CHARLOTTE — There are several reasons that the Panthers didn't blink when they were down two touchdowns in the first half of a playoff game.

One of the main ones is because they have Bryce Young, who may not be a perfect quarterback, but has proven he knows how to lead comebacks and tends to get better when it's needed the most.

Despite the 34-31 playoff loss to the Rams on Saturday, Young turned in another solid performance, throwing for 264 yards and a touchdown, scrambling for a 16-yard touchdown, moving them downfield often, and getting them the lead back late in the fourth quarter with a touchdown to Jalen Coker. But then Matthew Stafford pulled his own late-game magic, driving the Rams for a game-winning touchdown with 38 seconds to play. There was an early interception, but as he has so often, Young fought back and had the Panthers in position to advance.

"Gritty, just gritty, tough," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said of his quarterback. "This is a really good pass-rushing group, and he made plays. He extended the play, found guys down the field consistently, and ran a touchdown in from a little bit further out. And of course, he'd be up here, and he'll tell you he would love to have that interception back, and that's a part of this game that he understands is in his control.

"But at the same time, to give us a chance to take the ball all the way down after the punt, a couple of plays, and then punch it in with the beautiful throw right there to Coker at the end to take the lead was unbelievable. I just can't say enough about the way Bryce stepped up and played in this game."

The comeback was in character for Young this season, as he led six of his 12 career game-winning drives (the most of any player in the league since 2023) to help the Panthers win the NFC South.

That didn't make the moments after the loss any easier for him, but he talked about taking strides in his "ownership" of the system and his leadership role as he heads into his fourth season.

"I'm grateful to have a great group of guys, grateful to be empowered, and knowing what we're capable of," Young said. "Making sure that it's my responsibility to bring that out of us for us to be at our best. Just the increased ownership as a player, as a leader, I'm grateful for that growth, and it taught me to continue that growth.

"I try to figure out on a week-to-week basis what I can do to improve, what I can do to maintain for things that are going well. I don't think I'm a big-picture, philosophical, who-am-I type of guy. I'm a believer. I'm someone who's going to come in every single day and give my all. I want to do whatever it is that benefits the team. So I think for me it's just about improvement, trying to be better, making sure that we're better, and then obviously in the offseason, when we do our self-scout, we'll learn a lot."

Young's often harder on himself than others are, and throughout the locker room — on both sides of the ball — a confidence grew this year.

"He's just showing who he is, man," cornerback Mike Jackson said. "A lot of people talk about how little he is and how he can't get it done, and it's just like he don't listen to it.

"He's a silent killer, and I love that about him. So, he just showed who he was."

His fellow captain, Derrick Brown, also said that Young has proven this year that he can play and can lead.

"Man, Bryce has had a damn good year," Brown said. "So many people rag on him, and s---, if it was easy, everybody would play quarterback in the league, but that ain't quite the case.

"So man, I'm just proud of him and his growth throughout the year, standing tall in front of the team, no matter if it was when we got beat in New England, coming to the locker room, we got something to say. I mean, we get it every single week."

Young also set career highs in most of the categories this season, from passing yards (3,011), touchdowns (23), completion percentage (63.6), and passer rating (87.8). In one-score games, his 101.2 passer rating was third in the league, trailing just a couple of guys named Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. His 3.8 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the second half of games was in the top five of the league, and he led the league in passing yards on fourth downs (285).

He also made the explosive plays they needed, with six passes of 15 yards or longer, plus that 16-yard touchdown that harkened back to that other quarterback who was in the building Saturday.

But most importantly, he set a career high in wins and led the Panthers to a division title for the first time in a decade and the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.

And that, as much as anything, created the belief among teammates.

"We go as Bryce goes; he's the heartbeat of this team, man," veteran safety Nick Scott said. "He's a tremendous leader. He's got a lot of grit. Everything that coach Canales is, that he's preaching and trying to turn his team into, Bryce is always exemplifying that, and always has, man.

"He's a guy who responds the right way to adversity. He's a guy who never stops fighting. He's tough. He's got leadership qualities, and he's just the guy for the job. He's proved it time and time again."