Three months ago, Bryce Young and the Panthers weren’t expected to win a game. However, in Sunday’s 22-16 road loss to the Eagles, only a blade of grass separated them from a monumental upset. After the game, Carolina head coach Dave Canales said they’ve found an identity in those late-game decisions, hanging with even the best teams in the league.
“Our expectation is that it’s going to come down to the finish, which it has, for weeks,” said Canales.
Five consecutive weeks, to be exact. On Sunday against the Eagles, it came down to rookie Xavier LeGette barely dropping Young’s game-tying touchdown pass at the goal line when he couldn’t survive the ground with 44 seconds remaining.
“We’re not going to back off of that expectation,” said Canales, whose team is now 2-3 over the last five games with heartbreaking losses to the Eagles (11-2), Buccaneers (7-6) and Chiefs (11-1). “We need to find a way to win these games, find a way to close it out. … It’s always about us, making our tackles, making our catches, taking care of the ball, making our kicks – all the things we can control. If we can control the controllables, the plays that are supposed to be made, then it’ll give us a lot more success. And that has to be the mentality of the group. ‘Yes, guys, we’re going to be in these games; let’s find a way to finish.’ That’s the urgency we have as a group.”
Young put Carolina (3-10) in position to win with impeccable poise. On third-down attempts Sunday, he was 6 of 10 for 89 yards. He was even better on fourth down, hitting 3 of 5 attempts for 22 yards, including a touchdown pass to Tommy Tremble. During the drive in which he nearly finished off the Eagles late in the game, Young spun out of a Josh Sweat sack in the Panthers’ end zone and found LeGette on third down for 31 yards. Six plays later, he extended the drive on fourth down with a 13-yard strike to Adam Thielen, who finished with nine catches for 102 yards.
The point differential in Carolina’s last five games is only minus-eight. But thanks to another solid effort from Saquon Barkley, the Eagles left on a winning note. Barkley had 124 yards on 20 carries and now has 1,623 on the season. He’s on pace for 2,122, which would break Eric Dickerson’s single-season NFL record of 2,105 in 1984. Plus, Barkley broke LeSean McCoy‘s single-season franchise record, 1,607 in 2013.
Jalen Hurts, who hasn’t lost since Sept. 29 and has Philadelphia on a nine-game winning stretch, became the first NFL starting quarterback since at least 1950 with three winning streaks of at least nine games. He also led the Eagles on 11-game streaks from 2021-22 and 2022-23. What’s more, Hurts recorded both rushing and passing touchdowns in a 25th career game, tying Josh Allen (25) for the second-most such games over a player’s first five seasons in NFL history. Only Cam Newton (31) had more.
The Eagles stay home next week to host another red-hot team from Pennsylvania, the Steelers. Pittsburgh (10-3) has won seven of its last eight. Carolina returns to Charlotte to face the Cowboys.
For more information on the Panthers and Eagles, visit the Carolina and Philadelphia team pages at ProFootballPost.com.
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