EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.— If this were Las Vegas, Tre'von Moehrig would have hit the jackpot.

No. 7, Moehrig, sacked Justin Fields, No. 7, for a loss of 7 yards.

7-7-7

"I mean, you give Tre that big of an opening," shrugged fellow safety Lathan Ransom, "he's going to make a tackle, for sure.

The sack was one of 6.0 total sacks on the day for a Panthers defense that had their best performance of the season in that area, helping lead Carolina to a 13-6 win, and their first road victory of the season.

"Time on task, guys working on the different rush patterns that we're using for the week," said coach Dave Canales of the impetus for the performance. "They change them up a little bit every week, but the guys have been really focused on the details of how to execute them, the timing of it, and all that is getting better and better."

The Moehrig sack came on a safety blitz that the veteran disguised well before the snap. He hid behind his defensive line, inching over low and timing the snap perfectly, before rushing up a wide-open lane to the quarterback. No one knew he was coming, least of all Justin Fields. But as soon as the hit happened, everyone heard it.

"Yeah, I heard it," exclaimed Ransom. "I mean, shoot, if he hits somebody, I'm going to hear it every time."

The blitz was a concept the defense worked on all week. They knew it could work well within what they wanted to run, and that Moehrig was the guy to pull it off. He faked like he was covering the tight end in man, baiting Fields into thinking he was covered. Then Moehrig took off.

"Just trying to give a disguised look, showing like I was playing man on the tight end and let the front do their work up front, and then I just made the play on the blitz," explained Moehrig.

"That's kind of been one of our home calls; it was just executed really well with everybody doing their job on that play."

While Moehrig was the safety in the box, with a target on Fields, fellow safeties Ransom and Nick Scott were dropped into coverage. They knew for Moehrig to make it to the backfield, even on a blitz, they had to do their part to take away the deep part of the field.

"Yeah, I think I mean, our coaches, we all emphasize kind of disguising that play," said Ransom. "And (Nick and I) both held the shell really good."

Added Scott, "Absolutely, Tre' and I and whoever's in there at safety or whatever, we do a great job of just when we get pressure, communicating what we want to show in terms of that pressure. So we said we wanted to show away, hide it a little bit, and then you start moving on the cadence, and that's exactly what happened. Played out clean and Tre' got his first sack, finally."

Moehrig, a self-taught guitar player, also got to debut his sack celebration, playing the air guitar. But on a day when five different players contributed to the 6.0 sacks, he knows each moment was a team effort.

"Man, just relentless," Moehrig said of the pursuit. "I feel like, even if it wasn't the guy that got the sack, I feel like everybody else is doing their job and that allowed for people to make plays like that."