The Panthers have longed talked about complementary football – all three phases of the game stepping up and working in concert.
But last week in Houston, with the offense perhaps not performing at their highest level, it was the defense – with six sacks, two timely turnovers and only ten points allowed – as well as their special teams that willed Carolina to victory.
And it was Joey Slye, the rookie kicker who Cam Newton calls ‘Swole Tweeder’ – presumably a more muscular version of the character from Varsity Blues – doing a lot of the work as he went 3-for-3 on field goals, including both a 55-yarder and a key 26-yard kick late in order to extend the Panthers lead in the fourth quarter. In fact, after missing his first field goal attempt of the season, Slye has been a perfect 10-for-10 and leads the NFL in scoring.
Not bad for the first four games of his NFL career.
“You have confidence the dude can hit the ball from pretty much anywhere,” head coach Ron Rivera said after Sunday’s game. “He had a good, solid day today. And, again, I really do appreciate who he is because he comes in, and he’s tough-minded.”
“He can’t wait for the opportunity.”
Slye was added to the roster early in training camp with veteran kicker Graham Gano facing a lingering knee injury that kept him out the end of the 2018 season and kept him from kicking for all of August. Slye, a rookie from Virginia Tech, converted 7-of-8 attempts in the preseason, including a 59-yarder – his only miss was a blocked kick as he also added a perfect extra-point conversion rate.
“My performance ended up helping us win,” said the even-keeled Slye. “But I think it was the performance of everyone on the team helping us win and I just want to stay even-keeled so I don’t get too high and don’t get too low; I know what happens, sometimes, when people get too high then they start having some big lows as well, so I’m not focusing on either one – I’m just going to go out there and focus on doing my job.”
“They’ve been sending me out there to hit some long ones, which I love – to kind of get to showcase myself, show the consistency and work that I’ve put forward. For me, a lot of stuff is just coming to fruition.”
Slye is the first player to win the honor since Gano, who won it in Week 5 of 2018 after kicking a 63-yard game winner; Gano, who was placed on injured reserve before the 53-man roster was set, would save $3.75m towards the 2020 salary cap if he was released during the offseason.
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