Since regaining his starting spot under center, Bryce Young has completely flipped the Panthers narrative from two months ago. No longer was Carolina a bottom feeder or an easy win. but a fierce competitor. Although there were no playoff implications for the Cats, Bryce and company had the chance to play spoiler at Atlanta.
Where the second year man was locked in ahead of his matchup with Michael Penix Jr and the Falcons. Young had slung it nicely as of late, but used his feet to score first. Fresh off returning from IR, Miles Sanders was wide open like Waffle House Monday through Sunday for the touchdown. Trailing 24–17 at halftime, Bryce showed some love to Tommy Tremble in the back of the endzone then immediately after zipping a shot to David Moore. Three passing touchdowns and two rushing for Bryce Young as both teams went to overtime tied at 38. Panthers drove all the way down the field for Miles Sanders to put a feather in the cap of this one and end the season with a walkoff spoiler win in Atlanta.
Washington, seeking redemption from their wild midseason loss to Dallas, had an early lead from Marcus Mariota to Zach Ertz. The veteran tight end hauled in his 7th TD of the year. Then the former Oregon star broke a tackle and said touchdown time. Fast forward to five seconds left in the game when Marcus Mariota found Terry McLaurin for the win as the Commanders achieved a 12-win regular season.
Plus, former Wallace-Rose Hill star Javonte Williams helped the Broncos punch their ticket to the playoffs as the 7-seed with 78 total yards on the day as his rookie QB Bo Nix threw for four touchdowns in a 38–0 shutout over Kansas City.
Over at ECU, Rahjai Harris took hundreds of photos and autographed his legendary go-ahead touchdown run as a photo souvenir for fans ahead of the Pirates basketball contest with FAU. East Carolina had a rough start, trailed 15–2 early, but the bright side was a ton of dunks as the Pirates got the lead down to five at halftime. Enter the 2nd half, RJ Felton who’s been in a slump recently started to receive “he’s back” chants from the crowd getting this game close while finishing with 13 points as it came down to a final play trailing 78-76 and after two missed three-point attempts by Jayshane Woodard, ECU fell for their second straight loss to the Owls.
Next up, Pirates host Temple on Wednesday at 7:00.
UNC women hosted Notre Dame and while it wasn’t as wild as Elliot Cadeau’s 4-point play Saturday, Lexi Donarski dropped a fun 13 points, but number three Notre Dame left Chapel Hill with a 76–66 dub
NC State was still without North Pitt star Zamareya Jones, but Saniya Rivers was the strength of the pack scoring 23 points and adding 11 rebounds for a double double in States 91–52 win.
Plus, Duke’s Reigan Richardson notched one thousand career points as a Blue Devil against Pittsburgh as Duke cooked the cats for a 69–31 win.
On the ice, Hurricanes and Penguins in overtime, 3–3, until Sebastian Aho off the deflection scored the game winner and said goodnight Pittsburgh. The goal marked his 600th career point in Carolinas 4–3 final.
