Quarterback Bryce Young played a key role in the Carolina Panthers’ 31-28 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Young completed 15 of 20 passes, achieving a season-high completion rate of 75 percent, for 206 yards and three touchdowns. He finished with a career-best passer rating of 147.1, which is the second-highest single-game mark in franchise history.
Young led a six-play, 65-yard drive in the fourth quarter that ended with a 43-yard touchdown pass to Tetairoa McMillan. This was Young’s eleventh career game-winning drive, making him the youngest quarterback in NFL history to reach this milestone at 24 years and 128 days old. The previous record was held by Josh Allen.
This game marked Young’s fourth outing this season with three touchdown passes, matching Cam Newton’s total from the 2017 season. With six career games of at least three touchdown passes, Young now ranks fourth in franchise history for this achievement.
Young has thrown a career-high eighteen touchdown passes so far in the 2025 season, which is the most by any Panthers quarterback since Newton threw twenty-four in 2018. On third and fourth downs against the Rams, Young completed eight out of ten attempts for all three touchdowns and totaled 162 yards.
According to Next Gen Stats, Young became only the second quarterback since tracking began in 2016 to throw multiple fourth-down touchdown passes traveling more than ten air yards in one game. Joe Flacco achieved this earlier in the same season.
Running back Chuba Hubbard led Carolina with a season-high total of 124 scrimmage yards—83 rushing and 41 receiving—including a thirty-five yard touchdown catch on the opening drive. It was his fourth touchdown this year and fifth-career receiving score. Rico Dowdle contributed seventy-nine scrimmage yards (fifty-eight rushing), marking his sixth game this year with at least seventy-five scrimmage yards; he now has over eleven hundred total scrimmage yards for the season.
The Panthers had two running backs each gain at least seventy-five scrimmage yards for the first time since December 2022. They ran on sixty-one percent of their offensive plays—thirty-eight out of sixty-two—the highest rate under head coach Dave Canales.
Tetairoa McMillan caught his sixth receiving touchdown on a forty-three yard pass from Young and tied for most rookie receiving touchdowns league-wide this year. He also surpassed DJ Moore’s rookie receiving yard mark within Carolina franchise records.
Jalen Coker scored his first touchdown of the season on a thirty-three yard reception from Young during the third quarter; he led all receivers with four catches for seventy-four yards.
On defense, Derrick Brown recorded two tackles including one sack—his fourth this year—and forced his first fumble while defending one pass. Brown’s seven defended passes are currently most among NFL defensive linemen this season.
D.J. Wonnum recovered his second-career fumble late in the game to help secure Carolina’s win.
After forcing multiple interceptions last week against San Francisco, Carolina repeated that feat against Los Angeles: safety Nick Scott intercepted Matthew Stafford’s end zone pass—Stafford’s first interception after more than three hundred attempts—and Mike Jackson returned another interception forty-eight yards for his first pick-six as well as his third interception this year.
Rookie safety Lathan Ransom made his starting debut due to Tre’von Moehrig’s suspension and registered eleven tackles plus one sack—the second time ever that a Carolina rookie defensive back tallied both double-digit tackles and a sack in one contest.
The Panthers have now won six games decided by eight points or fewer—a distinction shared by only five teams across the NFL so far this season.
Carolina improved its all-time regular-season record versus Los Angeles to thirteen wins and ten losses; they are now four-and-two at home—their best home performance since winning five games there during the 2022 campaign.
The team converted all three fourth-down attempts against Los Angeles; their twenty-one successful conversions lead the league alongside Kansas City.
Snap counts reflected strategic adjustments: Hubbard played fifty-nine percent of snaps compared to Dowdle’s forty-two percent amid challenging weather conditions favoring physical play styles.
Receiver snap distribution shifted toward blocking tight ends like Tommy Tremble (fifty-six percent) due to wet field conditions requiring greater physicality.
Defensively, Chau Smith-Wade filled an expanded role because Jaycee Horn was injured while Corey Thornton is out for remainder of year; Lathan Ransom also played every snap replacing Moehrig.
Isaiah Simmons debuted on special teams along with Robert Rochell, Kalen King, and Saahdiq Charles—all playing their first games as Panthers.
