Earlier in the week, Carolina Panthers interim head coach Steve Wilks challenged his team—and more specifically, his stars—to step up. Well, that challenge was accepted and met on Sunday.
Here are the best (and a little of the worst) performances from Week 12’s 23-10 victory over the Denver Broncos.
Stud: QB Sam Darnold
Darnold didn’t exactly light up the box score on Sunday afternoon. But he didn’t need to.
All he had to do in his first start was to keep his offense afloat—and he did. The fifth-year quarterback completed 11 of his 19 passes for 164 yards in his 2022 debut, compiling two touchdowns (one passing and one rushing) and—in the flashiest stat of all—zero turnovers.
Dud: WR Terrace Marshall Jr.
Only one of those balls and eight of those yards found Marshall Jr., who had a very quiet day.
The second-year wideout came in with a team-leading 259 receiving yards over the previous four games. So although the game plan from offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo didn’t require much through the air, it was a tad deflating to see Marshall Jr. come up with just a single reception.
Stud: WR DJ Moore
Luckily for Marshall Jr. and Carolina’s other pass catchers not named DJ Moore, DJ Moore picked up the slack.
After failing to hit the 30-yard mark in the three outings prior, Moore torched cornerback Patrick Surtain II and the Denver defense for a game-high 103 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown gave him four on the campaign, which ties a career-high (a mark he reached in each of the previous three seasons) with five games remaining.
Dud: RB Raheem Blackshear
With receiver Shi Smith recently struggling as the team’s punt returner, Blackshear took over the role for the first time on Sunday. Unfortunately, disaster struck on his third attempt.
Blackshear muffed a punt at the 12:56 mark of the second quarter, allowing Broncos safety Delarrin Turner-Yell to recover at the Panthers’ 27-yard line. The giveaway led to Denver’s only three points of the game’s first 57 minutes.
Studs: RBs D'Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard
But fortunately for Blackshear, his fellow backs made his muff a mere distant memory.
Foreman and Hubbard controlled the ground and the game, combining for 178 yards on 41 carries. That allowed the Panthers to control the time-of-possession battle—37:05 to 22:55.
Dud: The wave
Look, when you were as dominant as the Panthers were in Week 12, you have to dig a little deep for the duds. So . . . sorry, Carolina and Denver fans.
While Foreman was being tended to for an injury, the folks in attendance at Bank of America Stadium teamed up for an attempt at a wave. And with the Panthers approaching the line of scrimmage on the next play for a third-and-short, Wilks waved at them—in an attempt to silence the “fun.”
For shame . . .
Stud: DE Brian Burns
The entire Panthers defense probably deserves their own stud slide, as they held the Broncos down for 246 total yards and kept them to just three points until the 3:19 mark of the fourth quarter.
But we’ll simply highlight Burns, who racked up 2.0 sacks (one a strip sack) of quarterback Russell Wilson. And in doing so, the fourth-year pass rusher hit double digits and set a new career-high in takedowns at 10.0.
