Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said the Carolina Panthers “have our attention.”
“The message has been consistent … the message this week has just been to continue playing with relentless effort. That’s what we’ve talked about this week,” said Sirianni. “We know that we have a good football team coming in here that’s been in some games over the past month of the season, that’s continuing to get better. … There’s a lot of good players over there.
“They have our attention. And we know we have to be on it and play our game.”
The Panthers’ dismal start included a 47-10 blowout loss to the division rival New Orleans Saints in their season opener and another blowout the following week, 26-3 to the Los Angeles Chargers. They defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 36-22 in Week 3, but went on to lose their next five games, including a 36-10 loss to the Chicago Bears and a 40-7 beatdown by the Washington Commanders. Since then, Carolina has gone 2-2; they got their revenge on the Saints with a 23-22 win and defeated the New York Giants 20-17 in overtime. They took the AFC-leading Kansas City Chiefs all the way to the wire in a 30-27 loss where the Panthers tied the game in the final two minutes and lost on a walk-off field goal. They lost again in a 26-23 overtime thriller against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
“The guys can just feel what’s happening,” he said. “We are becoming us, we’re becoming a style of football that we want to pride ourselves on. ... I think that the guys can feel what we’re trying to get done philosophically. We can count on these guys to step in and make their plays week in and week out. And when you can count on stuff, that’s when confidence grows, that’s when you start playing faster, you start playing more together and connected.”
Young’s dramatic improvement has been key to the team’s success. The second-year quarterback was benched following the loss to the Chargers, having thrown only 245 yards in two games, with three interceptions and no touchdowns. He appeared late in the game against both Chicago and Washington, though he attempted only nine passes in those two games. After Andy Dalton was injured in a car accident, Young returned to the starting lineup against the Denver Broncos, throwing for 224 yards and his first two touchdowns of the season in a 28-14 loss.
Young has turned his play up to the next level in the past two weeks. He threw for 263 yards and a touchdown, and made several clutch plays on the Panthers’ game-tying drive against Kansas City. Against Tampa Bay, he threw for 298 yards and the go-ahead touchdown with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter; he also rushed for a touchdown.
“Just in the full operation of their offense,” Fangio said at a media availability Tuesday. “I think they’ve done a good job of coaching him. They have a really good running back in [Chuba] Hubbard. They feature him. They’re running play-action and boots off of that run game. I think they’ve done a good job in their entire offense of finding out who they are within his quarterback abilities.”
