On Sunday in New York, the Panthers defense and special teams scored two touchdowns 131 seconds apart which ended up deciding the game. The first came with just over 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Panthers down by two when Wes Horton stripped Josh McCown and Luke Kuechly scooped it up and returned it for a touchdown. The second came four plays later when Kaelin Clay returned a punt for 60 yards and a score.
With 9:54 seconds left in the game, the ball on the Jets’ 23-yard line, and the Panthers up six points the Jets were forced to punt on fourth-and-12 after Julius Peppers sacked McCown to send the Jets to the sideline with their third three-and-out of the game. The Jets’ punter booted it 37 yards with a hang time of only about three seconds; when Clay caught the ball, the first gunner was just under eight yards away and the next closest gunner was 16 yards away, meaning the former Bill who spent training camp with the Panthers before being traded to Buffalo and ultimately brought back to Carolina would have room to try and make an impact on the game.
And make an impact he would.
The Panthers coverage unit did a great job of giving Clay enough room to make a play; in particular, Daryl Worley and David Mayo deserve credit for Clay finding open space to run. The closest gunner to Clay at the time of the catch was blocked off by Worley who started on the outside but cut in front of the gunner to gain inside leverage and slow him down. Meanwhile, special teams ace Colin Jones is behind Worley and should have looked for another target knowing that Worley was in a good position to block off/slow down the gunner.
On the other side of the field, Kevon Seymour recovers after stumbling and shows off some speed before making a critical block on another gunner. The long snapper comes downfield unblocked, but as Clay plants his foot, the defender realizes he can’t make the cut and dives trying to tackle Clay, which ends in Clay making it past him without being slowed down. Jared Norris tries to make it back to help block and in the process of running back, he cuts off the gunner with the next best chance of taking down Clay after his spin move. From there, David Mayo has a great block on Josh Martin which allows Clay to get to the sideline and utilize his speed to take it to the end zone.
Even though Thomas Hennessy, Darron Lee, and Julian Stanford all came down the field unblocked, they covered the middle and right side of the field which meant that Clay’s best chance would be to go left, which tilted the numbers game in the Panthers’ favor with Mayo, Norris and Ben Jacobs were all on that side of the field. Clay’s spin move may not have been necessary, but he needed to make some kind of cut to the left if he was going to take this to the house, and the spin certainly added some style points as he deftly avoided the long snapper Hennessy. Impressive return by Clay, but he definitely owes a good portion of that run to David Mayo’s block that ultimately turned a good return into six points.
