{"id":645033,"date":"2026-01-01T07:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645033\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T07:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T07:35:25","slug":"ranking-the-carolina-panthers-top-5-moments-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645033\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking the Carolina Panthers’ top 5 moments of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year, Carolina Panthers<\/a> fans! (Well . . . almost.)<\/p>\n

2025 may prove to be a turning point for the organization. After suffering through a franchise-record playoff drought, the team has a chance to win its first NFC South title in a decade this Saturday\u2014in a potential winner-take-all matchup<\/a> with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But before we get to this weekend, and to 2026, let’s celebrate the last 12 months and rank the Panthers’ top five moments of the year!<\/p>\n

5. Fourth-down conversion vs. Dolphins (Week 5)<\/p>\n

Down 17-0 in the second quarter to the Miami Dolphins<\/a>, the Panthers faced a huge fourth-and-5. Quarterback Bryce Young scrambled around to evade pressure and, at the last second, set his base and fired a pass to rookie Tetairoa McMillan for a 21-yard gain.<\/p>\n

This play is not discussed enough, as an incompletion would’ve likely put the Panthers too far behind and sent them to a 1-4 record. Instead, Young and McMillan sparked a rally that resulted in a 27-24 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Panthers 31, Rams 28 (Week 13)<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> were steamrolling through the NFL heading into Week 13, perhaps as the best team in football at the time. However, on a rainy afternoon in Charlotte, they faced a motivated Panthers team coming off a bad Monday night loss<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Carolina went punch for punch with the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and wound up with the ultimate knockout shot. Defensive lineman Derrick Brown caused a strip-sack of MVP candidate Matthew Stafford late in the fourth quarter, handing the rock over to the offense\u2014which ran out the clock after a big 10-yard gain by wideout Jalen Coker.<\/p>\n

Against all odds, the Panthers swiped a 31-28 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. Panthers 16, Packers 13 (Week 9)<\/p>\n

That surprising showing against the Rams wasn’t their first major upset of 2025.<\/p>\n

Coming off a blowout at the hands of the Buffalo Bills<\/a> in Week 8, the Panthers headed to Lambeau Field to face the top-seeded Packers as double-digit underdogs. But Carolina brought plenty of bite, stalling Green Bay’s offense throughout.<\/p>\n

Rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald booted through a 49-yard field goal as time expired to give the Panthers a shocking 16-13 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Bryce Young’s historic day in Atlanta (Week 11)<\/p>\n

The Falcons have shut down some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this season. They could not, however, stop Young at home in Week 11.<\/p>\n

Young completed 31 of his 45 throws that afternoon for a franchise-record 448 yards and three touchdowns. His historic performance inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium helped lift the Panthers to a 30-27 overtime victory<\/a> and gave fans a look at what their offense can potentially be.<\/p>\n

1. Panthers 23, Buccaneers 20 (Week 16)<\/p>\n

For the first time in a long time, Bank of America Stadium played host to a playoff atmosphere\u2014when the Panthers welcomed in the Bucs for a battle of sole possession of the NFC South two weeks ago. And after missing out on that feeling for seven years, Carolina experienced a bit of euphoria.<\/p>\n

Young and McMillan, once again, would find some magic to pace the Panthers offense. The defense responded as well, and capped off the massive 23-20 win<\/a> on a fourth-quarter interception by rookie safety Lathan Ransom.<\/p>\n

The triumphant outing helped set up what could be the first major moment of 2026, as Carolina has a shot to go into Tampa Bay to capture their first division crown since 2015.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy New Year, Carolina Panthers fans! (Well . . . almost.) 2025 may prove to be a turning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2075],"tags":[247,265,240,210,215,4888,3789,1476,211,214,53,235,260,2567,3543,324,6009,11404,217,7,20842,1294,3545,1184,239,58,3310,32,216,251,248,826,267,88,6,35196,245,537,236,530,424,818,1602,2517,817,829,9,266,3177,819,209,250,811,776,5952],"class_list":["post-645033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-angeles","tag-bay","tag-bills","tag-brown","tag-bryce","tag-bryce-young","tag-buccaneers","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-coker","tag-conference","tag-derrick","tag-derrick-brown","tag-dolphins","tag-football","tag-hub","tag-jalen","tag-jalen-coker","tag-listicle","tag-los","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-matthew","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-national","tag-national-football-conference","tag-national-sports","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-panthers","tag-positive","tag-rams","tag-scores","tag-smg","tag-smg-listicle","tag-sport","tag-sport-scores-u0026-statistics","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-stafford","tag-statistics","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-twitter","tag-u0026","tag-young"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}