The Panthers came out of the bye and took care of business Sunday, beating the Eagles 25-14 in Philadelphia to improve to 3-2.
It wasn't always pretty, especially with all the penalties, but Carolina was the better team for most of the afternoon. The Panthers finished with 399 yards, didn't turn the ball over, and held Philadelphia to just 222 yards on the other side. That gives us quite a few choices for Stock Up and one pretty obvious choice for Stock Down.
Stock Up: Jalen Coker
I was interested to see what Coker would look like in his first game back, and it didn't take long to see how much Young missed having him out there.
Coker led Carolina with six catches for 97 yards on 13 targets, including a 32-yard catch on third-and-8 in the third quarter when the Panthers were backed up at their own 10. That drive eventually went 92 yards and ended with a Chuba Hubbard touchdown, and Coker's catch was the play that really got it started.
Before Coker went down, I had him sitting at No. 1 in my Panthers young player power rankings, and Sunday was a pretty good reminder of why. McMillan finished with six catches for 86 yards, so the two combined for 183. Young doesn't have to spend the entire game looking for McMillan when Coker is on the other side, and Sunday gave us a pretty good look at what that can mean for this offense.
Coker isn't going to have 13 targets every week, but that's not really the point. Carolina got one of Young's favorite targets back, and he immediately led the team in receiving.
I'd say Young is pretty happy to have him back.
Stock Up: Chuba Hubbard
Hubbard is another one who didn't look like an obvious Stock Up at halftime. He had eight carries for only 24 yards, and Philadelphia was doing a pretty good job of keeping Carolina from getting much going on the ground.
The Panthers didn't get away from it, though, and that ended up being a big part of the second half. Hubbard finished with 28 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown, and his 19-yard run on fourth-and-1 was one of my favorite plays of the game. Carolina needed one yard, gave the ball to Hubbard, and got 19 instead.
I've written before about how Hubbard has quietly become another weapon for Young, and Sunday was another example of how much he means to this offense. We've seen him have games where he gets stronger as they go along, and that's pretty much what happened Sunday. He averaged 3.0 yards per carry in the first half and 4.8 after halftime.
Sometimes you just keep feeding Chuba.
By the fourth quarter, Carolina was able to lean on him and make Philadelphia keep tackling him. That's the kind of game Hubbard can give this offense, and it came at a good time with the Panthers trying to protect a lead on the road.
Stock Up: Tommy Tremble
There are going to be games where Tremble does a lot for this offense, and his receiving numbers don't really show it. Sunday wasn't one of them.
He only caught four passes, but two of them went for touchdowns. The second one was the bigger of the two for me because Philadelphia had just cut Carolina's lead to 19-14 and finally had a little momentum. Young came right back and found Tremble for a 19-yard touchdown that put Carolina up 25-14.
I also liked the way Carolina used him in the running game. On Hubbard's 19-yard fourth-down run, Tremble lined up at fullback and helped lead the way. A few plays later, Carolina showed the same look on another fourth-and-1, and Young's hard count got Philadelphia to jump.
That's probably the best way to explain Tremble's value. He can catch two touchdowns, line up at fullback and block for Hubbard, and spend the rest of the afternoon doing things that aren't always going to show up in the box score. Sunday, he finally got some numbers to go along with all of it.
He earned this one.
Stock Down: Carolina's Discipline
There really wasn't a Panthers player I wanted to force into Stock Down after this game. The penalties, on the other hand, made this one pretty easy.
I wrote at halftime about the almost unbelievable number of Carolina penalties piling up, and somehow it got worse. The Panthers finished with 13 penalties for a franchise-record 149 yards after already having eight for 105 in the first half.
That's way too much to overcome on a regular basis. Carolina got away with it because it didn't turn the ball over, held Philadelphia to 222 yards and was facing an Eagles offense already missing starting quarterback Jalen Hurts and its first three running backs, including Saquon Barkley.
I'm not going to complain too much about an 11-point road win, but Dave Canales has plenty to point to when they watch the film. The Panthers did enough good things Sunday to win despite giving away 149 yards in penalties.
Against a better or healthier offense, they might not be so lucky.
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