ESPN predicts Panthers make a major adjustment on offense against Rams

Taking the ball out of Bryce Young's hands might be their best hope at an upset this week.

Nov 9, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle (5) celebrates with quarterback Bryce Young (9) after scoring a touchdown in the first quarter at Bank of America Stadium. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers have found a lot of success against the Atlanta Falcons the last three years. However, they've had notably less of it against the other 30 teams around the league.

Young now holds a 4-1 record against Carolina's division rivals to the south, but he's just 8-26 against everyone else - including a brutal loss to the San Francisco 49ers last week.

If there's a silver lining from that loss, it should be convincing the Panthers that giving Bryce Young a heavy workload against any team not named Atlanta is not the way to go. ESPN is predicting that Carolina will get away from that and adopt a run-heavy apporach this week against the Rams.

"Young will make fewer than 10 first-half pass attempts. Not only are the Panthers one of the most run-heavy teams in the NFL with the second-lowest pass rate over expectation (minus-8%), per NFL Next Gen Stats, but the Rams' defense has the third-lowest pass rate over expectation against them (minus-7%)."

Nov 24, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) rushes the ball against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half at Levi's Stadium. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

This is probably the best way forward, even though the Rams have one of the league's best run defenses this year. Heading into Week 13 LA is only allowing 102.7 rushing yards per game.

That won't necessarily stop Rico Dowdle from going off on them, though. Remember, going into the matchup with the Packers they had the league's third-best run defense and he still dropped 130 yards and two touchdowns.

It may take double that production to take down the Rams given the way they're playing lately, but if Dave Canales thinks he can beat the NFC's toughest team with Young throwing 25 or more passes you can forget about the final score being anywhere near competitive.

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