A rare Panthers win: In the rain, Bryce Young and Carolina made all the big plays late

In an ugly game played in unpleasant conditions Sunday, the Carolina Panthers pulled off a victory that still felt beautiful to the players who won it and the hardy souls who came to see it.

The Panthers got a 23-yard walkoff field goal from kicker Eddy Piñeiro — who scored all of Carolina’s points — to edge the Atlanta Falcons, 9-7, on a squelchy, slushy, sloppy afternoon in Charlotte. Carolina never scored a touchdown but still won with a 17-play, 90-yard drive on its last march of the game, as rookie quarterback Bryce Young engineered the second last-minute comeback win of his career to give Carolina (2-12) its second victory of the season.

After the field goal, numerous Panthers players used the artificial turf as their own personal slip-and-slide, happily celebrating a win that broke a six-game losing streak. Atlanta (6-8) fell one game behind in the race to win the NFC South.

Out of the hundreds of Carolina Panthers home games that have been played over 29 seasons, this was one of the wettest. And technically it was also one of the most irrelevant — the Panthers both began and ended the day with the NFL’s worst record. The game was played eight days before Christmas. The temperature was in the 40s, the wind was blowing and the rain never let up. The game featured a Panthers team that came in with a 1-12 record.

So for all that, I commend every person who stayed until the end of the Panthers’ win, which came before an announced “tickets distributed” crowd of 70,301 but was in reality more like 10,000. Maybe.

Still, that crowd managed a robust “Keep Pounding” chant toward the end and celebrated with the traditional victorious playing of “Sweet Caroline” after Piñeiro’s second walkoff field goal of the season. The nine points tied for the lowest scoring total the Panthers have ever had in a win and also gave interim head coach Chris Tabor his first victory in charge (he replaced Frank Reich, who got fired 11 games into this lost season).

On a puddly afternoon, the Panthers mostly played the same game they play in ideal conditions each week — keeping it close for three quarters, mainly with defense. But this time they pulled the game out with two second-half turnovers caused by the defense and two Piñeiro field goals off those turnovers.

“It was a dirty, nasty game,” said a grinning Young, who never had a turnover himself. “We knew it was going to be that way coming in.”

Young had one of the best drives of his career on that final march. He was 5-for-5 for 68 yards, with his wide receivers also helping him out with nice catches of the wet football and his offensive line presenting him a clear pocket. “It feels great,” said an exuberant Young.

“Those weren’t easy catches out there,” Tabor said, “and I was really proud of our guys concentrating and making those plays.”

On the final drive, tight end Tommy Tremble, wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, wide receiver DJ Chark and running back Miles Sanders (twice) all caught passes, and running back Chuba Hubbard converted a third-and-3 from the Atlanta 8 on a 6-yard run that allowed Carolina to run the clock down until the final field goal.

“He was just composed and he was in the zone,” Chark said of Young. “When he is in the zone, just let him deal.”

“He’s a winner,” Tabor said of Young, who is now 2-11 as an NFL starter.

Both teams’ helmets should have come outfitted with snorkels for this one. Given that Bank of America Stadium doesn’t allow umbrellas in the stands, the venue instead featured a rainbow of poncho colors. That at least meant it was difficult to tell whether Falcons fans had overtaken the stadium in the way that Green Bay Packers fans undoubtedly will on Christmas Eve.

Some people were literally trying to give tickets away before this one. And on Ticketmaster, you could buy a seat for $3 shortly before the game began. At halftime, there was understandably no on-field entertainment and the few fans in the stadium all scattered for shelter, so the place looked completely deserted.

But it all turned out to be money and time well spent, if you didn’t catch cold and you stayed until the end.

In a game that featured 10 combined punts and only one combined touchdown, the Panthers won ugly, but they won, which is no small thing given the last time they had a victory was on Oct. 29. On that day, Young also led a last-minute drive, against Houston and fellow rookie QB C.J. Stroud, for a victory on another final-play field goal.

Down 7-6, Panthers safety Xavier Woods intercepted a Desmond Ridder pass inside the Panthers’ 10 midway through the fourth quarter, giving Carolina a chance for that go-ahead drive. The Falcons had played close to the vest for much of the day before that pass, and Atlanta coach Arthur Smith — who lost to a 1-12 team while trying to make the playoffs — was asked later if the Falcons had been too conservative on offense.

Said Smith, who also faced numerous questions about his job security in the postgame press conference: “That’s certainly a fair criticism.”

Carolina began that final march on its own 5, but Young completed passes of 18, 19 and 20 yards during the 90-yard drive as Carolina consumed all of the game’s final 7:35, never allowing the Falcons to get the ball back before Piñeiro’s game-winner as the clock struck 0:00.

“I mean, it’s just fun,” said Panthers left tackle Ickey Ekwonu. “It brings you back. Kind of makes you feel like a kid again. Wet, rainy ... Definitely a fun game.”

The Panthers now have three games left: a home game against Green Bay on Christmas Eve, followed by a road game against Jacksonville on New Year’s Eve and one more home game against Tampa Bay on Jan. 7 to close the season.

Regardless of how those three turn out, this will always be considered a poor season, and a new coach will be hired by owner David Tepper in January to try to fix the Panthers — again.

However, there are starry pinpoints of light present on most dark nights. And on Sunday, despite the overcast skies, the Panthers and their fans actually saw one of them.