Source: Jared C. Tilton / Getty
The Carolina Panthers may not be playing for a chance to make the postseason, but they have embraced the spoiler role.
The team hosted the Atlanta Falcons, who entered the weekend tied for the NFC South, on Sunday in a driving rainstorm, something that heading in had most fans hesitant that the team would be able to do much of anything. Despite the rainy conditions and one of the smallest crowds in the history of Bank of America Stadium, the team was able to find a way to scratch out their second victory of the season by a margin of 9-7 thanks to a 23-yard Eddy Pineiro field goal as time expired.
Quarterback Bryce Young rebounded nicely from a brutal performance in New Orleans last weekend with one of his best showing of the season. While he only threw for 167 yards, he did complete 75% of his passes and led the game-winning drive by going 5-5 for 58 yards. He was aided on that final drive by huge catches from receivers Jonathan Mingo and DJ Chark, the latter of which may have been the catch of the year for the team. That final drive helped back up another outstanding performance from the defense which allowed just 204 yards of total offense, including just 52 rushing yards on 31 carries.
Earlier today, one of the longtime voices of the Panthers, Jim Szoke, stopped by with the guys to talk about the win. “ It’s not the most exciting way to win. You’d like to have more points on the board and so forth but you think back to like the early 96 Panthers with Dom Capers, that was built around defense and Kerry Collins for 100 yards and they were winning games. John Fox, before they got all the weapons going here was kind of a lot like that, beating Tampa Bay 9-6. When you’ve got a good defense you always have a chance to win because you don’t have to score that much. The problem is we still have not been able to do enough in those low scoring games this year. If you’ve got a defense and special teams playing as well as they do, you just need a C- offense. It doesn’t have to be the best offense in the league.”
Listen to the full sit down with Szoke below and make sure to subscribe to the Mac & Bone Show Podcast so you don’t miss a minute of the show each and every day.
