The Carolina Panthers got a big win in Week 5. Carolina pulled off a come-from-behind victory, beating Miami 27-24 on Sunday. There were some ugly periods of the game, but the Panthers never wavered in their belief that they would come out on top. Nor did Panthers head coach Dave Canales give up on his starting quarterback.
At one point, the Panthers were down 17-0 and had already committed two turnovers. But Canales claimed that he never thought about benching Young, even during that dark period of the game.
“We just keep playing football,” Canales said, per ESPN's David Newton. “Asked him to execute and keep taking our chances. Fortunately for us, we were able to stay balanced with our attack and the run game got going—which allowed us to have a different kind of attack and settle back in and then he made his throws when we needed it.”
When asked about it, Young declared that he was not nervously looking over his shoulder either.
“We believe in each other,” Young said, per Newton. “Yeah we're super excited to be out there playing. So there's no flinch from both sides of the ball [and] being a part of that is special.”
Young finished the game 19-of-30 passing for 198 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Rico Dowdle domination helped lift the Panthers over the Dolphins
Young's perseverance is a nice story, but he was arguably not the most important player for Carolina's offense.
Backup running back Rico Dowdle had a monster game in relief of Chuba Hubbard. Dowdle had 23 carries for 206 rushing yards and one touchdown, averaging a whopping nine yards per carry. He also added three receptions for 28 yards on top of that.
There's no doubt that Dowdle won some fantasy football games for people on Sunday.
Dowdle played so well that he put himself in the franchise record books. He tied Panthers legend Jonathan Stewart for the second-most rushing yards in a game in franchise history, per The Athletic's Joe Person.
Carolina can have confidence that their running game is still a strength while Hubbard continues his injury rehab.
Next up for the Panthers is a Week 6 matchup against the Cowboys.
