The Carolina Panthers relied on a strong running game to secure a win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. After a previous week in which running backs Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard had limited carries, the team shifted its approach and gave both players significant opportunities.
Head coach Dave Canales credited the Rams for providing a tough challenge that brought out the best in his team. “I’m so proud of this group, the resilience, the finish, the ability to, to really just go, you know, really blow for blow, with an amazing team,” Canales said. “First and foremost, gotta give the Rams a ton of credit and, what they’ve been building and what they did and what they brought out in us, and that’s what we needed.
“We needed that kind of challenge so that our guys could rise to the occasion, make plays, Have a more balanced attack and be able to play the type of offensive football we know we’re capable of.”
Hubbard played a key role last season during the team’s late improvement. Dowdle entered Sunday’s game as one of the league’s top rushers. Hubbard said, “I feel like our run game’s been great all year. Rico’s been amazing, the play calls, everything all around, even the, the blocking, of course, and anytime you can have that type of blocking those schemes, everyone kind of working working simultaneously, you’re going to have success.
“So yeah it feels good to be able to do it, do it with my dog Rico.”
Hubbard has recently increased his workload after recovering from an injury. On Sunday he carried 17 times for 83 yards while Dowdle had 18 carries for 58 yards. Hubbard also contributed two catches for 41 yards.
Canales praised both running backs: “It’s just fresh legs when they go out there. Whether it’s a run or a pass just get the ball into Rico and Chuba’s hands and let them affect the game because of who they are because of the aggressive style that they play with.
“And so it’s a dream to be able to have two guys that you can count on and I can call anything that I have on the call sheet and trust that it’s gonna get executed.”
A notable moment came when Hubbard caught a third-down pass for 35 yards down the sideline with help from teammates’ blocks. The Panthers maintained possession longer than their opponents by consistently gaining moderate yardage on runs.
“To win it takes a lot of selflessness and winning teams across the league have shown it,” Hubbard said. “Obviously that’s what we’ve been trying to build here so success comes in many different ways and there’s different ways to win this game and everyone on our team can contribute to that.”
Dowdle welcomed returning to a larger role: “Especially coming off last week,” Dowdle said. Feeling like we could have had a great game last week but coming in against a great team and us being able to contribute to getting back out there just making big plays and having that explosive touchdown it definitely means a lot.
“I still don’t think you’ve seen our best. Obviously there’s room for improvement. Made a lot of mistakes but we definitely had a great game and definitely was one of our better games when it took down the top team in the NFC again. So yeah just showing that we can do it and we can play with anybody.”
The Panthers ran on 35 out of their 62 plays (61.3 percent), marking their highest rate under Canales.
Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu noted how important this approach is for him and his fellow linemen: “I just feel like we really just got back to our identity there in terms of being able to grind and pound and just impose our will on the line of scrimmage,” Ekwonu said. “I mean it definitely feels good all those runs that were called today. We take it to heart. As an offensive lineman you know we want the onus on us.
“We want the responsibility to win and lose games on our back and you know I feel like as long as we keep establishing the run we’re going to like the outcome.”
Hubbard emphasized his commitment: “I said this a few weeks ago that I prayed so many times for moments like this been in Carolina five years now and the goal has been to bring wins to Carolina bring good football to Carolina no matter how that looks. So that’s always been my goal.
“I know that’s been the goal of other guys that have been here since way back as well and to see it come to light now it’s just a blessing.”
