Two plays into Carolina’s game with the Bears on Sunday, the Panthers already had given up 80 yards and a touchdown.
They yielded just 106 more yards the rest of the game.
The result was a 24-14 victory in which Carolina’s defenders picked up their offensive brethren and carried them much of the day.
It didn’t start that way. On that second play, Carolina cornerback Reggie Howard was caught out of position by the Bears’ Dez White, who went 76 yards for a score.
The teams had been playing for 47 seconds.
“That’s definitely a mind game right there,” said Panthers defensive end Mike Rucker. “We’re down 7-0. We had to buckle the hatches down and get back to work.”
So they did. The Bears got 54 more offensive plays, gaining an average of less than 2 yards per try.
“We just totally dominated after that,” cornerback Terry Cousin, a former Bear, said of the Panthters’ sixth-ranked defense. “When we settle down and just play football and attack, it’s lights out with us.”
The Bears helped, losing four fumbles. That enabled Carolina to score despite having to punt a team-record 11 times.
All that did was give Carolina’s defense more chances to excel. The Panthers forced 10 punts, nine of them on three-and-outs.
“I think it was kind of put in our hands,” said defensive tackle Kris Jenkins. “I don’t know if it was intentional or not. I don’t know what goes on on the other side of the ball. But we always understand that if we don’t give up any points, we win.”
“They did a very nice job,” said Bears coach Dick Jauron. “They didn’t do a lot new, but they executed well and they beat us. The men that were supposed to pick up got beat. The front got beat.”
That resulted in four sacks (defensive end Al Wallace had a career-high two) and a bushel of quarterback pressures.
This isn’t the defense coach John Fox anticipated having. End Julius Peppers and middle linebacker Dan Morgan, perhaps the unit’s best two players, are out for the season.
“We don’t try to build our defense around one guy,” said defensive tackle Brentson Buckner, who’s missed four games. “Whoever’s on that field, we’re working together as an engine. It doesn’t matter who we’ve got out there. That speaks well of Al Wallace and (linebackers) Will Witherspoon and Brian Allen. They’ve all come in and played quality minutes and played good.”
Witherspoon said the Panthers simply went back to work after the Bears’ early touchdown.
“We thought, `Let’s get back into our game,”‘ he said. “We’re going to go in there and bust their heads.”
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Carolina’s defense gradually seemed to become immovable.
“You know you can line up, put your hand on the ground and they can’t run the ball, they can’t pass the ball, they can’t do anything,” said Buckner. “That’s football. That’s what you live for. That’s the kind of football we need in Charlotte.”