Panthers Rewind- Panthers in the Illustrious Superbowl
Here at Panthers Pounce our writer Emily Gates will be taking a look at Panthers teams from the past starting with the two Super Bowl teams of 2003 & 2015
The 2022 Carolina Panthers have emerged as one of the worst teams in the NFL. But Carolina have been in the Super Bowl at least once when looking back at their Super bowls some questions come up. How many Super Bowl appearances do the Carolina Panthers have? What happened during those Super Bowls? What was the aftermath of those Super Bowls?
How many Super Bowl wins do the Panthers have?
The Panthers have yet to experience a Carolina Super Bowl win. Therefore, they do not have any rings or trophies to show. Joining the list of teams, for example, the Cincinnati Bengals, the Houston Texans, the Detroit Lions, etc.. yet to experience the holding of a Lombardi trophy.
When did the Panthers go to the Super Bowl?
The Panthers have been to two Super Bowls. The Carolina Panthers featured in the 2004 Superbowl during the 2003 regular season against the New England Patriots in the franchises first Superbowl. The second Superbowl the Panthers made an appearance in was Super Bowl 50 against the Denver Broncos. Carolina came up short in both of those Super Bowls.
Panthers vs Patriots Super Bowl
This game took place on February 1st, 2004, the first-ever Super Bowl for the team in franchise history. Carolina’s roster had legends such as Steve Smith Sr. and Jake Delhomme. While on the New England Patriots side they had NFL legends Tom Brady, Mike Vrabel, and Adam Vinatieri on their roster.
It was a very close Super Bowl and came down to a 41-yard field goal which Adam Vinatieri made, and would go on to make sending Carolina to their first Super Bowl loss. This Super Bowl became a painful reminder of the teams Super Bowl shortcomings. For the Patriots they would continue a dynasty by winning four more Super Bowls.
Panthers vs Patriots Super Bowl
Carolina wouldn’t go on to make another Super Bowl appearance until 2016 in Super Bowl 50 which was played on February 7th, 2016 where they faced the Peyton Manning-led Denver Broncos. In the lead-up to this game, this was the best year in Franchise history, the Panthers went Fifteen-and-one in the regular season, while the Denver Broncos went twelve-and-four. Both ended up winning their divisions.
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The Super Bowl 50 roster had legends such as Cam Newton, Luke Keuchly, Greg Olsen, and Thomas Davis. While on Denvers’ roster had all-stars Peyton Manning, Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Von Miller, and Brandon Marshall. Looking at these teams on paper this was going to be a great Super Bowl match-up.
So how did the game go for the Panthers? In this game, Carolina had a fumbling problem. They fumbled three separate times. The most infamous one was of course the last fumble caused by Cam Newton getting sacked by Von Miller, on film it looked like Cam Newton was going to go for the fumble and try and recover it then dodged out of the way causing the Broncos to recover the fumble, leading to them winning the game with a final score of 24-10, on top of that Von Miller getting named Super Bowl MVP.
What happened after those Super Bowls?
After the 2004 Super Bowl, Carolina had a period where they went regressed from 2005-2007 then went 12-4 in 2008 then declined from 2009- 2012 in those three years they had their lowest record in 2010 going 2-14 in 2010 then bouncing back up to where they went 15-2 in the 2015 season and reaching the Super Bowl.
The aftermath of Super Bowl 50 was more tumultuous, in 2019 they fired their head coach at the time, Ron Rivera, his replacement being Matt Rhule who did have NFL coaching experience just not head coaching, and was coaching at Baylor university at the time. The Rhule era has been anything but, great. In Rhules first season the pandemic 2020 season they would go 5-11, then in 2021 with an extra game added they went 5-12, and finally in 2022 the Panthers started 1-3. Leaving Rhule on the hot seat already.
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