CHARLOTTE — When the Panthers were in the midst of a five-hour flight back from the Bay Area on Monday night (and into Tuesday morning), somewhere between the initial shock of a lost game that felt within their grasp, grappling with what the defeat meant for their season, making sense of the number of injuries to defensive starters in the game, and trying to catch some inadequate sleep, Mike Jackson had a heart-to-heart with himself.
He knew Jaycee Horn was probably not going to play in the Week 13 matchup against the top-seeded Rams. Concussion protocol on a short week was more than likely going to sideline the Pro Bowler (which it did). And with Corey Thornton out for the season with a broken fibula, the field was going to tilt. Jackson was going to have to play the boundary more and step up.
So he told himself then and there, on the plane, that this week would be his game.
"This is what you worked hard for your whole life to show, bro, you can do this," Jackson shared Sunday of the message he gave himself. "Like all them times on practice squad, getting up at 5:30 in the morning, was for this moment. And I felt like I took advantage of it."
After he'd hyped himself up like that, "after that I didn't want (Jaycee) to play," Jackson joked (he very much wanted Horn against a team that hadn't thrown a pick since Week 3).
The pep-talk worked. Jackson finished with a pick-six off Matthew Stafford that put the Panthers up 14-7 in a game they won 31-28, knocking off the top team in the conference (and arguably the league) for the second time this season.
"He's a Hall of Famer. When he makes that Hall of Fame speech I'll be thinking about that pick-six," said Jackson.
"I kind of locked in this week," he continued. "I can honestly say this probably was the most locked in this week I've ever been. Just going from the field to the boundary, going out there and show that I can be a number one corner.
"So I just feel like now we got two number 1's and (Jaycee) comes back and we really got something special."
There were still moments that Jackson wants to clean up. He took the blame for giving up two explosives, although one of them included a one-handed catch by Puka Nacua that defied physics in an almost indefensible way.
"Yeah, I still don't know how he caught it," admitted Jackson.
But with each explosive, there was a chance to respond. So Sunday's top corner got back up and lined up for the next snap.
"The deep corner that was on me, too. But it was just, it's kind of like don't panic," waxed Jackson. "At the end of the day, know who you are, so it's kind of like you're in a fight. You're going to get punched, you're going to get hit in the mouth, too.
"This is what makes football fun. You get somebody, and they come back and get you, and it's just like you got to keep that mindset."
For most of the day, Jackson was lined up opposite Davante Adams. It was a matchup the corner talked about all week, as he geared up for one of his favorite receivers to face. Adams finished with four catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns. On the Rams' first drive of the third quarter, though, with the Panthers leading, Stafford looked for Adams deep over the middle on a third-and-13.
Jackson draped Adams, not leaving the veteran receiver any space to make the play, which ended up incomplete, and the Rams had to punt.
"I love going against him because he's a Hall of Fame receiver. I caught a pick on him last year, got a third-down stop this year," Jackson said. "Those moments live forever in your heart."
But no moment was bigger for Jackson on Sunday than the pick six.
Matthew Stafford had thrown 317 straight passes without an interception, and 28 touchdown passes during that span without a pick, the longest such streak in NFL history. On pass number 318—with the Rams on the Panthers' 8-yard line, Derrick Brown deflected a pass, and Nick Scott picked it off.
After that, the streak wasn't a shadow over the defense. They'd already broken it. Why not pour salt on his wound?
"Once you get a turnover early, they come in bunches," said Jackson.
On the next Rams possession, facing second-and-10 from their own 40-yard line, Stafford threw a swing pass to Nacua for what should have been a standard catch-and-run, his specialty.
"On film, they kind of like that route, and it was either on film they run an out or out and up, so it was just kind of like, just take a chance and live with the result," admitted Jackson.
The risk paid off.
Jackson stole the ball straight from Nacua's breadbasket and took off with blockers for the walk-in score. The blockers were key, noted Jackson, who also had an interception against the Falcons in Week 3 that he still maintains he couldn't score on for one particular reason.
"It was just run straight, and then I saw Nick (Scott)," said Jackson. "He blocked this time, so that helped."
The score put the Panthers up a possession early, and the Rams were left to play catch-up most of the day.
"It's unbelievable and first career pick-six for Mike, which is really kind of, I was a little bit shocked," bragged coach Dave Canales. "Just a great payoff, the fundamentals were right. His feet were in the ground. He broke on the ball perfectly and then came away with the score. It was awesome."
Jackson made sure to hold tight to the ball, even while running around in jubilation. He had plans for it and couldn't risk losing it to the crowd.
"That's for my son," he said, pointing to the ball sitting in the chair in front of his locker. "So I think last year, one of my picks I gave to my daughter. And then last week I gave him one, so they are even. But I got this one, got to be for little man."
The Panthers now head into a much-needed Week 14 bye and will return to the field in New Orleans to face the Saints in a division matchup. Jaycee Horn is likely back by then, and the duo will rotate back to their normal areas of the field. The competition to see who can finish with more interceptions will also be back on: Horn has five, and Jackson is closing in with three.
"I got to get two in the game. (Jaycee's) ahead, so I got to get two in the game," Jackson joked.
Regardless, Sunday was a testament to everything Mike Jackson promised himself on the plane back from the West Coast that he'd do today, and a demand to the rest of the NFL to pay attention.
"For me, it was kind of like, just show who you are," said Jackson. "This is a moment I've been working for my whole life."
