You know the season Christian McCaffrey is having.

He’s leading the NFL with 16 total touchdowns this season and after his eighth career game with a score on the ground and through the air, he’s tied for the most in NFL history through the first three seasons of a career with five games left to go. Last week, he passed LaDainian Tomlinson for the most receptions by a running back in the first three seasons of a career – this week he added nine to his total. He’s averaging over five yards per carry and has over 1,100 yards rushing through 11 games and is tied for the team lead in receptions with DJ Moore.

“He’s playing exceptionally well,” said Saints coach Sean Payton. “Each week, you’re seeing explosive runs. Not just eight yard, 10 yard gains, but you’re seeing gains of 30, 40. Plays where his speed gets him into the end zone. He’s extremely elusive. He’s got the ability, with his vision, to cut-back on certain plays. He’s playing at an extremely high level and it’s one of those things that it’s hard to simulate during the practice week.”

So it’s not surprising that the Panthers bellcow running back would have over 150 total yards and two scores against the Saints – but he’s not the only Panthers player filling up the stat sheet over the past month.

Second-year wideout DJ Moore had two touchdowns on 126 receiving yards with six receptions Sunday, including two that went for more than 50 – his four receptions of 50+ yards are tied for the most in the NFL. While Sunday marked the first multi-TD game of his career, over the last four weeks, Moore has recorded 442 receiving yards – the second-most in the NFL during that stretch.

Three of his past four games have seen him go over the century mark, with the only miss being last week – when he had 95.

What was even more impressive was the injuries Moore fought through in New Orleans – after tweaking his ankle on the botched punt return in the first quarter, Moore returned to get behind the defense for a 51-yard strike from Allen for his first score. Things looked even more bleak when Moore took a shot to his left arm on the first half’s final play, a failed two-point conversion.

“I don’t know what happened to his arm or his elbow, but I saw the replay as we were going in and it looked gross,” said Allen. “For him to come out there and make that big play in the second half, and continue to make big plays the whole game, it speaks volumes.”

Moore missed the first snap of the second half, but returned with a sleeve on his left arm and made his second 50+ yard grab of the game later in the third quarter – his teammates in the locker room couldn’t find enough superlatives to explain his performance. Amazing. Unbelievable. Courageous.

“Ankle. Arm. Whatever you want to call it, he played phenomenal,” said Curtis Samuel about his compatriot in the wide receiver room. “He did everything he could. He put it all out there.”

In a season that has clearly not gone the way the Panthers would have wanted, Moore and McCaffrey have been bright spots. The sheepish wideout now has 905 receiving yards – only the third Panther in franchise history to crest 900 yards in the first 11 games of the season. The other two? Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad.

Pretty good company.

Josh Klein on Twitter
Josh Klein
Editor-In-Chief at The Riot Report
Josh Klein is Editor-In-Chief of The Riot Report. His favorite Panther of all time is Chad Cota and he once AIM chatted with Kevin Greene. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshkleinrules.