When the Carolina Panthers need a big play, there are many players they can turn to with the game on the line. Choose a current Panther that’s destined for the Ring of Honor: Greg Olsen. Jonathan Stewart. Luke Kuechly. Julius Peppers. The Panthers are littered with past and future Pro Bowlers on both sides of the ball, but when a must-win game is on the line, there’s really one metaphorical (and technical) MVP on the Panthers roster. And while it took him a while to come out of his phone booth, Superman came calling with just over two minutes left of a game tied at 24. Cam Newton took a read-option over left guard for 62 yards inside the ten-yard line and Jonathan Stewart hopped over the line for his third touchdown of the day, all of them coming on third-and-one, and the Panthers beat the Minnesota Vikings 31-24 to vault themselves back from the brink of the wild-card and into the conversation for a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs.
“It was very strategic, though, when I think back,” Newton joked after the game about his huge run, the same one in which he was chased down by multiple defenders. “If I would have scored, they would have had all their timeouts still, so I just felt like, ‘Let me just put this car into third gear,’ and force them to use their timeouts.”
.@CameronNewton, are you serious?!
Just watch. 😱 #KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/y8FiDBju91
— NFL (@NFL) December 10, 2017
Newton wasn’t the only one poking fun at his speed, with Thomas Davis adding that he was hoping that Newton wouldn’t get caught, but remembered that “he always gets caught.” Devin Funchess said they would be working on Newton’s speed in practice this week.
The jokes flow a lot more freely after you win.
The Carolina Panthers knew that both points and rushing yards would be hard to come by, so when Jonathan Stewart took their third offensive play sixty yards over right tackle for a touchdown, it seemed as if the Panthers had caught a lucky break amassing so many of each so early in the game. Turned out that would be just the start as the team would finish with 216 yards rushing, their third time going over the 200-yard mark this season. They would get 103 from Stewart to go along with his three scores, 70 from Newton, and 35 from rookie Christian McCaffrey. Having two runs over sixty yards always pads your average, but the team averaged six yards per carry on the day.
“Whenever you play a team that’s always in the box lined up like that,” Stewart said about the long run. “You hope to just see a hole open because you just know that there’s no one else in the secondary. This week, we’ve been practiving short yardage goal line and I’ve been hitting them just pretty much how I hit them today, and the offensive line has been opening up holes. That first play, I just followed [Andrew] Norwell and he led me to the promised land.”
After Case Keenum threw only his fifth interception of the season and first in a month to Daryl Worley on their first possession that led to the Panthers going up 7-0 less than five minutes into the game, the Vikings answered back with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that culminated in an 18-yard touchdown catch by tight end Kyle Rudolph over safety Mike Adams. The Panthers had trouble covering Rudolph, already a red zone nightmare, in the first half without buffalo nickel linebacker Shaq Thompson on the field; defensive coordinator Steve Wilks utilized a mix of safeties Colin Jones and Jairus Byrd in addition to David Mayo and Captain Munnerlyn to get the job done. Rudolph would end the first half with three catches for 41 yards; adjustments made in the second half took him out of the game, he would finish with the same numbers.
The Panthers had little trouble moving the ball on their second drive, using over seven minutes to drive 89 yards on 14 plays, with a little help from two face mask penalties and finishing with another Jonathan Stewart touchdown, his second on third-and-one in the first half. Stewart had 87 of his 103 yards in the first half.
The Panthers defense, which had been replaced as the second-best defense statistically by the Vikings, took last week’s performance against the Saints personally and played well when they had to against a Vikings offense that had been having it’s way with the rest of the league. For much of the game, the defense, especially the defensive line, seemed to be able to get to Case Keenum with ease but Keenum was as advertised, looking at times to be the more slippery of the two quarterbacks in the game, a tough task when you’re playing Cam Newton. Keenum was accurate and effective, finishing with 280 yards, two scores and two interceptions, though his second interception of the day would come off a tipped pass.
Ultimately, the play of the defensive line would provide the difference, getting to Keenum for six sacks total. Defensive tackles Kyle Love and Vernon Butler were playfully arguing after the game who should get credit for the sack; that’s how much fun they were having up front.
“I got there first,” Butler said with a huge smile. “I may send that one in. But it doesn’t matter, as long as we get to the quarterback, that’s all that matters.”
The Panthers would lead 14-13 at halftime; last week against New Orleans, a three-and-out on their first drive of the second half shifted the momentum back to the Saints, who would take their possession for a touchdown to go up two scores and never look back. This week, it was not the same story, as the 10-play, 75-yard drive would culminate in Cam Newton at his most Newtonian, avoiding a sack and stepping backwards to heave an 18-yard touchdown to Devin Funchess off his back foot; Newton said he did “everything you’re not supposed to do” on the play. Funchess, hounded much of the day by Xavier Rhodes, would finish with 59 yards and his seventh touchdown of the season, while Newton had an effective if not spectacular day passing with only 133 yards through the air.
“Playmakers do, this is why we get paid,” Funchess said after the game. “That’s what I told Cam and he went out there and handled it, and did what he had to do.”
The Vikings don’t turn the ball over very often, only giving the ball up ten times in twelve games this season, but the Panthers sniffed out three today. The early interception by Worley was followed by a heads-up fumble recovery on a play that appeared to be dead when Mario Addison jarred the ball loose from Case Keenum; Adams played through the whistle and picked up the ball as the rest of the players stood around waiting for the next play to begin. A review upheld the fumble recovery, and the Panthers would get a field goal to extend their lead to 24-13. James Bradberry would add one on a Stefon Diggs tipped pass in the fourth quarter as the Vikings threatened to score.
Anyone who thought the Panthers would cruise to an easy win were proved incorrect in the fourth quarter; the Vikings had a chance to clinch the NFC North with four weeks left in the season for a reason and would come storming back behind a 52-yard catch-and-run from Keenum to Adam Thielen, who continues his rise up the wide receiver rankings, ending the game with six catches for 105 and a touchdown.
With the Panthers getting the ball back with 5:36 and a chance to salt the game away, Newton’s third-down pass would bounce off McCaffreys hands and into the waiting arms of safety Andrew Sendejo, but on a sudden change like that, a veteran defense like the Panthers don’t panic.
“One of the mantras Steve Wilks and the rest of the defense talks about is when you get into the red zone is it’s got to be either turnovers or field goals. That is the mantra,” said Ron Rivera after the game. “It’s a challenge because the offense just got a little bit of momentum from their defense. I think our guys were able to hold on and do what they needed to do to give us a chance.”
A chance for Cam to do his thing, of course.
Additional Notes:
- Daryl Worley’s first quarter interception was the first by a Panthers cornerback of the 2017 season.
- Julius Peppers and Mario Addison had a sack each to remain tied for the team lead with 9.5 on the season. It appeared Peppers had a third quarter sack that was ultimately credited to defensive tackle Kyle Love.
- Newton’s 62-yard run was his second run of sixty yards or more, becoming the first QB in NFL history to have two of them in a single season.
- Carolina has now had a takeaway in six straight games and is 5-1 in that stretch; they are 5-0 when winning the turnover battle.
- Luke Kuechly had his first sack of the season to go with 14 combined tackles which gives him 112 tackles on the season; that leads the team even with Kuechly missing a game.
- Carolina has now gone 17 games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
