Pelissero: Comebacks rejuvenate several teams
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Carolina Panthers were on the verge of falling into a 17-point hole at home Sunday when Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould's 35-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right.
Cam Newton and the Panthers offense roared 75 yards in seven plays the other way to pull within 21-14 at halftime, and just like that, everything changed in a matchup of NFC playoff hopefuls and perhaps in each team's season as both entered the game 2-2.
"We knew it was a matter of time before we made some plays," all-pro linebacker Luke Kuechly told Paste BN Sports after Carolina finished off a 31-24 triumph. "Guys are tough on this team. They're resilient. They know that we can win."
The reigning NFC South champions may have needed a reminder after consecutive lopsided defeats the previous two weeks. But the Panthers weren't the only team that needed a win and overcame a double-digit deficit to get it Sunday.
The Kyle Orton-led Buffalo Bills trailed the Detroit Lions 14-0 and won 17-14. The New York Giants were down 20-10 to the Atlanta Falcons and won 30-20. The New Orleans Saints erased a 31-20 deficit in the fourth quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win 37-31 in overtime.
The Cleveland Browns pulled off the biggest rally by a road team in NFL history, falling down 28-3 to the Tennessee Titans in the first half before scoring 26 unanswered to win 29-28 on Travis Benjamin's 6-yard touchdown catch and Billy Cundiff's extra point with 1:09 to go.
"To me, it speaks to the character of the men in the room," said Browns coach Mike Pettine, whose team also escaped a fourth-quarter hole to beat the Saints in Week 2. "The resiliency, the poise, the focus. I think a lot of teams would have shut it down given what we faced at halftime.
"I did tell them after the game they got to stop to doing it. I have an EKG scheduled for tomorrow because my heart can't take many more of these."
All five comeback victors Sunday entered Week 5 at .500 or below.
It's too soon to start staring at the standings. But 3-2 can sure feel a lot different than 2-3, especially if you're the team that coughed up the cushion.
"It's very tough, very tough," Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said. "When you have a 10-point lead in the second half and you feel like you have some momentum, it's difficult."
When you erase that 10-point lead, it can feel like this is the moment everything begins to fall into place.
Just ask the Panthers, whose usually stout defense had allowed opponents to score on 15 of 21 possessions once Alshon Jeffrey's 25-yard touchdown catch on one of many screen passes thrown Sunday by Jay Cutler gave the Bears a 21-7 lead with 10:51 left in the second quarter.
The Bears' last nine drives yielded one field goal (plus Gould's pivotal miss) and the last three ended in turnovers. Thomas DeCoud intercepted Cutler to set up the tying score, Antoine Cason stripped Matt Forte and Kawann Short recovered to set up the winner, and Short strip-sacked Cutler on fourth-and-21 to seal it.
"We're getting back to our old form," DeCoud told Paste BN Sports, "and the timely manner of those turnovers – it swings momentum tremendously."
Of course, momentum is only as good as the performance that follows, and the Panthers have a tough matchup next week against the Bengals in Cincinnati – the first of five opponents in a row for Carolina that made the playoffs in 2013.
The Saints have a bye, then visit Detroit. The Bills host the New England Patriots. The Giants – winners of three straight since their 0-2 start – visit the favorites in their division at Philadelphia. The Browns host the Steelers, who also were in the .500-or-worse club entering Sunday.
Since the playoffs expanded to 12 teams in 1990, 37% of all playoff teams have started the season at 2-2 or worse – but there's no time to waste getting things turned around, one way or another.
"I said when we broke it down, 'Let's just win one by two touchdowns one week and not give everybody a heart attack,'" Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer said. "It's great to always win, but to win coming back and know that you battled your butt off is a great feeling."