CHARLOTTE — It's never as simple as what you want to do, because the other team gets a vote in it too.

But for the Carolina Panthers as they enter a critical final four games, finding the balance they seek on offense is paramount, because they've shown what can happen when they're not.

In the first meeting against the Saints, they weren't able to get the run game going because the Saints were intent on stopping it.

"Heavy boxes from the start, safeties dropping out of the sky, things like that," Rico Dowdle said with a shake of his head at the Saints' defensive emphasis. So when he was held to 18 carries for 53 yards (2.9 per carry) and Chuba Hubbard got only three attempts, the entire plan failed to come together.

And that's been a pattern for the Panthers this year.

When they're good, they find the balance head coach Dave Canales always talks about. When they're out of balance, things can get sideways.

In their seven wins, the Panthers average 33.4 rush attempts and 28.0 pass attempts per game. In their six losses, they average 22.7 rush attempts and 34.0 pass attempts per game.

Play-calling in 7 wins vs. 6 losses

So it's not as simple as deciding to call runs, but having that foundation is important to the entire operation. In a game like San Francisco when they only get 43 offensive plays, things get out of whack. When you're down 26-3 early in the third against the Bills, ditto. But staying balanced means doing enough of each to do both a sufficient amount.

"Absolutely, it's the game flow," Canales said. "It's the defense that we're playing. It's what they're giving us and how they're trying to attack us, starting up front with the structures facing the run game, and whatever their plan might be that day, it's for the coaches our job to kind of figure that part out and find the run game that fits what they're doing. We have an idea for what they should be and for the most part defenses stay within their identity. . . . But for me, it's a win is a win, yards are yards, and that's what we want to come away from. But I do know I want to be able to run the ball in some way, shape, or form because I understand who we are as a team.

"Panthers football should look a certain way, and I want to make sure we come out of it playing the run well on defense and then on offense, making sure that Rico and Chuba have an opportunity to affect the game."

That foundation is built into the way they've put the team together.

While quarterback Bryce Young gets the bulk of the attention because he's a quarterback and that's just how it works, the Panthers have been deliberate about putting that foundational offense around him. Whether it was bringing back last year's top nine offensive linemen to guarantee depth, or investing in Dowdle in free agency to supplement Hubbard a year after extending his deal, the Panthers aren't making any secrets about this. This is who they want to be.

Young's not one to look back, as you may have noticed, but said the Saints were able to take them out of their preferred mode that day in November.

"They did a great job, defensively, schematically, and playing it well," Young said. "They gave us some heavy boxes and made it hard on the run game, and even when the boxes weren't heavy, they have really good players over there in New Orleans. You have a ton of respect for them, so we know we have to be at our best.

"Some of this stuff was, they executed better that day. For us, you know, obviously, we've turned the page on us to grow."

And that means getting back to the kind of balance they're always looking for. Even going back to last year, when they made their late-season run, there was a clear pattern.

Looking at the final six games in December and January, in the three good ones (the loss to Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia and overtime wins over the Cardinals and Falcons), the Panthers ran it 100 times and threw it 95. In the losses to Tampa Bay (twice) and the Cowboys, they ran it 48 times and threw 102.

And while the Panthers have shown the ability to rebound from bad performances (witness their inability to move the ball downfield against the Saints with the shot plays Young was hitting the following week in Atlanta), they also know other teams see that.

So, offensive coordinator Brad Idzik said they plan for that kind of approach by varying the looks they show in both the run and the pass game.

"It starts with the plan," Idzik said. "So, a big piece of who we want to be is making sure, when you put a concept in that you think will be good against the team, whether it's run or pass, you say, OK, what can and what have they shown to do to combat that? What's a reaction they might have if this is hitting at this particular time? Let's put in something to protect that. If it's an angle of the cut in a route concept, or it's a formation or motion that we've shown, and we know that they're going to carve up that play on their defensive side because it's hit, what can we do to combat that, protect it, or present it a different way?"

They do that in a number of ways, with personnel and formations. One of their early adjustments as they incorporated rookie receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. was to put him in motion on run plays, and occasionally hand it to him. Likewise, Hubbard has often been on the field on a lot of third downs this year (even when Dowdle was on his mid-season heater) because he's the better pass-protector of the two. Against the Rams, they handed it to him on five third downs, just to keep the opponent honest. He converted three of them on the ground, and on the other two that were stopped, Young was able to hit Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan deep for fourth-down touchdowns on the following down, the kinds of plays that come from the gradual effect of the run game on play-action. When it all works, it all works well together.

That's part of the game for Idzik and Canales, as they design the offense in its entirety.

"It's a formation, personnel; for us, you might put a new guy in, try to present it a little bit differently by maybe running at a different guy, running a different direction," Idzik said. "If it's a run game, motion-wise, you'll get to what we call a final formation. What's the snapshot when that ball is snapped? There are different ways to get to a final formation, and both run and pass. And that for us, if you do that with good tempo and brisk tempo, you try at times to see if the defense can't recognize, what that final formation is and what our tendencies are out of that."

So when Canales was discussing the Saints (who have three wins but two against the teams tied atop the NFC South), he first mentioned "they've found an identity."

That's what the Panthers are trying to establish over this last month, and Canales knows that finding it will require staying balanced.