CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the Carolina Panthers’ locker room emptied Sunday, a couple of members of the 2021 draft class remained at opposite ends of the room.
Jaycee Horn and Tommy Tremble have seen some things here.
The two were rookies in 2021 when the Panthers started 3-0 and were hanging around at 5-5 in November before the bottom fell out. Both started the San Francisco game in 2022, when 49ers fans took over Bank of America Stadium, ran roughshod over the Panthers and ran Matt Rhule out of town.
And while Panthers players weren’t ready to break out the champagne after their 30-27 victory Sunday over the Dallas Cowboys — a win that moved them to .500 for the first time since Week 10 in ’21 — Tremble says there’s a different vibe around the organization these days.
“The momentum in the building, the feeling in the building is different,” said Tremble, the fifth-year tight end. “And everyone can feel that.”
It helps that the Panthers (3-3) have faced two CFL-level defenses the past two weeks. But the Panthers of the last few years likely would have found a way to lose Sunday’s game after the Cowboys (2-3-1) tied it at 27 in the fourth quarter.
Instead, the defense forced a three-and-out on Dallas’ next possession after Horn told the coaches to let him cover George Pickens, who had toasted cornerback Mike Jackson most of the game.
Quarterback Bryce Young and the offense then took over with about six minutes left and never gave the ball back. And when rookie Ryan Fitzgerald whistled the game-winning, 33-yard field goal through the uprights as time expired, the Panthers had won for the third time in four games and could point to a non-losing record for the first time in four years.
“As a rookie, my mind was all over the place back then. So I couldn’t even tell you what I was feeling,” Tremble said of the 2021 season. “But nowadays as a vet, the feeling on offense and defense is that we’re gonna be the ones to make a play. Someone’s gonna make a play. That’s what we do. And having that kind of belief around each other, any game, we’re in it.”
Two weeks after getting outclassed in every phase in a 29-point loss at New England, the Panthers have bounced back against Miami, which had the 30th-ranked run defense at the time, and Dallas, which is last in the league in total defense.
They’re playing complementary football — and they have a running back who’s doing things not seen here since Christian McCaffrey was traded to San Francisco.
Rico Dowdle came to Charlotte after his first 1,000-yard rushing season. After the Cowboys let him leave in free agency in favor of Javonte Williams, Dowdle was viewed as a nice depth piece behind Chuba Hubbard in Carolina, but little more.
Then Hubbard strained his calf and Dowdle started winning over Panthers’ fans and fantasy football owners with his tough running style and gaudy production. After advising his former team to “buckle up” at the Bank, Dowdle ran for 183 yards on 30 carries and led the Panthers with 56 receiving yards and a touchdown on four catches.
His 239 scrimmage yards broke McCaffrey’s team record of 237, while Dowdle has now put together the most prolific two-game stretch in team history in terms of rushing (389) and scrimmage (473) yards. Dowdle became the sixth running back in the Super Bowl era with at least 225 scrimmage yards and a touchdown in consecutive games, joining Dalvin Cook, Le’Veon Bell, Deuce McAllister, Marshall Faulk and Walter Payton.
Asked what his message was to the Cowboys this week, Dowdle said with a straight face: “They wasn’t buckled up.”
Panthers safety Tre’von Moehrig said Dowdle has been running “like a madman with his head on fire,” and credited him for giving the defense a break with first down-producing rushes.
While the Rico Revenge Game made for a fun storyline, this was a complete win. Some of the bigger contributions:
• Young overcame another early turnover (this one wasn’t on him) to throw for 199 yards and three touchdowns. When trailing in the game, Young was 10-of-10 passing for 125 yards, three touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating, according to Pro Football Focus. For the second week in a row, Young made a clutch, fourth-down throw on the game-winning drive.
Rookie Tetairoa McMillan had three receptions Sunday, but two of them went for touchdowns, including this second-quarter catch. (Cory Knowlton / Imagn Images)
• Tetairoa McMillan had a first-quarter throw go through his hands, resulting in an interception for safety Donovan Wilson. But McMillan pulled down his next two chances, which happened to be the first touchdown catches of his career. “I just gotta flush all that out and play the next play,” McMillan said. “My coaches and the players were harping to me about that, just flushing it out and finishing the game.”
• Hunter Renfrow was targeted just once before Young went to him on fourth-and-4 with 3:31 left and the game tied at 27. With the Panthers in an empty set, Renfrow created enough space to pull in a 7-yard completion and keep the drive alive.
• With Dowdle on the bench with cramps, rookie Trevor Etienne went down after an 11-yard carry when the Cowboys tried to let him score so they’d get the ball back. That allowed Dave Canales to run the clock down for the Fitzgerald field goal.
• Fitzgerald, the rookie from Florida State, calmly drilled the first game-winner of his career despite kicking into the wind after making a 55-yarder with the wind at the end of the first half.
• Props to the offensive line. Despite injuries to Rob Hunt and Taylor Moton, Brady Christensen and Yosh Nijman held down the right side of the line while protecting Young and opening holes for Dowdle. Left guard Damien Lewis had a nice block while pulling for Dowdle late in the game.
• Dallas, the league’s No. 1 offense entering the game, finished with a season-low 291 yards. The Panthers held the Cowboys to 31 rushing yards, meaning Carolina — last in rushing defense in 2024 — has allowed just 50 rushing yards the past two games.
• Pickens was a difficult matchup for Jackson, catching nine passes on 11 targets for 168 yards and a touchdown. But with Horn on Pickens for the Cowboys’ final possession, Dak Prescott’s last three passes of the game went to Williams (who lost 12 total yards on first and second down) and fullback Hunter Luepke (who gained 4 on third-and-22). The Cowboys went three-and-out and Prescott never touched the ball again.
“I spoke to the coaches about it on the sideline, just saying that last drive I’d go to (Pickens) because he was getting a lot of the targets,” Horn said. “But Mike’s the same guy who led the team in PBU’s last year. … We’ve got all the confidence in the world in Mike. He’s a helluva player. It’s just the National Football League. You can find the best of the best corners can get scarred up sometimes.”
Horn didn’t get too jazzed about the .500 record, vaguely aware that the last time the Panthers were at this point they proceeded to lose their final seven games — five of them with Cam Newton at quarterback.
“I don’t really look at the numbers or where we’re at. We started 3-0 my rookie year and I forgot where we ended, but it wasn’t good,” Horn said. “You’ve gotta refocus every week, win or loss. Try to get better from the tape and be ready to execute the next Sunday.”
The Panthers have a great opportunity to climb above .500 next week against the New York Jets, who fell to 0-6 on Sunday with a 13-11 loss to Denver in London.
But Tremble was still enjoying Sunday’s win, which gave the Panthers a 3-0 home mark. And while thousands of Cowboys fans filed into BoA — as is the case wherever Dallas plays — the Panthers didn’t let this unravel into another stadium takeover.
“Winning here, feeling that support, the crowd finally getting on our side, we can feel that,” Tremble said. “And even though there was Cowboy fans, we heard the Panther fans today. And that made a difference.”
