Analysis: Panthers win complicates their future. Why it was worth not tanking for.

A top-five pick in the 2021 NFL draft was set up for the Carolina Panthers.

But coach Matt Rhule has been consistent with his message: No using backups just to give younger players a look; no tanking to get the best draft pick. His goal is to teach this franchise about winning football games in December.

That’s something the Panthers hadn’t experience much as of late. The Panthers were 1-12 in their last 13 December games before facing their former coach, Ron Rivera, in Washington on Sunday. With a win, Washington would have won the NFC East.

It didn’t work out that way.

While quarterback Dwayne Haskins gave the Carolina defense plenty of help with a poor performance, the Panthers put together their most complete performance of the season in a 20-13 win to move to 5-10. Washington fell to 6-9.

“The winning franchises win. They win at everything. It’s hard for me to even think (about tanking), because it’s just, my mind doesn’t work that way. We’re here to win. We have a locker room full of guys who want to win; they’ve won their whole life,” Rhule said. “We’re the Carolina Panthers. We’re a professional football team. And we’re someone that we expect people to ... when they line up to play us, to respect us, know they’re going to be in for a dogfight, and that we expect to win. To do anything else but that, does not respect the Panther.”

The victory temporarily slides the Panthers back in the draft order from what would have been the third overall pick with a loss to the ninth. However, there are at least 12 teams that enter Week 17 with records of 4-11, 4-10-1, 5-10 or 6-9 — the New England Patriots are 6-8 and play the Buffalo Bills Monday night. Carolina could still pick anywhere from third to outside the top 10.

“That’s always the goal, is to go out and win,” running back Mike Davis said. “We don’t care about draft picks, at the end of the day our job is to perform.”

Every phase — offense, defense and special teams — had its moment in a dominant first half for the Panthers that put them up 20-3, which proved to be insurmountable. It was the third time this season that the Panthers have scored 20-plus points in the opening two quarters. They finished the game out in the second half, aided by a third-quarter drive that took more than 8 minutes off the clock.

Let’s start with the young Panthers defense. The unit finished last week’s game at the Packers forcing six punts and a field goal and continued its impressive effort Sunday. In the first half, Washington drives ended in three punts, a fumble, two interceptions and a field goal. Haskins had a rough game, completing 14-of-28 passes for 154 yards, two interceptions and a fumble. In the fourth quarter, the defense forced two Washington drives to end in turnover-on-downs inside the Carolina 40-yard line.

After giving up 60 rushing yards in the first quarter, the Panthers only allowed 48 in the final three.

“We knew what they were going to do, they were trying to run the ball on us,” Panthers safety Tre Boston said. “We had the same objective, we were going to stop the run and run the ball on them, and I thought we did a great job of playing as a team.”

Former Panthers quarterback Taylor Heinicke replaced Haskins with just over nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and fared slightly better on the final two drives, including a 29-yard touchdown pass to J.D. McKissic with 2 minutes to go. It was the first touchdown allowed by the Panthers in five quarters.

Rookie defensive tackle Derrick Brown had a good game (one tackle, one quarterback hurry, two passes defensed), defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos had a sack (2.5 on the season) and cornerback Donte Jackson continued his strong performance after taking time off to recover from a toe injury, including breaking up a pass in the end zone late in the fourth quarter.

Washington turned the ball over four times during Haskins’ bad day, including an interception by backup linebacker Tahir Whitehead. The Panthers took advantage of the Whitehead pick with a touchdown and scored a total of 13 first-half points off of turnovers.

Carolina’s defense continues to improve as the season has progressed. As they learn coordinator Phil Snow’s defense, they’ve been more comfortable. Regardless of whether there’s poor quarterback play on the other side, the defense will be a major positive going into the offseason.

Offensively, Curtis Samuel shined. Again. The Panthers’ first offensive score came after a 45-yard rush by Samuel, who finished with career-highs in rushing yards (52) and receiving yards (106). He caught all five of his targets Sunday. On the season, he has 70 receptions on 86 targets

“Curtis has been outstanding for us. He’s been able to do some things that you don’t usually see wide receivers do,” quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said. “We’ve asked him to be a running back, we’ve asked him to be a lead blocker, we’ve asked him to run routes and catch passes for us. He’s done everything. So to see a guy like Curtis having the success that he’s having, it’s great.”

Samuel was the only offensive player awarded a game ball by Rhule after the game, along with defenders Whitehead, Boston (who had an interception) and Jackson.

Outside of Samuel, Bridgewater got all three of his top receivers involved almost equally. Samuel, DJ Moore and Robby Anderson finished with five, five and seven catches, respectively, which has been a recipe for success this season. Anderson scored his third touchdown of the season. Bridgewater, who was 19-of-28 passing for 197 yards and sacked four times, turned the ball over twice — one interception and one fumble — but he spread the ball around.

Special teams started off strong when Carolina’s first score came on a muffed punt by Cam Sims, recovered by Brandon Zylstra in the end zone for the score. It was the first special teams touchdown for the Panthers this season.

Rookie punter Joe Charlton had a record-setting performance, placing all five of his punts inside the opponent’s 20 yard line — the five punts tied a single‐game franchise record previously accomplished four times, most recently by Todd Sauerbrun in 2002.

Joey Slye missed the extra-point that followed Zylstra’s score, but he made the following two PATs. Twice Rhule had a chance to attempt 52-yard Slye field goals, but instead left his offense on the field for fourth down. One play on the first drive of the game led to a turnover on downs while the other converted, but the drive ended with the Bridgewater fumble.

The Panthers even limited their penalties to three after getting called for seven in four straight games.

Was Sunday a perfect effort? Far from it. But it was a dominant performance against a team in need of a win. Closing out tight games has been an in issue for the Panthers. But they got over that road block, improving to 3-8 in one-score games.

Rhule can check that box next to winning in December. This team is building a mindset for the long term. A top draft pick is still well within reach and will be dealt with later.

“I’m glad (the team) got a win. This win,” Rhule said. “This was a playoff game, not for us, but for the Washington Football Team, and for them to go out and ... Washington wasn’t gonna just go away. They fought back and then for our guys to make enough plays at the end to win it ... That’s a lot to build on.”