Panthers get modest bump in NFL power rankings for beating awful Jets team

It wasn't even remotely pretty, but the Carolina Panthers got the job done on Sunday against the New York Jets. They earned their first road win of the season, 13-6.

The victory moves Carolina above the .500 mark for the first time this late in the season since 2019 - and proves that they can win ugly - a prerequisite for any NFL team that hopes to make the playoffs.

However, it was after all a win against the only winless team in the league - and you don't get much credit for that. As such, the Panthers have only gotten a small bump in the latest power rankings from Matt Johnson at Sportsnaut. They're No. 20 now, up one spot from last week.

"Once again, the story for the Panthers is the continued success of Rico Dowdle (96 scrimmage yards) and this stifling run defense. It’s highly improbable that either of those will be enough to beat either the Bills or Packers in the next two games, but Carolina would still be just one game below .500 if it loses both those matchups."

There were a few big positives to take away from this game - number one being Carolina's pass rush finally coming to life for the first time this season. Led by Derrick Brown's two sacks and three quarterback hits, the Panthers posted six sacks and 11 QB hits. The more of this, the better.

The Panthers also got a positive contribution from Xavier Legette, who posted a line that matches what you'd expect from a first-round wide receiver for the first time in his career. Legette caught nine of 11 targets, totaing 92 yards and the game's only touchdown.

Carolina also got a boost on special teams from rookie returner Trevor Etienne, who showed he can make big plays both as a kickoff returner and as a punt returner.

These are all good things, but they're also overshadowed by three other takeaways.

First, this was against the Jets. The Jets who have become a punchline and haven't made the playoffs for 15 years - and don't look like they're going back anytime soon. That the Panthers barely beat them shows they're still extremely vulnerable in road games.

Second, and most importantly - Bryce Young's ankle injury is a massive blow to an offense that was already pretty dysfunctional even with him being 100% healthy. If we had to guess, we'd bet that he's not going to play next week against Buffalo.

On the bright side, the Panthers weren't going to beat the Bills anyway - or the Packers the week after that. It might be safest to sit Young until Week 10 and let Andy Dalton take the lumps in the meantime.

Third, there's the big problem on Carolina's sideline that is Dave Canales' lineup calls. His play-calling can be excellent some weeks - but his decision to start Chuba Hubbard AND outsnap Rico Dowdle given how the latter has been playing is proof that there's something seriously wrong with how he makes these kinds of calls.

Dowdle was once again far more efficient than Hubbard, but given what we've seen, Canales probably isn't going to learn that lesson and change his behavior. If a head coach can't take to heart the most basic principle of putting your best players on the field he's going to make it really tough for his team to win games in the long run.

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