EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Games in the NFL are too hard to win to apologize for.

So the Carolina Panthers aren't going to.

After their 13-6 win over the Jets at MetLife Sunday, there were many attempts to put conditions on it, but throughout the locker room, those were mostly met with a shrug.

"Wins are wins," backup quarterback Andy Dalton said, after finishing for an injured Bryce Young. "They're hard to come by. We all know that, but the ugly wins are when you don't play your best and you still find a way to win, and they all count one."

And with that one, the Panthers are up to 4-3, the deepest in a season they've been over .500 since 2019. But that year was a 5-4 on the way to 5-11 with Kyle Allen and Will Grier at quarterback, and it feels very different than this one.

Partially, that's because the Panthers seem to have found a formula that works for them, even when things aren't working perfectly.

Head coach Dave Canales described the offense as "grinding out trying to find solutions and find yards," but it wasn't actually as bad as it sounded.

For starters, the Jets are reasonably good at playing defense, having held two straight over-.500 opponents to 13 points (the 5-2 Broncos are averaging 23.3 per game, and the Panthers are averaging 20.7).

But the Panthers still ran for 125 yards, and gained seven of their 17 first downs that way. The 3.5 yards per rush aren't going to make the kind of highlight reels Rico Dowdle had made the previous two weeks (when he had 473 yards from scrimmage), but it was enough to keep the clock moving. The Panthers held the ball for 35:05, a 10-minute advantage that you'll sign for on the road every time.

And while there weren't a ton of explosive plays from scrimmage (only two for more than 20 yards), they made just enough at just the right times.

Young's 26-yard pass to Chuba Hubbard set up the game's only touchdown, and Dalton's 33-yard third-down conversion to Xavier Legette allowed the backup quarterback to kneel out the clock for the second time this year.

Along with a good return day for Trevor Etienne, whose 45-yard kickoff return to start the second half set them up for the field goal that gave them a 13-3 lead, they found the yardage in bits and pieces.

"The resilience of this group, the focus, the toughness to finish when we needed it, guys making plays on offense, on special teams," Canales said. "I thought Trevor Etienne did an excellent job today fielding the ball and making some yards out of that. So, he handled all those punts great, which was such a good thing, and then of course for Xavier to come through in a one-on-one opportunity. They challenged us all game, and to make that play when we had a chance for it was huge."

Of course, that kind of just-enough on offense only works if the other side of the ball is capable of carrying the load on that particular day.

And the Panthers have made significant strides on defense, entering the week 10th in the league in yards allowed. But they hadn't put together this kind of game in years.

Two picks by Jaycee Horn, and 6.0 sacks for a defense that had a league-low 5.0 in six games were the things they needed in this kind of game.

"There's a lot of different ways to win a game," Dalton said with a grin. "The defense stepped up big today. Jaycee with a couple interceptions, had a lot of sacks. Guys held them at the end, made plays when we needed to. It's like I said, they come in all different ways, but wins are wins and you've got to celebrate them all."

Two of the sacks came from Brown, who is back to his Pro Bowl form. He finished tied for the team lead with seven tackles, and had three quarterback pressures and batted down three passes. He missed seeing Horn's second interception because he had a piece of turf in his eye, and was locked in enough that he didn't notice the starting quarterback walking to the locker room earlier in the game.

"I mean that was the mode coming into the game, so I mean we just had the same approach," Brown said. "I was shocked, I didn't even know Bryce was out, and then I looked up at the screen and I was like 'Oh that's Andy'. So that was weird, I didn't even know Bryce was out or what was wrong with him."

Young's condition will obviously be a concern through the week, but a game like Sunday's has a way of masking physical pain.

And learning to grind through games like that one is a skill a young team has to learn. In the last three weeks, the Panthers have won the historic comeback (against Miami), won a shootout against the league's top offense (the Cowboys), and then went on the road and dragged one down a bumpy road home.

And when they roll into work Monday morning, they'll go back to their normal routine, of Brown telling them all it's time to get onto the next thing, because that's what Derrick Brown does.

And as this team learns how to win all kinds of games, you can see that message filtering its way through the whole room.

Rookie outside linebacker Nic Scourton, who doesn't carry the scars of some of the veterans around here, was all smiles after getting his first NFL sack. But he was also quick to echo the words of Brown, and that might be as good as sign as any — because it means the team is finding a personality.

"I think the vibes are at an all-time high," Scourton said. "It's just good, it's nice to be over .500 as well.

"The vibes are high, and we're ready to get back to Charlotte and get back to work."