1996 Carolina Panthers: 2nd-Year Success

The Carolina Panthers entered the league in 1995 and promptly went a respectable 7-9, a remarkable level of success for a first-year franchise. It turned out that was no fluke—in 1996, the Panthers continued their rapid growth and made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game.

Carolina’s success was built around a veteran group of linebackers and a 3-4 scheme that unleashed them. Kevin Greene was 34-years-old, but he still recorded 14 ½ sacks in an All-Pro campaign. Lamar Lathon was on the opposite edge, and he made the Pro Bowl with 13 ½ sacks. Sam Mills was still one of the league’s great inside linebackers, and an All-Pro at age 37.

There were other good players, notably corner Eric Davis, who intercepted five passes and got a Pro Bowl ticket. But the trio of linebackers were at the heart of the NFL’s second-best defense.

Kerry Collins was in his second year in the league at quarterback. Collins played 12 games in a season where nagging injuries kept getting him. His overall production—56% completion rate, and 6.7 yards-per-attempt—was subpar. But his interception rate of 2.5%, while high by today’s standards, was sixth-best in the league in 1996. With a defense like the one the Panthers had, a quarterback who steered clear of mistakes was a valuable asset.

Collins’ close-to-the-vest approach is reflected in the fact that tight end Wesley Walls was the leading receiver with 61 catches. Mark Carrier and Willie Green were the primary wideouts, combining to catch 104 balls. Anthony Johnson was a 1,100-yard rusher, although with a mediocre offensive line, his yards-per-carry was only 3.7.

The offensive personnel and individual numbers don’t jump out at you. But when you combine mistake-free football with an elite defense and a Pro Bowl kicker in John Kasay, you end up with the seventh-best offense in the league.

Carolina opened the season at home with Atlanta. The Falcons had made the playoffs in 1995, but their collapse to a miserable season this year began in Week 1. The Panther D got home for seven sacks, three by Lathon and two from Greene in a 29-6 win.

A road trip to a bad New Orleans Saints team followed. After spotting the Saints a touchdown, Carolina got an 84-yard punt return by Winslow Oliver to tie the game. Kasay booted five field goals, the last one the difference in a 22-20 win.

But Collins injured his knee late in the game. An early bye week wasn’t enough to get him healthy for the arrival of the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3.

In the pre-2002 world of the NFL, this was a divisional game. Carolina, along with Atlanta and New Orleans, shared the NFC West with San Francisco and the St. Louis Rams. The South did not yet exist in what was a three-division format.

Furthermore, the 49ers were the power of the NFC West, having won this division four straight years and only two seasons removed from a Super Bowl title. Veteran backup QB Steve Beuerlein would take the reins for this key early test.

Beuerlein hit Walls with a pair of first-half touchdown passes and Carolina raced to a 17-0 lead. The defense completely shut down the San Francisco running game and the Panthers cruised to a shockingly easy 23-7 win.

Carolina went down to Jacksonville to face another team in their second year of existence. The Jags were 1-3 coming in, but they would come on down the stretch and turn into a playoff team themselves. They gave the Panthers an early taste of that—Beuerlein was sacked five times, Carolina was outrushed 179-57 and they took their first loss, 23-7.

Collins returned for a trip to playoff-bound Minnesota, and he played poorly. Four interceptions led to a 14-12 defeat. But Collins got back into gear at home against the Rams—he threw a pair of early touchdown passes to get the Panthers a quick lead. Johnson ran for 126 yards. Greene returned a fumble for a touchdown. The brief losing streak came to an end with a 45-13 rout.

New Orleans came in for the rematch, and Carolina dominated the trenches. They won the rushing battle 159-71, getting 123 yards from Johnson and chiseled out a 19-7 win. But the running game disappeared a week later against a good, playoff-bound Philadelphia Eagles team. The Panthers dug themselves an early 14-0 hole. Collins made some big plays, but he was erratic, going 16/34 for 248 yards. Carolina lost 20-9.

Losing on the road in Philly was one thing. Dumping a game to what was now obviously an awful Falcons team was another. Collins was playing well, going 14/21 for 222 yards. But he was knocked out. Beuerlein struggled in relief and was sacked five times to boot. The Panthers dropped a 20-17 decision.

At 5-4, Carolina looked like a so-so team that would be on the playoff fringe—and for the second year of existence, there was nothing wrong with that. But the remainder of the season would show that this was a team with bigger things in mind.

The Panthers hosted a the subpar New York Giants on Sunday Night Football. Collins went 19/33 for 202 yards. Carolina controlled rush yardage, 142-74. In a game that was tied 17-17 in the third quarter, the Panthers pulled away to a 27-17 win. But in the process, Collins bruised his elbow. Beuerlein was back in.

Carolina muddled along for a half in St. Louis, trailing 10-3 and committing eleven penalties on the afternoon. But the defense was getting after it, finishing with six sacks. Beuerlein threw a short touchdown pass to Walls to tie. A Johnson TD run put the Panthers ahead, and they closed out a 20-10 win.

A road date with the old Houston Oilers (today’s Tennessee Titans) was next. After a scoreless first quarter, Beuerlein hit Green with a 30-yard touchdown strike. Another TD to Green in the third quarter extended the lead. Facing a mediocre opponent, the rout was now on. The Panthers finished with four sacks, collected four turnovers, got a scoop-and-score from Mills, and cruised to a 31-6 win.

The season was hitting its stretch drive and Carolina was 8-4. They were firmly in command to get one of the three wild-card berths. They were only a game back of San Francisco in the NFC West—and still had a head-to-head shot with the 49ers, where the Panthers could get a season sweep and the tiebreaker. They controlled their own destiny for the division crown and were only one game behind the Green Bay Packers for the #1 overall seed in the NFC.

And the defense kept delivering, producing another four-sack/four-turnover performance at home against a shaky Tampa Bay squad. It was plenty of support for the returning Collins, as Carolina churned out a 24-0 win.

The stage was set for the trip to San Francisco.

After an up and down year, Collins would play his best game of the season against the 49ers. He finished 22/37 for 327 yards and no mistakes. He tossed a pair of short TD passes to Walls, and hit Green with a 20-yard strike. In a wild first half, the Panthers had a 27-17 lead.

In the second half, Carolina got the game settled down. The defense finished with five sacks and they collected four turnovers. Green finished with 157 yards receiving. In a signature moment for the franchise, the Panthers beat the 49ers 30-24. They had control of the NFC West with two weeks to play.

The lowly Baltimore Ravens came to Charlotte, and the Panthers spent the first half looking like they had a bit of a hangover, trailing 13-10. But Collins, en route to a 26/39 for 268 yards day, threw a pair of TD passes in the second half. Carolina won 27-16.

Any number of possibilities were on the table going into the home finale with a good Pittsburgh Steelers team. If the Panthers won, they were the #2 seed, something that came with a first-round bye. If the Packers lost, Carolina could rise to the top line. Conversely, if the Panthers lost—to an opponent who had reached the Super Bowl a year earlier—then San Francisco could grab the first-round bye on Monday Night and consign the Panthers to the 4-seed and the wild-card round.

The Panthers-Steelers game was a defensive battle. Collins found Walls on a nine-yard touchdown pass, and Carolina added a safety to go ahead 9-0. But the offense bogged down, and they found themselves trailing 14-9 in the third quarter. The Panthers churned out three good drives. Each one of them ended in Kasay field goals, but it was enough to secure the 18-14 win. The Panthers were NFC West champs, got a week off, and would go in as the 2-seed.

Dethroned San Francisco was one of the NFL’s two great powers in the first half of the 1990s. The other was the Dallas Cowboys, who had won three of the previous four Super Bowls. It would be the Cowboys who made their way to Carolina for the final game of Divisional Round Weekend on a late Sunday afternoon.

A long Dallas drive in the first quarter ended with a  field goal inside the five-yard line. When Carolina got down inside the 5 later in the quarter, they finished with a one-yard flip from Collins to Walls. In the second quarter Collins threw another TD pass, this one to Green. The Cowboys answered, but a missed two-point conversion kept the score at 14-9.

The Panthers made a big mistake when pinned deep in their own end. The long snap on a punt went out of the end zone, gifting Dallas a safety and cutting the lead to three. Carolina got a field goal before the half and went to intermission with a 17-11 lead.

A physical second half ensued. The Panthers got 104 yards from Johnson, as he outrushed the great Emmitt Smith, who finished with 80. But the big difference is that the aggressive Carolina defense picked off Troy Aikman three times. They came up with two more big red-zone stops to force short field goals. Kasay booted three field goals of his own. The Panthers chiseled out a 26-17 win.

The door was open for a new champion, and Carolina went to Green Bay for the NFC Championship Game. But the Packers had been knocking on this door for several years now, and they weren’t going to let it slip away. The Panthers hung in early on and even led 10-7 in the second quarter. But they were crushed in the trenches, losing rush yardage 201-45, and the defense was unable to get its renowned pressure on Brett Favre. The game got away and Carolina lost 30-13.

It was still an amazing year that capped off an impressive two-year start for the franchise. But it was also the high point of these early years. Carolina slipped back under .500 the following year and collapsed to 4-12 in 1998. Bringing in 49er legend George Seifert for three years after that didn’t work. It took until the surprise Super Bowl run of 2003 for Carolina to come back.