panthers defense would finish with six sacks and harass Matthew Stafford consistently throughout the day, Stafford finish 23-of-35 for 229 yards and two scores; after a touchdown in the fourth quarter the quarterback hoped would jumpstart another of his patented comebacks, Stafford got the ball back down 10 with just over four minutes left and drove the Lions for another score in just fifty-one seconds, this one a 20-yarder to tight end Daniel Fells, his second of the game to make it 27-24 with 3:28 remaining.
“We had good pressure on them, got them out of the pocket, we were fundamentally sound on most of the runs. We let a couple of them get out just because somebody wasn’t in that gap. We can easily pin point that, so you know, we just got to clean those things up. But overall I thought it was a nice job stopping the run and rushing the passer.”
-Defensive End Julius Peppers
However, when the Panthers needed a first down to close out the game and run out the clock, they relied on Newton’s arm once again, dialing up a third down throw to Kelvin Benjamin for a first down which enabled the Panthers to run out the clock on the win, sending them to 4-1 on the season. “Very clutch, very clutch,” cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. “They was making a run at it. Matthew Stafford had some drives, they put together some great drives. That throw right there, that gave us the game.”
“They went out there, they handled business and we got the win.”
Additional Notes
- Defensive tackle Vernon Butler was listed as a healthy scratch for today’s game, enabling Bryan Cox Jr., just called up to the main roster prior to last week’s game against the Patriots, his first gameday jersey of his career.
- The Panthers listed three players, Julius Peppers, Mario Addison, and Matt Kalil, as questionable on Friday; all three were active and appeared to play their normal role.
- Graham Gano, who had made 12 field goals to start the season, missed his 13th attempt, a 55-yarder in the fourth quarter.
- The Lions entered the game with the league’s best turnover margin but failed to cause one. The only turnover of the game was a Matthew Stafford fumble that was recovered by Thomas Davis, another fumble forced by Mario Addison originally looked to recovered by cornerback Captain Munnerlyn but was taken away by tackle Greg Robinson.
- The Panthers run game was miserable for much of the day, with running backs McCaffrey and Stewart totaling 28 yards on 21 carries.
