Carolina (6-5) at San Francisco (7-4)
Monday, 8:15 p.m. EST, ESPN
BetMGM NFL Odds: 49ers by 7
Against the spread: Rams 7-4, 49ers 6-5
Series record: Panthers lead 13-10.
Last meeting: 49ers beat Panthers 37-15, in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 9, 2022.
Last week: Panthers beat Falcons 30-27 in OT; 49ers beat Cardinals 41-22.
Panthers offense: overall (22), rush (9), pass (27), scoring (28).
Panthers defense: overall (15), rush (17), pass (16), scoring (13).
49ers offense: overall (10), rush (27), pass (2), scoring (15).
49ers defense: overall (25), rush (12), pass (28), scoring (15).
Turnover differential: Panthers minus-4; 49ers minus-5.
Panthers player to watch
QB Bryce Young. The No. 1 pick in 2023 seems to be finding his footing in the NFL, having won five of his past six starts for the Panthers. Young was criticized for his lack of production in the passing game after being held to fewer than 200 yards passing in eight of his first nine starts this season. However, he had a franchise-record 448 yards passing and three touchdowns last week against Atlanta. He could be in for another big game against a 49ers defense that is 28th in the league in pass defense.
49ers player to watch
QB Brock Purdy returned to the lineup last week after missing six straight games with a toe injury and showed no signs of rust. He completed 19 of 28 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns. Purdy’s five straight games with at least 200 yards passing and two TDs are two shy of Steve Young’s franchise record.
Key matchup
Panthers D vs 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey. Carolina will face its 2017 first-round pick for the first time since trading McCaffrey to San Francisco in 2022. McCaffrey leads the NFL with 1,439 yards from scrimmage this season and is tied for second with 11 TDs. McCaffrey’s 732 yards receiving are the ninth most of any player this season and now he faces a Carolina defense that is tied for the third-most catches allowed this season by running backs with 54.
Key injuries
Panthers: Young’s ankle is a bit of a concern, but other than that the Panthers should be relatively healthy entering their only Monday night appearance of the season.
49ers: LB Tatum Bethune will miss the game with a high ankle sprain. Curtis Robinson will likely start in his place. … K Eddy Pineiro is out with a strained right hamstring.
Series notes
The 49ers are 2-1 against the Panthers since Kyle Shanahan was hired in 2017. … Shanahan lost his first game as San Francisco coach to Carolina in 2017 and won meetings in 2019 and 2022. … The Panthers are 7-4 on the road vs. the 49ers with the .636 winning percentage the best of any visiting team against San Francisco.
Stats and stuff
The Panthers and 49ers are two of seven teams that have winning records this season after missing the playoffs in 2024. … San Francisco has the best average starting field position after receiving kickoffs (35.6 yard line), while Carolina has the second best when defending kickoffs (27.1 yard line). … Panthers rookie WR Tetairoa McMillan is coming off his best game as a pro, catching eight passes for 130 yards and two TDs against the Falcons. He now has two multiple TD games, the other coming against Dallas. … RB Rico Dowdle eclipsed 100 yards from scrimmage for the fourth time this season last Sunday, all of which have come in his five starts. Dowdle has 1,030 scrimmage yards this season becoming the fifth Carolina running back to reach the 1,000-yard mark in the first 11 games of the season. … The Panthers are averaging just 5.4 penalties per game, the second fewest per game in the league this season. Of those, only one penalty per game is committed by the defense, the fewest in the league. … LB Claudin Cherelus stepped in to start for the injured Trevin Wallace last week for Carolina and had 10 tackles. In his three career starts, Cherelus has averaged 7.7 tackles per game. … While $100 million man Jaycee Horn gets most of the attention in the Carolina secondary, CB Mike Jackson has been pretty good of late, too. Since Week 7, Jackson has not allowed a passer rating above 78 in any game, while playing at least 20 coverage snaps at outside cornerback in all five games. Over that span, he has allowed just a 42.4 passer rating as the nearest defender, the seventh lowest allowed by the 78 outside cornerbacks with at least 50 coverage snaps. … The Niners have alternated wins and losses for their past nine games. … San Francisco has already surpassed last season’s win total of six. … The 49ers had no sacks on 57 pass attempts last week and rank last in the league with 1.1 sacks per game. … San Francisco TE George Kittle has caught 27 of his 30 targets this season. Kittle became the fifth player in franchise history with at least 50 TD catches and is five behind Vernon Davis for the most by a tight end. … McCaffrey’s 50 TDs with the 49ers in the regular season and playoffs are tied with Billy Wilson for the 14th most in franchise history. … San Francisco had two INTs last week after having only one in the first nine games.
Fantasy tip
Kittle had six catches for 67 yards and two TDs last week. He has at least four catches in four straight games with four TDs. Kittle and Purdy had a great connection with the 141.4 passer rating on Purdy’s throws to Kittle ranking first among all combinations with at least 100 targets since 2000, according to Sportradar. The Panthers have struggled to defend the tight end this season with Darren Waller, Jake Ferguson, Hunter Henry and Juwan Johnson all finding the end zone.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
By The Associated Press
