LAS VEGAS — It was the prevailing request in a jovial locker room: Show me the Jadeveon Clowney dance.
"Was it any good?" asked Jaycee Horn.
The look Xavier Woods shot his way, with the smallest head nod, was answer enough.
Teammate after teammate lined up to watch video of the outside linebacker's sack on Aiden O'Connell, and the subsequent celebration that screamed "Man in his 30s tries to do the Nae Nae."
But on a day when the Panthers forced five drives to end in a three-and-out, two turnovers on downs and one turnover in the traditional sense (a Mike Jacksoninterception) en route to a 36-22 win, any negative comments about Clowney's celebration dance might have been the only ones from the defense.
The Raiders scored two of their touchdowns (and 15 of their 22 points) in what amounted to garbage time, when the game was well in hand for the Panthers. It was complementary football from top-to-bottom, as the offense put up 437 total yards, and the defense held the Raiders to 331 yards—261 yards without the late drive after Raiders starting quarterback Gardner Minshew had donned a baseball hat.
"The first win, that's the most important," Horn said. "The first two weeks was kind of down, but we knew what type of team we had, and we knew we just had to respond. Even the outside noise was getting kind of crazy, we still stuck together as a team. We just came out here and play complementary football and found a way to win."
Perhaps the biggest factor in the Panthers defense playing their part, was the passing defense holding Davante Adams to four receptions for 40 yards, a modest line for the dynamic receiver. It was not just due to the passing defense though, as nickel Troy Hill explained, but rather the entire defense, from front-to-back.
"I think rush and coverage go hand in hand," Hill said. "I feel like it was just a team victory. You get a lot of energy when you see offense moving, you see the rush coming together. So, I feel like that all played a part in the team victory."
Jackson, acquired via trade during training camp from Seattle, was within sniffing distance of the ball most of the day, allowing him to finish with a team high nine tackles, three passes defended and the interception.
"Mike, he's just not any cornerback," Horn said. "He played a lot of snaps in his league, and I try to lean on him and learn from him every day. He came up with the ball today. So anytime a cornerback come up with a pick, you know, it's a win."
Clowney, in addition to showing off his dancing skills, picked up two tackles, one for loss, the sack and two quarterback hurries, as well as a few moments that don't make their way to a box score.
With just under two minutes remaining in the first half, the Raiders got the ball back trailing 14-7 at the time and hoping to double dip on each side of intermission. They started with favorable field position, at their own 33-yard line, but twice, Clowney chased Minshew out of the pocket and towards the boundary, forcing errant and/or throw away passes. His two plays bookmarked a sack for Jayden Peevy. (LaBryan Ray had the third of the day.)
The Raiders were forced to punt on the drive, and it was the Panthers who punched it in once more in just under a minute, to take a 21-7 to the locker room.
After a week in which questions around the team rang out across the country, Horn admitted the Panthers internalized the talk—" I mean, everybody on their phones 24/7. So somebody telling you they ain't see or listening to it, they lied to you"— and showed up on Sunday ready to add their voice to the narrative.
Said Horn, "Yeah, we see it. But we know what type of team we are. We got real big leaders in this locker room. So, we just stayed together and had a good week of practice this week. Coach said that we were going to go out here and dominate Sunday and that's what we did."
Check out post-game photos from the Panthers 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.