The Panthers dropped to 3-6 after losing to the Chiefs 33-31. Here are Sunday’s postgame notes.
THE SERIES
- Following today’s game, Carolina has a 3-6 record on the season.
- Carolina’s all-time record against Kansas City is now 2-5.
CMC RETURNS
- RB Christian McCaffrey returned to the lineup after missing the previous six games due to injury.
- McCaffrey racked up 151 scrimmage yards (69 rushing, 82 receiving) and two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving).
- Today’s performance marked the 15th multi-touchdown game of his career. He has scored two touchdowns in each of his games played this season.
- In three games played this season, McCaffrey is averaging 124.7 yards from scrimmage.
CURTIS SCORES AGAIN
- In the second quarter at Kansas City, WR Curtis Samuel took a short pass out of the backfield and ran it 14 yards for his 4th touchdown of the season (two receiving, two rushing).
- Samuel set career highs in receptions (nine) and receiving yards (105) today as he tallied his first career 100-yard receiving performance. Samuel converted for a first down on five of his nine catches today.
- Each of Samuel’s touchdowns this season have come over the last three games. Samuel’s four touchdowns are tied for 4th most in the NFL over the last three weeks (through Sunday’s early window of games).
CHARLTON’S FAKE PUNT
- The Panthers ran a fake punt in the second quarter, resulting in a 28-yard reception for a first down by WR Brandon Zylstra from rookie punter Joseph Charlton.
- It marked the second successful fake punt by the Panthers this year, following last week’s 28-yard rush by S Jeremy Chinn against Atlanta.
RED ZONE TOUCHDOWNS
- Carolina scored a touchdown on each of its four visits to the red zone today at Kansas City.
- Over the last three weeks, Carolina is 7-for-7 in scoring touchdowns on red zone drives.
LONGEST OPENING DRIVE
- On the opening drive of today’s game, Carolina drove 75 yards on 15 plays, elapsing 8 minutes and 53 seconds of game clock.
- It marked the longest drive of the season by Carolina (in both number of plays and time elapsed).
- The last time the Panthers had a drive of 8:53 or longer on first possession of a game was 10/12/14 at Cincinnati (15 plays, 9:15 elapsed time).
- Bridgewater spread the ball out, completing at least one pass to five different players (Anderson, Davis, McCaffrey, Moore, Samuel). The drive was capped off by a 9-yard receiving touchdown by McCaffrey.
