CHARLOTTE — When you're playing the league's top-ranked offense, you're not going to count on that many stops.

But for the Carolina Panthers Sunday in their 30-27 win against the Cowboys, they got the stops when they needed them most, and helped set a new standard on run defense, which continues to create opportunities.

"Anytime you make plays in the fourth quarter, those are big-time plays," outside linebacker Patrick Jones II said. "So we do that. We just know we got to buckle up and go execute."

Considering this was against the league's top-ranked offense coming into the game, the fact they made stops late underscored the larger point. They held the Cowboys to 292 yards on the day (they were averaging 406.6 per game). They had only been held under 396 yards once all year.

And the

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