Young comes up clutch as Panthers walk-off Falcons

By Clark Gerber, WRAL Sports contributor

Atlanta Falcons	7
Carolina Panthers	9
Final

It was sloppy. It was wet. It wasn’t pretty, but the Carolina Panthers finally have their second win of the season.

Eddy Pineiro’s 23-yard chip shot field goal proved to be the difference for the Panthers, who grinded out a 9-7 victory in front of a soggy and sparsely populated crowd at Bank of America Stadium.

Young was magnificent on the game-winning drive, which spanned 90 yards on 17 plays and took the final 7:35 off the game clock.

The rookie went 5/5 for 68 yards to five different receivers, including a beautiful sideline completion to DJ Chark which got them into scoring range.

From there, Carolina leaned on Chuba Hubbard to get even closer and grind down the clock. The 3rd year back totaled 87 yards on 22 carries, none of them better than a 6-yard first down effort that allowed the Panthers to take knees and set up Pineiro’s game-winner as time expired.

"This is definitely a team win," said Young. "The defense did a great job. We all fed off of each other. Tough conditions, of course, it was a dirty, nasty game... for us, late in the year, with all this going on, it feels great."

Were it not for couple of clutch takeaways by the defense, Carolina likely wouldn't have been in position to win the game late.

Xavier Woods halted a Falcons red zone drive when he intercepted an ill-advised throw from Desmond Ridder. The play not only held Atlanta to 7 points on the scoreboard, it also directly led to the Panthers' final drive.

"We talked about it all week," said interim head coach Chris Tabor. "The weather, the wind, how we were going to have to play the game, and at the end we just kept saying 'we are going to win this game'"

Late in the third quarter, it was Troy Hill Jr. with a big play as he forced a Bijan Robinson fumble and set Carolina up in scoring range.

The offense was unable to find paydirt after getting it inside the Atlanta 5-yard line. They settle for another short Eddy Pineiro field goal which critically sliced the deficit to one.

Outside of two big offensive plays for Atlanta in the second quarter, the Panthers defense was dominant all day. They held the Falcons to just 204 total yards, including 52 rush yards on 31 carries.

Sunday marks the first career win for interim coach Chris Tabor, who took over for the fired Frank Reich in Week 13.

The Panthers will be home again next week to host the Green Bay Packers.

"You know sometimes you knock at the door and no one answers," said Tabor. "Sooner or later, you gotta kick it down and that's what we did tonight."

"For me, there's no other group I'd rather do it with," said Young. "We all have faith in each other. We all believe in each other... It's a great feeling."

Scoring Summary

4:49 2nd - Cordarrelle Patterson Pass From Desmond Ridder for 2 Yds. Younghoe Koo Made XP. 7-0 Falcons.

0:22 2nd - Eddy Pineiro Made 34 Yd Field Goal. 7-3 Falcons.

13:32 4th - Eddy Pineiro Made 25 Yd Field Goal. 7-6 Falcons.

0:00 4th - Eddy Pineiro Made 23 Yd Field Goal. 9-7 Panthers.