Panthers 21, Redskins 13: Cam Newton passed for one touchdown and ran for another and Carolina's defense held Washington rookie Robert Griffin III in check as the visiting Panthers snapped a five-game losing streak.
DeAngelo Williams, who was rumored to be on the trading block leading up to Thursday's deadline, broke a 30-yard touchdown run to give Carolina (2-6) a 7-3 lead in the first quarter, and the Panthers didn't trail again.
The Redskins (3-6) had a chance to close the gap or take the lead before halftime, but they passed up a short field goal and were stopped on fourth down. Carolina answered with a 98-yard touchdown drive - tied for the second-longest in team history - for a 14-3 halftime lead.
Newton capped the long drive with a 19-yard touchdown strike to Steve Smith, and the second-year quarterback added a 1-yard touchdown run with 12:46 left to make it 21-6. Newton finished 13-of-23 for 201 yards and added 37 rushing yards on eight carries.
Washington's defense turned in its best performance of the season, allowing a season-low 330 total yards, but the offense was held to its third-lowest yardage total of the season (337) and did not find the end zone until Evan Royster's first career touchdown run from 2 yards with 1:34 left.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Washington RB Alfred Morris rushed for 76 yards on 13 carries. He leads all rookies with 793 rushing yards. … Griffin (529) and Morris became the first rookie quarterback-running back tandem to go over 500 rushing yards each in NFL history. … The Panthers improved to 8-9 under coach Ron Rivera when leading or tied in the fourth quarter.
Carolina | Washington | |
Jonathan Stewart | Player | Alfred Morris |
10 | Attempts | 13 |
51 | Yards | 76 |
5.1 | Avg Yards | 5.8 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
21 | Long | 18 |
Carolina | Washington | |
Armanti Edwards | Player | Logan Paulsen |
1 | Receptions | 5 |
82 | Yards | 59 |
82.0 | Avg Yards | 11.8 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
82 | Long | 19 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Carolina | 330 | 129 | 201 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 | 0 |
Washington | 337 | 151 | 186 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 |