Sunday Night Football returned to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the first time in a decade, and the Carolina Panthers made the most of it in Week 4.
Carolina (2–2) held off the Detroit Lions (2–2) for a 32–26 victory at Bank of America Stadium. The Panthers sealed the win with a tackle of Lions receiver Isaac TeSlaa on a fourth-down play with 1:32 left.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales praised the support of the black-clad fans after the win.
“A blackout game, it was amazing. Prime time, the energy was exactly right,” Canales told reporters. “There was some trouble for the Lions at the line of scrimmage. A couple of false starts, some things like that that showed up for us. That’s the impact that our fans can bring to us. Especially on those last drives.”
Detroit committed nine penalties for 67 yards lost in the game. Carolina also turned the Lions over on downs for two of the final three drives of the game.
“There was still a lot of stuff that we also gave to the Lions with the penalties … on special teams, all those hidden yards,” Canales said. “When you play a good team like this, you can’t afford to give them anything. We have to execute. … So that’s something that I can lean into and challenge the guys on tomorrow.”
Carolina committed eight penalties for 60 yards lost, and the Panthers gave up 452 total yards of offense by the Lions. Detroit quarterback Jared Goff completed 32 of 52 passes for 412 yards and a touchdown, and he took only one sack.
Carolina’s defense made the plays when needed to maintain the lead from the first quarter on despite Goff’s big performance. The Panthers went ahead 7–3 on running back Chuba Hubbard’s 15-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and they never trailed again.
Hubbard had a big performance with 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 20 carries. Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan had the biggest performance of the night with 14 receptions for 192 yards and two touchdowns.
Quarterback Bryce Young benefitted from that as he went 29-41 for 329 yards and two touchdowns. Despite the strong connection between Young and McMillan, Canales noted kinks ahead of the game.
“I got to be honest. It was not a great week of practice for the two of them. There were some misses,” Canales said. “They had to work through some stuff and talk through it.”
“I’ve been a part of this before, where you don’t make the judgement on what’s going to happen on Sunday as the guys continue to work and find that. Then for it to show up like that was beautiful,” Canales added.
Young and McMillan first connected in the end zone on a 32-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter for a 13–6 lead. Their second connection on a 10-yard touchdown play in the third quarter broke a tie to make the score 22–16.
“I trust [McMillan] so much,” Young said. “We have so many banked reps from these two years—offseason, OTAs, all that stuff. … I know the player he is. He’s special. I always trust him.”
As for the Lions, head coach Dan Campbell lamented his team’s loss on the road despite a big night from Goff. The Lions had positives on defense too, with three sacks and holding the Panthers to 5 for 12 on third downs.
“It’s not good enough right now. That’s the bottom line. It’s just not good enough,” Campbell told reporters. “We’ve got to score more points. We’ve got to be more efficient than we’ve been. We got off to a slow start. We had two opportunities there at the end, and we didn’t get it done.
“So we’ve got to be better there, and we have to get takeaways on defense. That’s going to have to be our recipe.”
