DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys enter their Week 15 matchup against the Carolina Panthers battered and bruised, a far cry from where they thought they’d be at this point in the season.
At 5-8, Jerry Jones’ franchise is clinging onto the last threads of their playoff hopes and going on the road to take on a pesky Panthers team that is playing much better than their 3-10 record suggests.
This game was once thought of as an eventual easy win for the Cowboys, but that notion has changed with injuries and poor play from Dallas. In addition, the Panthers have been playing well lately. Carolina is 2-3 in their last five and the three losses have all been one possession defeats against some of the best teams in the league. This won’t be a ‘gimme game’ for head coach Mike McCarthy’s group.
These are the strengths and weaknesses for the Panthers, who are playing their best football in time for the Cowboys to arrive in Week 15:
Strength: Chuba Hubbard
For the fourth time this season, the Cowboys will go up against one of the best running backs in the league. This week it’ll be Hubbard, who will challenge a rushing defense that ranks 30th among the league’s 32 teams. Hubbard is one of six runners in the league who have already surpassed 1,000 yards rushing, with 1,011 yards on the ground.
That’s an impressive feat for an RB who many thought would be playing a secondary role at this point in the season to rookie runner Jonathan Brooks, but Hubbard never relinquished the starting job even before Brooks went down with an injury.
Hubbard has six outings where he’s run for 92 or more yards and has eight rushing touchdowns. The Cowboys will need to contain one of the league’s best running backs if they want to beat the Panthers, something that has challenged them all season.
Weakness: Rushing defense
There aren’t many teams with a worse rushing defense than the Cowboys, but the Panthers are one of them, ranking dead last in the league while giving up 170.1 yards on the ground per game. That’s a whopping 23+ yards worse than the next team and close to 30 yards worse than Dallas’ run defense.
Carolina has allowed six opponents to have a 100-yard rusher and have given up 19 scores on the ground, including a rushing touchdown in every game except one on the season.
The Cowboys have found their running game in the last few weeks with running back Rico Dowdle putting up back-to-back 100-yard rushing games. This should be another game where Dowdle and the offense can have some success on the ground.
Strength: Bryce Young
Don’t look now, but the second-year quarterback is starting to figure things out. It was a rough rookie year for Young and his 2024 campaign didn’t start much better when he failed to throw a touchdown or surpass 165 yards passing in any of his first four appearances. That poor play led to a benching early in the season, but Young has returned to the lineup as a different signal caller.
In the six games since reclaiming the starting job, Young has thrown for all seven of his touchdowns and is averaging over 212 yards passing per game. In his last four starts, Young has thrown just one interception and has his four highest rushing outputs, earning an average of 24 yards per contest on the ground. Those numbers are significantly higher than any time earlier in the year.
The movement and passing skills that made Young the first overall pick in 2023 are beginning to show and it is coinciding with the Panthers playing more competitive football.
Weakness: Pressuring the QB
For the second consecutive week, the Cowboys will be facing a defense that struggles to sack the quarterback. The Panthers are tied for fourth worst in the league with just 25 sacks, and no player has more than defensive end A’Shawn Robinson’s 4.5.
Without a dominant pass rusher, the Panthers haven’t been able to pressure QBs consistently, which is good news for a Cowboys offensive line that might be down their fourth starter. Center Cooper Beebe looks doubtful to play this week because of a concussion, leaving right tackle Terence Steele as the only starter from when the season started.
Left tackle Tyler Guyton looks to be in line to return, but it’s not certain that he starts. The Cowboys have faced some elite pass rushers this season, but they won’t have to worry about that in Week 15.
Weakness: Weapons in the passing game
Young has been giving the Panthers better QB play, but the offense doesn’t have many weapons in the passing game. The offense's leading receiver is rookie Xavier Legette, who has just 39 catches for 432 yards and four scores on the season. The next best option in the passing game is veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen, who has missed seven games, but is averaging just 61 yards per game.
Rookie Ja'Tavion Sanders leads the tight end position with just 29 catches and 302 yards. The Panthers have a combined 466 yards and two touchdowns from the position.
After Legette and Thielen, there isn’t much quality to the passing attack and the Panthers are gaining just under 187 yards per game through the air. If the Cowboys can slow down the rushing attack and make Carolina’s offense one-dimensional, they’ll have a good chance at winning the game.
Do you think the Cowboys will overcome the Carolina Panthers in Week 15? Share your predictions with Ben on X (formerly Twitter) @BenGrimaldi.
