The Optimist: An ugly win is still a win

I don’t remember the last time the Carolina Panthers played a game this ugly and won. The final 25-14 score belies the fact that it was a one possession game deep in the fourth quarter. A bad snap on 1st & 10 for the Eagles and followed by the secondary losing Tommy Tremble for a 19-yard touchdown pass just seven plays later decided the game with 6:38 seconds left. In the end, the Panthers’ depleted defense barely managed to hold on against an even more depleted Philadelphia Eagles offense. Their offense played a worse game with Taylor Moton and Jalen Coker back on the field than they did against the Detroit Lions without either of them. Bryce Young was fine, but far from the cool, collected star against pressure that he has been most of the season. Ultimately, this is a team with many, well exposed flaws that is sitting at 3-2 with a division game against a reeling Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad next week that could turn their sole lead in the division into an awkward tie with the Saints or a commanding lead.

It wasn’t a perfect win, but it was a win.

Historically, the Panthers had to be absolutely perfect to win games. This is a trend that dates back to the early days of Cam Newton playing under Ron Rivera’s stifling conservative philosophies, continued through Matt Rhule’s managerial malpractices, and into the early days of Young’s hit and extremely miss young career. Often it felt like a single sack in the first quarter was enough to call the game a loss. Poor play at the start of a game would lead to pushing, which would lead to an interception, which would lead to chasing points, chasing yards, and then chasing air.

None of that happened yesterday, in spite of a first quarter sack that derailed the Panthers second drive of the game. Coupled with all of the penalties, things could have been a lot worse.

The team floundered against the best defense they have faced all season, sure, but they never gave up, Young never turned the ball over, and the team still scored 25 points. Five things stand out to me about that score:

1. It likely would have been another 30+ point game, but they decided to kneel out the clock from 1st and goal.
2. They scored more than 25 points exactly once in 2023.
3. They scored more than 25 points four times in 2024.
4. They scored more than 25 points five times in 2025
5. They have scored 25 or more points in four out of five games so far in 2026.

The offense still has a lot of wrinkles to either mix in or iron out, depending on your metaphor of choice, but they undeniably showed up against a good Eagles defense. My only real worry about them, ongoing health aside, is their ability to win in short yardage situations. That will be a problem that will haunt them down the stretch if they end up in the playoffs.

The defensive secondary is still significantly undermanned. Not much they can or will do about that at this point in the season. Either the depth steps up while praying for Mike Jackson to return from his unspecified groin injury or it doesn’t.

Jackson and Jaycee Horn have both missed two of their required four games while on injured reserve. Horn is not expected back as soon as that limit has been reached, but the word is still out on Jackson.

For now, let’s enjoy both wins from yesterday. That’s right, I’m counting yesterday twice and for two good reasons. The first shows up obviously in the standings. 3-2 is a big accomplishment given where this team came from. They haven’t been 3-2 and arguably trending upwards since 2018, Rivera’s last full season as head coach. This could be a flash in the pan or it could be the start of something. The biggest thing supporting the latter is the second victory, confirmation of which will need to wait until the first injury report. For now, I’ll cross my fingers as I say that the Panthers escaped Philadelphia with both a win and no new names to add to their injured reserve list.

You really couldn’t ask for a better Sunday.