Bryce Young and the Panthers might be starting to learn how to deliver the knockout punch

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Of the Carolina Panthers' eight wins last season, six were the result of second-half comebacks orchestrated by quarterback Bryce Young.

On Sunday, the Panthers didn't need one.

Leading by six late in the third quarter, Carolina put together a 14-play, 92-yard touchdown drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock and gave them some cushion they needed on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles. The teams would trade touchdowns from there, but the Panthers (3-2) never appeared in danger of losing to an injury-riddled Eagles team and walked away with a 25-14 wire-to-wire victory to remain atop the NFC South.

Outside of falling behind 3-0 early to Detroit, Carolina has maintained control of the lead in all three of its wins this season.

That means they're learning to play with leads, keep them and put opponents away when they need to do so.

And that's the next needed step in progression for a steadily maturing team, which now finds itself with a 1 1/2-game lead in the NFC South as it looks to defend its division title.

While Young's comebacks have been notable and important in the team's growth, the idea of stepping on the gas pedal and burying a team is "absolutely” what coach Dave Canales said the team needs to take things to a different level.

That's why Canales loved the long scoring drive that culminated with a 1-yard scoring run by Chuba Hubbard.

“That's territory that we have to be comfortable with, and to be able to execute those type of drives,” Canales said. “It was the physical nature of the way we finished. That's really just a dream of mine to be able to run with that type of physicality.”

Five weeks into the season, the Panthers are showing no signs of moving to a split backfield.

Despite the return of Trevor Etienne from injured reserve on Sunday, Hubbard continued to gobble up almost all of carries, logging 28 rushes for 120 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles. Etienne got just one carry.

Hubbard struggled through injuries early last season before battling back to regain his starting spot from Rico Dowdle.

This year, it was expected he would split time in the backfield with Jonathon Brooks, the team's 2024 second-round pick from Texas. But the injury-riddled Brooks landed on IR again this season and it's been all Hubbard since.

Hubbard has 426 yards rushing and six total touchdowns — four rushing and two receiving — through five games while averaging 4.8 yards per carry.

“He’s running the ball really well right now,” Canales said of Hubbard. "That should complement the rest of the offense.”

Despite the win, the Panthers have plenty to clean up.

They were penalized 13 times for a franchise-record 149 yards on Sunday. Carolina is averaging nearly 10 penalties for 84 yards per game, putting them in the top 10 in the league in both categories.

Tight end Tommy Tremble reeemerged as a sneaky weapon in the red zone Sunday, catching four passes for 46 yards and two touchdowns against the Eagles.

He punctuated his first TD catch with a viral celebration of him imitating fictional Philadelphia icon Rocky Balboa, pretending to deliver a knockout punch to teammate Jalen Coker in the end zone.

Tremble's role as a pass receiver was expected to take a hit with the arrival of veteran tight end Darren Waller, but he has fought hard to carve out his own niche.

He has 15 catches for 128 yards through five games.

“His toughness first and foremost, his versatility, how much he cares about doing his job, all of those things are exactly what we’re trying to point out offense and our guys toward," Canales said. “He creates that veteran leadership from that standpoint.”

Cornerback Will Lee had some rookie growing pains against the Eagles. The fourth-round draft pick from Texas A&M, who was making his second career start while helping fill the void of starters Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson who are on injured reserve, was flagged for two defensive pass interference calls resulting in two Eagles first downs and 45 penalty yards. He also surrendered a 19-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith in one-on-one coverage.

Still, Canales remains high on Lee and loves his competitiveness.

The Panthers emerged from Sunday's game fairly healthy with the exception of outside linebacker Thomas Incoom, who left in the second quarter with a calf injury and did not return.

3.6 — The Panthers limited Tanner McKee and the Eagles to 3.6 yards per play. Minus Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia managed just 35 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries. That's a vast improvement from the season opener when the Panthers allowed Chicago to run for 291 yards and six touchdowns.

McKee, starting in place of Jalen Hurts, was limited to 215 yards passing and sacked three times.

The Panthers return home Sunday for a divisional contest against Tampa Bay (1-5). Carolina holds a 26-25 edge in the series, but the Bucs have won five of the last six with former Panthers QB Baker Mayfield — currently sidelined with a thumb injury — at the helm.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Carolina Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble (82) scores a touchdown as he gets by Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell during the first half of an NFL football game in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard, left, is tackled by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. during the second half of an NFL football game in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard is brought down by Philadelphia Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba, left, during the second half of an NFL football game in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young reacts to his touchdown pass to Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on an unprecedented quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples.

Five of the world’s space agencies joined forces for the five-year mission that will attempt to land a robotic prospector plus a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of Mars’ two pint-sized moons.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which is leading the bold sampling effort, launched the spacecraft before dawn from the country's main spaceport on Tanegashima Island. Officials declared success an hour later when the spacecraft separated as planned from the rocket's upper stage. Flight controllers burst into applause and jumped to their feet, shaking hands and embracing.

While NASA has successfully landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years and China scored a 2021 touchdown, no one has ever ventured onto Phobos or its sidekick Deimos. And no one has managed to fetch samples from Mars, let alone its moons.

If successful, bits of dust, soil and rocks from Phobos will arrive on Earth in 2031.

“There’s a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement and a lot of wow,” said NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler, who’s involved with the project.

Japan has an edge going in, with two asteroid sample returns already under its cosmic belt.

Phobos is a lumpy, potato-shaped rock just 14 miles (22 kilometers) or so across. Examining pieces of it can explain how Mars’ moons — and possibly moons elsewhere — came to be.

Dubbed MMX for Martian Moons Exploration, the $578 million mission features a hefty 5-ton spacecraft that should reach Mars by late next summer. It will sync up with Phobos’ tight orbit around the red planet, before ejecting the French-German rover that’s named Idefix after the white terrier in the Asterix comics.

No bigger than a microwave oven, Idefix will plop onto Phobos by itself, bouncing for several minutes before coming to a halt in the moon's extraordinarily low gravity.

The four-wheeled rover is designed to right itself if it lands upside down. All bets are off, though, if it sinks into soft soil or gets wedged between rocks, said the French Space Agency’s Julien Baroukh. Once the rover’s solar panels are deployed, the vehicle can no longer right itself, he added, which is why it will move at a glacial 1 millimeter per second (0.04 inches per second).

Idefix will serve as a “scout for safety,” according to Baroukh, as it prowls around Phobos for 100 days. Japanese flight controllers want to avoid powdery soil and rough terrain when the mothership — a four-legged stationary lander — descends to the surface to gather samples in late 2028 or 2029.

The lander will spend just two hours on Phobos, drilling and vacuuming up at least one-third of an ounce (10 grams) of material, before launching back into space. It will study Deimos during a series of flybys before leaving the Martian neighborhood in 2030 and hustling back to Earth for a 2031 sample delivery in the Australian desert.

It’s a treacherous undertaking, with wreckage littering the path.

The moons’ names aren’t exactly comforting: Phobos is Greek for fear and Deimos means dread. They’re the twin sons of the god of war Ares — Mars in Roman mythology.

Russia stumbled in all three of its Phobos attempts as well as many other Mars endeavors. In its only other Mars mission, Japan failed to get a spacecraft into orbit around the red planet. Even NASA has had its share of flops in a bid to answer the burning question: Did life ever exist on Mars?

By studying Mars’ moons, scientists hope to learn whether Phobos and Deimos formed in the aftermath of an ancient collision between Mars and a battering space rock. It’s also possible that the moons might be stray asteroids that became ensnared in Mars’ gravity.

Either way, scientists anticipate finding traces of Mars on Phobos, making the samples an irresistible two-for-one that should help demystify planetary and moon formation, and perhaps even the recipe for life. The findings will help shape future Mars missions, including those by astronauts, said NASA’s acting planetary science director Lindsay Hays.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We are part of the first sample return mission from the Martian system,” said the Germany Space Agency's rover chief Markus Grebenstein.

Japan isn’t the only one looking to claim the scientific riches packed into the Martian system’s rocks and dirt. China plans to launch a sample return mission to Mars in 2028, while NASA is still debating how to retrieve the more than 30 sample tubes collected by the Perseverance Mars rover, the new champion for off-Earth driving.

Japan and China could be neck-and-neck in getting samples back from the Martian system. Both are targeting 2031.

Japan is investing $350 million in this mission. NASA is contributing $87 million, the French Space Agency about $68 million, the German Space Agency about $56 million and the European Space Agency some $17 million.

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An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)

An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)

An H3 rocket lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2026. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency unveils a spacecraft for its Martian Moons eXploration mission at the Tanegashima Space Center in Minamitane, southwestern Japan, Aug. 13, 2026. (Yuika Kawazoe/Kyodo News via AP)

This photo provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona, taken with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows Phobos, one of Mars' moons, on March 23, 2008. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona via AP)