The Carolina Panthers (7-3) beat the Miami Dolphins (4-5) in the Monday Night Game of Week 10 with 45:21 without any trouble and thus created a novelty. Cam Newton and Devin Funchess excelled for the hosts, who will be trailing the New Orleans Saints in NFC South.
After both teams had made the start of the game quite open, the Panthers provided the first touchdown for the second quarter with a 4-yard run by Christian McCaffrey towards the end of the second quarter for the 10:0 lead. The guests answered with a score by Julius Thomas shortly before the two-minute warning, only to receive another touchdown with twelve seconds on the clock, favored by an interception by Jay Cutler.
The Panthers, who were back in possession of the ball after the break, took advantage of the momentum created by this and directly scored the next touchdown by Devin Funchess. This was followed by a turnover on downs and the next score of the hosts, which made the game out of reach within just eight minutes of playing time.
Kenyan Drake’s 56-yard touchdown gave the Dolphins a glimmer of hope, but further TD-receptions by McCaffrey and Funchess sealed the clear result from the point of view of the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina Panthers (7-3) – Miami Dolphins (4-5)45:21 (3:0,14:7,21:7,7:7) BOXSCORE
Cam Newton (Panthers-Quarterback):”I have the feeling we are scratching at the surface of our potential in this offense. We have to trust in our ability to implement our trainer’s plan.”
Adam Gase (Dolphins Head Coach):”In a span of eight minutes we gave the game away. It was a snowball effect. We couldn’t stop the long runs when they got underway.”
The Miami Dolphins had just equalized and the defence had forced a punt of the Panthers within the last two minutes. This was the chance for the guests to take another break with just under one minute of the game time and maybe even equalize – it was 7:10 from their point of view – to go into the break. Instead, Jay Cutler threw an expensive interception at Luke Kuechly and gave the hosts the ball back in their own red zone. The next touchdown Carolinas followed and with this swing they stormed to three more scores in the following three Possessions.
Football can be that trivial. If you win the ball on the line, the rest is no longer a big problem. And the Panthers dominated here enormously! There was not a single bag in this game – not even for Carolina – and Miami scored exactly two QB hits against Newton. What’s more, the Panthers ran for 294 yards on 36 carries, an average of 8.2 yards per run. There is no better way to underline how much the Panthers’ Big Guys dominated and cleared the way for running backs – and Newton – who then exploited these gaps ice-cold.
Who else would it be? Cam Newton threw for 254 yards (21/35) and four touchdowns. He also ran for 95 yards and had a run of 69 yards. The Dolphins didn’t put a finger on him and were completely overwhelmed with the former MVP. In this form he can still carry the Panthers very far.
Where was the Dolphins-D? 548 Yards to admit is already a huge board. It is not good to not create a bag, but sometimes it is understandable. But coming up with only two QB hits doesn’t really testify to any conviction in the Pass Rush. In addition, coverage was not really good. Newton looked for his big receivers with Funchess and Ed Dickson, so it wouldn’t have been a trick to set them rather than the smaller, faster options.