CHARLOTTE — Sunday Night Football leaves plenty of time to meander through the day. Hours on hours to fill, trying to avoid boredom or complacency.

Chuba Hubbard, a creature of habit if ever there was one, arrived at the stadium as early as he could, determined to keep his game-day routine as close to normal as possible and ensure that, by the time he finally stepped on that field for the 8:20 kickoff, he was ready.

"I was here real early," said Hubbard. "I spent 10 hours here before the game, just taking care of my body, getting my mind right, making sure I could take advantage of those extra hours, and I felt good for the game."

It worked.

After the first three weeks, when the running game struggled to get going, Hubbard and the offensive line set the tone early and dominated. Hubbard finished with 20 carries for 122 yards and two rushing touchdowns.

"What I loved about Chuba tonight was breaking tackles, running with that attitude that we want to," bragged coach Dave Canales. "It all starts off with pressing the blocks the right way, making sure he's cutting off the feet of the O-lineman, and watching that unit come together and be patient, even though there were some 1s and 2s, then all of a sudden the run game started to get going."

Hubbard matched his career high with four explosive runs (10-plus yards). According to Next Gen Stats, he also gained 82 yards after contact and forced seven missed tackles for 42 extra yards, all season-highs.

It marked his third career game with at least 100 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, tying Tshimanga Biakabutuka and Christian McCaffrey for the second most in team history. Only DeAngelo Williams (eight) has more.

And now, with 3,992 career rushing yards, he moved past McCaffrey into fourth-most in Panthers history, and third among running backs.

They did some schematic things to help him, with quarterback Bryce Young using RPOs to help keep the defense guessing, but Sunday night was about attitude.

"The play actions helped that for sure," Canales said. "But Chuba ran with violence tonight. I was really proud of him."

It was a comment that resonated with Hubbard.

"I think we're creating a style and that'll be his style for sure. But to hear coach say that, yeah, it's good," he said. "I mean, in the running back room we talk about it all the time, breaking tackles, making guys miss, especially at the second level, and we'll just continue to do that.

"It wasn't a perfect game. Still a lot of stuff that we got to fix, but yeah, I just appreciate coach obviously believing in us."

That violence has always been part of Hubbard's game, lurking just underneath the surface and bursting out in explosive runs when the Panthers needed it most, as he did Sunday night. The Lions defense has been much maligned, but in two of their first three outings, they were being attacked through the air. Young and Tetairoa McMillan drew blood that way too Sunday night, with Young throwing for 329 passing yards.

But it was also Hubbard's progress on the ground that opened everything up in a way that's sustainable moving forward.

"Obviously Bryce and the receivers were getting it open. We were calling great plays, and then O-line was just opening it up, so it was a good feeling," said Hubbard. "We were all just, I always use the analogy, chopping at the tree. We kept chopping, fixing the things, kind of figuring it out, but you know, obviously I attribute it to the receivers and obviously Bryce for opening it up for us and then the offensive line to the rest."

The Panthers now get a much-needed early bye before traveling to Philadelphia to face an Eagles team searching for an identity this season. That defense is in the bottom half of the league, allowing an average of 122.0 yards per game thus far through four games.

It won't be a prime time game; kickoff is set for 1 p.m. For the regimented Hubbard, that's perfect; it puts him back on his normal schedule. And with a big game under his belt, it's time to grab the ax.

"It's obviously a lot of adversity that we faced over these last few weeks," said Hubbard. "But at the end of the day, I said this earlier in the week, that other guys are going to step up and make plays, and they did.

"We're a gritty team no matter what, from the top down. And it showed today. So I'm just proud of the guys that obviously filled in and stepped up and did more than their part."