On Sunday, the Carolina Panthers welcomed in the Denver Broncos—who trotted into Bank of America Stadium looking to turn their nightmarish season around. But it was the cats, not the ponies, that ended up riding away with the win.
Buy Panthers TicketsHere are the biggest takeaways from Carolina’s 23-10 Week 12 victory.
Sam Darnold was exactly what he had to be
When you don’t have a quarterback that can win you games, you have to have one that won’t lose them. And being that they haven’t been able to secure the former since the heyday of Cam Newton, settling for the latter has been their sad reality in recent years.
Sunday, however, brought a happy reality—one that proved Sam Darnold can keep their offense afloat . . . at least on this afternoon. In his first start of the 2022 campaign, the fifth-year passer gave his team the chance to win—totaling 164 passing yards, a pair of touchdowns (one passing and one rushing) and—most importantly—zero turnovers.
He put a lock on the rock, gave his top skill players such as wideout DJ Moore (four receptions, 103 yards and one touchdown) the platform to shine and didn’t implode against one of the NFL’s top defenses. As a result, Carolina got the win and Darnold already got the nod for their next outing.
The bread and butter is in the ground and pound
Again, Darnold’s performance set the stage for his weapons. Two of those weapons were running backs D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard, who put this game in a chokehold.
Carolina dialed up 41 runs between the pair. Foreman turned his 24 touches into 113 yards and Hubbard took his 17 for 65 more.
The group’s combined 185-yard rushing output gave way to a remarkable disparity in the time-of-possession battle, with the Panthers winning out 37:03 to 22:57. And that, folks, is exactly how interim head coach Steve Wilks wants to win.
Brian Burns is a star
Oh, and Wilks also wants to win with a stout defense—which is exactly what he got.
Carolina didn’t allow Russell Wilson and the struggling Denver offense to get going, holding down the visitors to three points through nearly 57 minutes of play. By game’s end, the Broncos mustered up all of 246 yards and 12 first downs.
A huge part of that effort can be attributed to Burns, who got to Wilson twice. His two sacks, one of which forced a fumble, pushed him to a new career-high of 10.0.
Burns has followed up his first Pro Bowl campaign with an even better one, showing how disruptive and consistent of a force he can be. And if you didn’t realize it before, now you’re seeing why general manager Scott Fitterer was too eager to jump on those enticing offers for their star pass rusher just yet.
