CHARLOTTE — There might have been people in Bank of America Stadium who lost a little faith in Bryce Young, especially after he turned the ball over twice early, and the Panthers were down 17-0 before they ran their sixth offensive play.

None of those people were Derrick Brown.

After putting his defense in some unfortunate positions early, on a day when that side played great late, Young walked up to Brown on the sidelines as they were in the middle of a shift change.

"Everybody wants him to just fail at this in those situations," Brown said in a victorious locker room, after the Panthers' 27-24 double-comeback win over the Dolphins, to improve to 2-3. "But I mean, the dude comes off, straight to me on the sidelines, and says, 'Go get it back for me and we'll go.'"

Derrick Brown is not a man given to hyperbole, and Bryce Young is not a man given to brash public statements. But in that moment, Brown saw something from his quarterback, and Young saw something too.

"I mean, he's getting where he wants to be, man," Brown said.

And they know a lot of people outside the locker room might not share their faith in Young or this team in general. But in that room, there's a sense that this is the kind of thing Young's capable of.

"He knows how to persevere," veteran right tackle Taylor Moton said. "He's a tremendous leader, and I'm just very happy he's in this locker room with me, and I get to work with him.

"He's a heck of a competitor, I think that that's actually across the whole team. He's definitely the kind of guy you want at the helm, and the kind of guy that just leads us all in the right direction and that attacking mentality."

By coming back from 17 points down, the Panthers matched the biggest comeback in franchise history, which has now been done four times, beginning with the 2003 opener, when Jake Delhomme came off the bench to lead them over Jacksonville, and spark a Super Bowl run. And there might have been moments when a quarterback switch was a thing many people were expecting on Sunday.

But Panthers head coach Dave Canales just shook his head a little when asked that.

"Just keep playing football," Canales said. "Ask him to execute, and keep taking our chances, and fortunately for us, we were able to stay balanced with our attack, and the run game got going, which allowed us to have a different type of attack, and settle back in, and then he made his throws when we needed it."

That kind of resilience was necessary because after watching Rico Dowdle plow in from a yard out (a part of a 206-yard rushing day, in which he posted 234 yards from scrimmage [third-most in franchise history]), the Dolphins snatched the lead back again on a 46-yard touchdown pass to Jaylen Waddle.

It would have been easy to deflate.

Instead, Young played his best ball of the day in those moments.

Trailing 24-20, Dowdle got them started with a 16-yard run, but then limped off with a cramp, meaning Young was out there to do it without his top two running backs (since Chuba Hubbard was inactive with a calf injury).

So naturally, Young looked downfield for Xavier Legette, who had 8 receiving yards in his first two games before he was injured, and caught his first touchdown of the season earlier on a perfectly placed ball. There was a 24-yard gain for a team that had struggled to create explosives.

Then, on a fourth down, with a game and perhaps more on the line, he looked to sixth-round rookie Jimmy Horn Jr., of course, trusting everything to a man playing his first NFL game.

And then, he hit rookie tight end Mitchell Evans for the game-winning touchdown.

"We're just always going to keep fighting, always going to believe, always going to focus on the next play," Young said. "And obviously didn't start the way we want to, stuff for me to clean up, but there was no hesitation, nothing. We knew that whatever it is, flush it, go to the next play. The belief was always there, and I'm so proud to be a part of a team like that.

"I was just focused on the next play. Again, we all have all the belief in the world; we believe in each other. We're super excited to be out there and play. So again, there's no flinch, from both sides of the ball, which again, being a part of that is special."

The Panthers have rallied before, but never quite like this.

In Arizona, they played sharp football after a 10-0 deficit, but still came home with a loss. Against the Falcons, they never trailed, but followed that with a flat performance at New England last week.

And without Dowdle, there's a chance none of this happens, since the Panthers need to be in their "normal" phase of football by running the ball for the system to work as planned.

But after five offensive plays, Young had turned it over twice, and down 17-0, it seemed like another lost Sunday.

But then he looked Derrick Brown in the eye and delivered on his promise.

Young finished the day 19-of-30 passing for 19 yards and two touchdowns, throwing a precision ball to Legette and the game-winner to Evans.

And when it was over, he reverted to being the public Bryce, the one who is always super excited or super grateful.

He was asked to put this game into context, to search for a larger meaning in a game that could end up being defining. But he went right back to the play he runs best — the one where he keeps in right in front of him.

"It's great for these 24 hours; It's amazing," Young said with a grin. "And then when we come back tomorrow, it'll be on to the next week.

"Again, there's never been a lack of belief. We all know what we have, we all know what it takes to execute. It'll be great again for 24 hours, and then next week it will be the challenge to execute and do everything we can to have a good week to put ourselves in a good spot for Sunday."

That kind of response is planned and part of his plan.

But on the sideline and in the huddle, there's another Bryce Young that they believe in.

"He kept with us and he said, 'Hey, we're good, one play at a time, one at a time,'" right guard Brady Christensen said. "That confidence, that leadership, and never wavering. This is what we see every day, and you've just got to see it on Sundays too.

"I mean, he's got confidence, that swagger, and he comes across as a very humble and quiet guy, which, nothing's wrong with that. But on the field, he's just not that way, and it's fun to play with him."