Not every win is going to look good, and Sunday's 25-14 win over Philadelphia definitely didn't. The Panthers committed 13 penalties for a franchise-record 149 yards, couldn't run the ball early, and let an Eagles team missing several key players hang around way longer than it should have.
There will be plenty for Dave Canales to complain about when they go back and watch this one, and I'm sure the penalties will be pretty high on that list.
But I'll take an ugly win like that all day.
Carolina Made a Mess of This Game and Still Won
We've watched enough Panthers football over the last few years to know what usually happens when Carolina starts piling up mistakes. One bad penalty turns into another, the other team hangs around, and eventually you're sitting there wondering how the Panthers managed to blow another one. Sunday had a few moments where I thought we might be headed there again.
The penalties were ridiculous. Carolina had eight for 105 yards in the first half alone, something I wrote about at halftime when it was hard to believe the Panthers were still winning.
They finished with 13 for 149, and Panthers.com noted that Carolina also had three good returns wiped out by penalties, including a 50-yard kickoff return from David Moore. Somehow, the Panthers still went into halftime leading 10-7.
The offense wasn't exactly lighting it up early, either. Chuba Hubbard had only 24 yards on eight carries in the first half, and while Carolina was moving the ball, it wasn't doing enough with those drives. Against an Eagles team this beat up, I thought the Panthers should've had a much bigger lead.
Carolina didn't get away from the running game in the second half, and eventually Hubbard started finding some room. He finished with 120 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries after averaging only 3.0 yards per carry in the first half. That jumped to 4.8 yards per carry after halftime, which says a lot about why Carolina kept giving him the ball.
Bryce Young missed some throws, but he still threw for 281 yards and two touchdowns without turning the ball over. Having Jalen Coker back certainly didn't hurt. He finished with 97 yards, Tetairoa McMillan had 86, and suddenly Young had two guys on the outside making plays instead of everything falling on McMillan.
I've been high on Coker for a while. I had him No. 1 in my Panthers young player power rankings, and Sunday was a pretty good reminder of why. That's something we really haven't gotten to see much of yet with Coker and McMillan healthy together.
The defense deserves some credit here, too. Philadelphia finished with only 222 total yards, which looks even better when you consider how many yards Carolina was giving away with penalties. The Eagles didn't do much offensively for most of the afternoon, but they stayed close enough to finally make things uncomfortable in the fourth quarter.
Tanner McKee found DeVonta Smith for a 19-yard touchdown to cut Carolina's lead to 19-14. After everything the Panthers had done to keep Philadelphia in the game, the Eagles were suddenly one stop away from getting the ball back with a chance to take the lead. We've watched enough Panthers games over the years to know how that can go.
This time, Carolina answered.
Tre Tyus got pressure on Philadelphia's next punt, which went only nine yards and gave the Panthers the ball in Eagles territory. Young and the offense took advantage of it, with his 19-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Tremble pushing the lead back to 25-14. Instead of giving Philadelphia another chance to make things interesting, Carolina finally put the game away.
That's probably what I liked most about Sunday. The Panthers had spent a good part of the afternoon shooting themselves in the foot, and when Philadelphia finally got close enough to make them pay for it, Carolina didn't give the game away. They made the plays they needed to make and got out of there with a win.
I'll Take an Ugly Win
I'm not going to make too much out of beating this version of the Eagles. Philadelphia was without Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and several other players, while Carolina was the healthier team. This was a game the Panthers should've won, even if they made it a lot harder than it needed to be.
But that's also why I came away liking this win a little more than I thought I would. Carolina wasn't sharp, the penalties were awful, and there were a few decisions from Canales that I still don't understand. In other years, that has been more than enough for the Panthers to find a way to lose.
Sunday it wasn't.
That doesn't mean Carolina can keep playing this way. Give away 149 yards in penalties against Tampa Bay next Sunday, and there's a pretty good chance we're having a completely different conversation afterward. The Panthers have plenty to clean up this week, and nobody should look at Sunday and think they played particularly well.
But you're not going to play well every week. Sometimes the running game takes a while to get going, the quarterback misses some throws, or you spend half the afternoon getting in your own way. There are going to be games where you just have to get out of there with a win and worry about fixing everything else later.
That's what Carolina did in Philadelphia.
It was ugly, but 3-2 looks pretty good to me.
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