The Carolina Panthers are one of the most bizarre, confusing teams in an already bizarre and confusing 2025 NFL season. Nothing typified this better than Sunday when the Panthers, underdogs at home and written off by everyone, managed to beat the visiting Cowboys, 30,27 — in a defining win for their season.
The story of the Panthers in 2025 has been self-inflicted wounds and missed opportunities. Far too often it became impossible to see what this team was capable of because of early turnovers, failed drives, and botched chances. This in turn forced the team to throw to get back into too many games, which Carolina was incapable of when the only consistent receiving threat on the offense was Tetairoa McMillan.
Enter Rico Dowdle, who has changed the face of this football team. Offering a pop that team simple wasn’t getting with Chuba Hubbard, Dowdle is now Top 5 in rushing yards this season despite only starting two games. Not only had Dowdle opened up the entire offense, but he’s making history in the process, becoming the first running back since 2020 to have 200+ all-purpose yards in back-to-back games.
Against Dallas we saw Dowdle’s profound impact across his 30 carries and four receptions. Hitting the line hard and routinely reaching the second level forced the Cowboys’ linebackers to move into gap control mode, while which in turn opened up the passing offense. It was one of the only games in three years that Bryce Young truly looked comfortable in the pocket, knowing he had a running back who could pick up yards inside so not all the pressure was on him.
Young played mistake-free football for the first time this season, regardless of what the box score shows. His lone interception came early in the game when Tetairoa McMillan dropped a perfectly placed pass, knocking it upwards in the process for an easy pick. This was also a key moment, because Young was unflappable, telling a frustrated McMillan that it was okay — and making him forget about the moment. The two would hook up on two passing touchdowns later in the game that helped cement the win for the Panthers.
Dallas is a defensive mess, and we’ll get to that a little later — but for Carolina this was about capitalizing on bad defense in a way they’re rarely capable of. It took the performance against Miami in Week 5 from a fluke, to their basic potential — and it’s only going to get better from here on for the Panthers.
I say that because in Week 7 they should get a big-time weapon back in WR Jalen Coker. Coker has missed the entire season with a quad injury, which he sustained shortly after the Panthers traded away Adam Thielen. This led to a drain on the receiver room, which quickly went from a perceived strength, to a massive weakness — especially when it became clear Xavier Legette was struggling in the Panthers offense this season.
Defensively this team is still a bit of a mess. The Panthers give up far too many explosive plays in the passing game, though they have learned how to become one of the stingiest teams in the NFL against the run — which is quite phenomenal considering that Travis Etienne ran for 143 yards against them in Week 1.
Brass tacks: The Panthers reached a record they’d be happy with at this point in the season, albeit in a very bizarre way. Prior to the season you might have circled the Jaguars, Patriots, and Cardinals games as winnable contests by Week 6. Instead Carolina lost to all three, but beat the Falcons, Dolphins, and Cowboys. This team is now 3-3, set to face the hapless Jets in Week 7, with a receiver who can add to the passing game and open things up even more for Tetairoa McMillan.
There is a very real chance the Panthers could be 4-3 this time next week, reaching a winning record for the first time since 2019. It hasn’t been pretty, it hasn’t always been inspiring, but head coach Dave Canales has this team playing through adversity and refusing to stop trying. That’s all you can really ask of a young team growing together, and it’s a testament to what is being built in Carolina.
Loser: The Dallas Cowboys defense
There are times where players let their coordinators down and it’s clear there’s something lacking in the execution, then there’s times the coordinator doesn’t know how to use his defensive personnel. The Cowboys are guilty of both simultaneously.
I don’t know what possessed Brian Schottenheimer to hitch his wagon to Matt Eberflus as his defensive coordinator, but it’s becoming a total disaster for Dallas. It might have been one of the worst coordinator hires in this cycle, because it’s apparent that unless Eberflus has elite talent on defense he’s incapable of coordinating the line at a drive thru — yet alone an NFL defense.
Time, and time, and time again Dowdle ran through the Cowboys defensive front without adjustment. No cheating safeties up to the line to plug gaps, no stunts designed to take him down in the backfield. It’s as if Dowdle gained big yards in the first quarter and Eberflus threw up his hands and said “well, things aren’t going to work today.”
The big issue on the player side were the linebackers on Sunday. Dallas’ group were out of position on numerous plays, especially Kenneth Murray Jr. who not only failed to pick up Dowdle on his massive TD reception, but didn’t seal the underneath route on the critical 4th down reception by Hunter Renfrow in the final minutes, which set up the Panthers to win.
It’s great that Dallas’ offense is so good, and there’s established history in the NFL of offensive-heavy teams winning in the league. The issue is that when the defense is so profoundly bad that the Panthers are able to win in a shootout, well, you have major problems.
Also let’s no fail to recognize that the justification Jerry Jones gave for trading Micah Parsons was so Dallas could get better against the run, then they gave up 200+ rushing yards to the guy they moved on from. That’s so Jerry.
Another week, another Dolphins loss. At least this one looked slightly promising for a little bit, which is more than we can say for their other losses this season. The true kick in the teeth came after the game when Tua Tagovailoa noted that several of his teammates have been no-showing players-only meetings.
McDaniel has totally lost control of this team, and there’s no way to get it back. You can’t make players care, and there has been a culture fostered in that building where there’s no accountability, no consequences, and everyone just does what they feel like.
It’s a mess, and McDaniel has to go.
Loser: The sorry ass Jets
What else is left to say? The Jets remain the only winless team in the NFL and it’s unclear when they have the capability to register a win. Some might circle the Panthers next week, but they’re on the ascent and New York has absolutely no answers on offense.
The most surprising thing about the Jets this season is how far they’ve regressed in 2025. This was a team who went from mediocre, but promising — to absolute butt. There isn’t a nicer way to say it. Aaron Glenn has the worst start in Jets coaching history, which is incredible considering the company he’s in. The solid players this team has like Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner are wasting away, and it’s really starting to feel like this team could be the first in NFL history to go 0-17 on the season.
Normally you can find an answer. I don’t know if there is one in this case. The Jets are losing every single phase of the game, and it’s not possible to find a way for this team to turn it around. It’s going to be a long, long season in East Rutherford (for Jets fans).
Has anyone in the NFL had more of a glow-up that Rico Dowdle? This was a 1,000 yard back last year, so he was absolutely solid — but in two starts for Carolina he’s amassed 389 rushing yard and cemented his place in the Top 5 among rushers this season.
One of the most fascinating things to watch is how Carolina will deal with the reality that Chuba Hubbard will be back soon. Their 1st string back totalled 21y yards in his four starts prior to injury — and had really struggled to find his footing. How do the Panthers reconcile that reality with the fact Dowdle is the hot hand right now?
It’s a very good problem to have for a running back on a one year, $2.75M deal. If this can even slightly keep up then he’s destined for one of the biggest pay raises in the NFL.
We were wrong. We were all wrong. Every NFL analyst outside of Seattle had major doubts about the Seahawks throwing big free agency money at Sam Darnold with the worry his year in Minnesota as an aberration. Instead Seattle gambled that Darnold could be their Baker Mayfield, and my goodness have they been right.
Not only had Darnold quickly become one of the most reliable quarterbacks in the NFL this season, but he has the Seahawks winning. Seattle is 4-2 on the season, which might not seem impressive in isolation — but in the context of the NFC West it positions this team as a threat to win the division, especially in light of the injuries the 49ers are facing.
Perhaps more importantly, Darnold has developed an incredible rapport with Jaxson Smith-Njigba. That will be the key to how this team progresses in the future. So many of us expected the Raiders to be better at the expense of the Seahawks, and we were dead wrong.
Many have been quick to point out that beating the Saints isn’t exactly an elite achievement, but that’s a minor factor when you consider that the Patriots have quietly become an extremely good team. Some of that is certainly due to Mike Vrabel’s coaching, but Drake Maye has been a force in his second season at quarterback.
It’s been easy to lose Maye in the shuffle, but he’s one of the few NFL quarterbacks who is thriving this season. If Maye keeps up his current pace he’ll finish the season with 3,696 passing yards, 24 TDs and 5 INTs — that’s absurd for a player without an elite No. 1 receiver.
Obnoxious as it might be, the Patriots have found their franchise QB sooner than expected. This is the equivalent of the Colts moving from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck, albeit with a couple of off years in between. In an ideal world it should have taken longer, but the Patriots are back. We’re all going to have to deal with it.
Congrats to Travis for not going 0-2 since the release of The Life of a Showgirl.
Honestly, Kansas City basically saved their season on Sunday Night Football and considering how weak the rest of the AFC West is looking now, it’s ridiculous that anyone wrote this team off. We’ve done this dance before, and Kansas City will always find a way to win.
