The Carolina Panthers are officially going streaking. We’ve watched enough wins now this season that I feel more comfortable picking a few nits over how this win was achieved, but the bottom line is that this beautiful, deeply flawed team has produced its most enjoyable stretch of football since at least 2018. We’re going to celebrate this later.

For now, let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Bryce Young’s ankle heals in record time. For better and worse, and there’s plenty of both to go around on him, he’s the best quarterback on the roster right now. The Panthers will need him back by Week 10 to have even an outside shot at holding on to second place in the NFC South or making any more noise this season.

The man may not have put up the outrageous numbers that keyed the first two wins in the Panthers current streak, but he brought the same ferocity and power to the game coming off the bench behind Chuba Hubbard that he did when he decided he could probably beat the Dallas Cowboys by himself.

Game script, offensive line injuries, and questionable play calling cost him a few yards each, but he has more than proven himself worthy of being option 1A in a two-back backfield.

The Panthers had faith in their former first round pick despite early and significant struggles on the field this season. Legette rewarded that faith yesterday with a career-high stat line while Tetairoa McMillan was held in check by Sauce Gardner.

Nine receptions on eleven targets for 92 yards and a touchdown is about the ceiling for any receiver under the current quarterbacking for the Panthers. Legette hitting that plateau gives credence to the theory that this receiver corps can support a significant a level up in the passing game.

I could spend 1,000 words each on Derrick Brown and Jaycee Horn deciding to try out the fad all-Jet diet this weekend. Both men came to that game hungry, ate for themselves, and set up their teammates to do the same. The Jets have a known terrible offense, but the Panthers defense feasted against both quarterbacks and in all four quarters.

You don’t exceed your season total in sacks in one Week 7 game without a) playing a terrible team and b) having a terrible track record of your own. I don’t think the Panthers have figured out the secret to their pass rush going forwards, but I do hope that they can replicate some of this success going forwards. Rookies Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen both seemed to take steps forward yesterday. Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero also had some fun creating pressures with creative uses of safety Tre’von Moehrig.

There’s room for hope and sustainable improvement, but let’s maybe expect a step backwards against the Buffalo Bills next week. Unless, of course, Brown and Horn decide they’re open to winning another game on their own.

This section would have been solely focused on Bryce Young. Andy Dalton’s play in relief of Young, after the Panthers starter was sidelined with an ankle injury, has earned him a spot here as well. The Panthers passing game was off yesterday, as it so often has been on the road. Young was terrible under pressure, quick to throw the ball away, and less accurate than he often is at home. Dalton, for his part, was shaky at best. Fingers crossed that can be ironed out with a full week of prep if he has to start against Buffalo.

The fact that Young was the clearly better Panthers quarterback yesterday is not an encouraging one at this point. His approximately 150 yard per game ceiling is not enough to elevate the Panthers offense. Leaning on the running game works until you start losing one starting offensive lineman per week. This winning streak has been fun, but the Panthers need somebody to step up as a passer if they are going to keep it going through all the injuries and chaos that make up the average NFL season.

Dave Canales called a fine game in the second half. He figured out that Dowdle was the back to lean on and he realized that the passing offense had to run through a suddenly reliable Legette as long as Gardner was on the field.

He is also still beyond frustrating in short yardage situations. The first half in particular saw a couple drives killed by the team tripping over their own metaphorical feet with only a couple yards to gain to sustain a drive.

Several scoring opportunities were also left dead in the water because he couldn’t figure out how to handle his running backs, the Jets pressures, and Young’s current passing. Granted, the Jets have a surprisingly excellent defense for an 0-7 team, but Canales does a lot of “on the job learning” in the first half that is going to leave his team in some deep holes against good teams.

Yesterday was a few better decisions away from being a Panthers blow out, and Canales deserves at least as much credit as Young for holding the team back from that result.

The Buffalo Bills are a uniquely vulnerable opponent for the Panthers in Week 8. They are a Super Bowl favorite in the AFC and seem like exactly the kind of strong, rested, motivated team that should destroy the still floundering Panthers. Their last game was a surprise loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 6 and they will be coming to Charlotte off of a bye week. They also have one of the worst run defenses in the NFL and will be facing the Panthers at home.

The same recipe that wrecked the Miami Dolphins and kept pace with the Dallas Cowboys should keep the Panthers competitive against the Bills. It all depends on how healthy the offensive line is come Sunday and who lines up under center.

That said, I don’t think fans should worry too much about what’s next this week. Odds are that the Panthers will be 4-5 entering their Week 10 home game against the New Orleans Saints. That means they have a strong shot at being .500 in Week 11. That middling record is leaps and bounds above the poor performances the Panthers have offered in recent memory and is cause for celebration for as long as it is in reach.

The Panthers today are one game above even, that’s a statistically winning record for those of y’all who aren’t familiar. They haven’t been above .500 since Week 5 of the 2021 season. That was Matt Rhule’s second year rebuilding Rome for those of you keeping track at home. They haven’t been above .500 this late in the season since Week 12 of 2018, Ron Rivera’s last full season as head coach. For the record, that team started 6-2 before starting a seven-game losing streak—and the end of Cam Newton’s career—against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Panthers have been lost in the wilderness since then as one of the worst teams in football. They have chased one quick fix after another, mortgaging one future after another, in a series of bad decisions that are still written across every position group on the roster.

The 2025 Panthers have yet to look consistently good. They are very clearly a work in progress, but that hasn’t stopped them from winning a handful of games in situations where past teams would have fallen apart. They are one game away from matching their win total high over the last six years (caveat: with a full-time head coach, the Rhule/Wilks year was an aberration, not a step forward) with ten games left to play in the season.

This team is in a better place a year and a half into Dan Morgan and Canales’ leadership than at any time since Newton’s shoulder was injured. That’s not going to change if the Panthers lose to the Bills or to the Green Bay Packers. Yes, there are questions left to be answered. That was always going to be the case this season, even if Young had put in an MVP-caliber performance.

Hope doesn’t come from success. Hope comes from tangible steps towards success and these Panthers have made quite a few of those.