Panthers eager to revive slumping running game in home playoff matchup with Rams

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Rico Dowdle and the NFC South champion Carolina Panthers are aiming to revive a slumping running game on Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Rams in the franchise's first home playoff game in a decade.

Failure to do so will almost certainly result in an early exit from the postseason for the double-digit underdog Panthers.

Carolina climbed into playoff contention midseason largely behind Dowdle, who put up record numbers over a four-game span. But since the Panthers ran it a season-high 40 times for 164 yards in a 31-28 upset win over the Rams on Nov. 30, the run game has been on a steady decline. That correlates with three losses in their last four games.

Dowdle hasn't eclipsed 60 yards rushing in the last eight games, and backup Chuba Hubbard has struggled to find his mojo as well after running for nearly 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns a year ago.

Since his arrival in 2024, Panthers coach Dave Canales has stressed the importance of being able to run the ball late in the season.

Yet when the Panthers needed to do it the most against Tampa Bay in Week 18 — a game which would've allowed them to clinch the outright division title with a win — they managed a season-low 19 yards on 10 carries on a soggy track at Raymond James Stadium.

Canales said it will take a “full group effort” to turn things around this week.

“Starts with me and the coaching staff, making sure that we have the right plan together for our guys," Canales said. "And then it starts up front with the O-line, the blocking, the combos, making sure we’re moving guys off the spot to get the play started.

“And then once the backs have the ball, just looking for that violent style of play that we saw that we know they can, and return to that and make sure we’re getting efficient runs on a consistent basis," he added.

In recent weeks, opposing defenses have been able to blow up some plays with run blitzes, getting hands on Dowdle and Hubbard before they've had a chance to pick up a head of steam.

“We cannot let people run through the line of scrimmage. Safeties, linebackers cannot run through the line of scrimmage," Canales said. "Our combintation blocks have to be excellent. We’ve got to make sure it’s covered up so that the backs can press the line of scrimmage and make decisions from there.”

Panthers guard Austin Corbett hinted that teams have been playing the Panthers differently since that Rams win, but did not elaborate.

“Defenses do a great job of looking at film and changing what they do,” Corbett said. “At the same time (during the last half of the season), Bryce has been able to sling it and is throwing touchdowns. So it's just a matter of taking what is given to you."

With the run game flowing, Young had his most productive game of the year against the Rams.

The No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft completed 15 of 20 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns to finish with a 147.1 QB rating, the second highest in the franchise's 31-year history. So the Panthers were able to strike a solid balance of run and pass in what amounted to their best offensive game.

Carolina may get some help on the O-line this week against the league's 12th-ranked run defense.

Robert Hunt, who inked a five-year, $100 million contract last season, could return to action this week if he's cleared by the medical staff. Hunt hasn't played since tearing his triceps in Week 2, but when healthy is considered the team's best run blocker.

Backup Chandler Zavala, a key reserve, could also return from injured reserve.

First down will be huge for the Panthers.

Over the last four games, Carolina has averaged 3.72 yards per play on first down, well off the mark from earlier this season.

“We can’t have zeros and 1-yard gains," Canales said. “If there’s any daylight at all, let’s get behind our pads, let’s get 2, 3, or 4. We do that twice in a row and we’re in a manageable third down. We get into these known pass situations, second and 10s, second and 9s, then we get a little bit more predictable.”

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Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard (30) is tackled by Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Haason Reddick (5) of an NFL football game Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Yaya Diaby, top, tackles Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard during the second half of an NFL football game Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Vita Vea, top, tackles Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle during the first half of an NFL football game Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, right, hands off to running back Rico Dowdle (5) during the first half of an NFL football game Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A series of mild eruptions at the most active volcano in the Philippines has prompted the evacuation of nearly 3,000 villagers from a danger zone on its foothills, officials said Wednesday.

Authorities raised the 5-step alert around Mayon Volcano in the northeastern province of Albay to level 3 on Tuesday after detecting intermittent rockfalls, some as big as cars, from its peak crater in recent days along with deadly pyroclastic flows — a fast-moving avalanche of super-hot rock fragments, ash and gas.

Alert level 5 would indicate that a major explosive eruption, often with violent ejections of ash and debris and widespread ashfall, is underway.

“This is already an eruption, a quiet one, with lava accumulating up the peak and swelling the dome, which cracked in some parts and resulted in rockfalls, some as big as cars,” Teresito Bacolcol, the country's chief volcanologist, told The Associated Press.

He said it is too early to tell if Mayon’s restiveness would worsen and lead to a major and violent eruption given the absence of other key signs of unrest, like a spike in volcanic earthquakes and high levels of sulfur dioxide emissions.

Troops, police and disaster-mitigation personnel helped evacuate more than 2,800 villagers from 729 households inside a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius from the volcano’s crater that officials have long designated a permanent danger zone, demarcated by concrete warning signs, Albay provincial officials said.

Another 600 villagers living outside the permanent danger zone have evacuated voluntarily to government-run emergency shelters to be safely away from the volcano, Claudio Yucot, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, said.

Entry to the permanent danger zone in the volcano’s foothills is prohibited, but thousands of villagers have flouted the restrictions and made it their home or maintained farms on and off for generations. Lucrative businesses, such as sand and gravel quarrying and sightseeing tours, have also thrived openly despite the ban and the mountain’s frequent eruptions — now 54 times since records began in 1616.

The 2,462-meter (8,007-foot) volcano is one of the Philippines’ top tourism draws because of its near-perfect cone shape. But it’s also the most active of the country’s 24 restive volcanoes.

A terrifying symbol of Mayon’s deadly fury is the belfry of a 16th-century Franciscan stone church which protrudes from the ground in Albay. It’s all that’s left of a baroque church that was buried by volcanic mudflow along with the town of Cagsawa in an 1814 eruption which killed about 1,200 people, including many who sought refuge in the church, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the volcano.

The thousands of people who live within Mayon’s danger zone reflect the plight of many impoverished Filipinos who are forced to live in dangerous places across the archipelago — near active volcanoes like Mayon, on landslide-prone mountainsides, along vulnerable coastlines, atop earthquake fault lines, and in low-lying villages often engulfed by flash floods.

Each year, about 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of fault lines along the Pacific Ocean basin often hit by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

In this photo provided by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, lava flows from the crater of the Mayon volcano as alert level 3 remains raised in Albay province, north eastern Philippines on Wednesday Jan. 7, 2026. (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology via AP)