CHARLOTTE — Sometimes, to explain how a football game went differently than the one that preceded it, especially on defense, you need a complicated football explanation about schemes, gap integrity, or leverage.

And sometimes, you can just let Derrick Brown say it simply.

Asked how they were able to limit the Dolphins to a mere 19 rushing yards in a 27-24 comeback win on Sunday, the defensive captain made it clear.

"We got our a-- whooped last week," he said, referring to the 42-13 loss at New England. "So to come back in and just go back to work and try to fix what we need to fix."

The Panthers did just that and made the Dolphins one-dimensional the hard way.

Fixing the run defense was an offseason priority after they allowed the third-most rushing yards in NFL history and six straight 200-yard games to finish the 2024 season. And they brought in a lot of guys to try to fix it.

But through a few high spots this year (including a borderline heroic 82-yard performance at Arizona), they hadn't been consistent. Last week, the Patriots ran for 104, which was part of a complete domination.

So as the Panthers drilled into their first four games, they identified a few consistent problems, and as Brown said, went about fixing them.

That means the defensive front being disciplined. That meant linebackers Christian Rozeboom and Trevin Wallace reading correctly and tackling better. And it meant support from behind against a team that can break big runs.

"I mean, when you look at the last five games now, when you talk about first and second down normal runs, our defense has been doing a great job," head coach Dave Canales said. "Where we got hurt a little bit (in New England), was some of the perimeter stuff, and I thought we did a great job there of minimizing, by just rallying.

"It was really just guys hustling to the ball, coming out of the stack on the defensive line, Trevin and Boom running like crazy, and the guys playing their leverage to slow those perimeter runs down. They did get a couple of nice ones on us, but for the most part, it was just a really well executed plan, from a run game standpoint."

The Dolphins didn't have a run over 6 yards all day, and the normally explosive De'Von Achane (4.9 yards per carry this season) was limited to 16 yards on 10 carries (1.6).

The 19 total yards allowed were the second-fewest in Panthers franchise history, trailing just the 14 gained by Washington on Nov. 22, 2015.

Franchise records, single-game rushing yards allowed

Brown talked about the communication improving among the defense, and they clearly had that part buttoned up. Rozeboom and Wallace played perhaps their best games of the season at the same time (Rozeboom led the team with nine tackles).

But the improvement was across the board.

Having starting outside linebackers Patrick Jones II and D.J. Wonnum back this week was an obvious help, but rookies Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen each came up with significant run stops. In addition to their three sacks, they also had six other tackles for loss.

"Obviously, working on that practice," Wallace said of the improvement. "Obviously, big details, first, you want to stop the run game. The NFL starts with the run game, stop the run game, and make them one-dimensional. So you know that's a focal point every time you go to practice.

"Yeah, that's good, that gives us confidence leading to next week, but you know you've got to keep going because obviously there's mistakes out there. You're going to make mistakes, so you learn from them."

And Brown, as is his custom, was about the work in his post-game messaging.

As much as they celebrated, he went right back to the details they need to polish, as they prepare for the Cowboys here in seven days.

"A game like this is one of those games that we need to go ahead and take it, enjoy it today, and then we're going back to work," Brown said. "We're fighters. I've been saying this since the beginning. Everybody else is seeing it now, so I mean, it's been like that. Last week, especially challenging guys coming off of a bad game last week up in New England, and they beat us down, so we'll be able to come out here and get a win like this today. We've still got a lot of things we need to clean up, but that's what we look forward to.

"Being able to take practice to the game, and so for us to be able to go out there and do that, I mean that's it. We've got to clean up a lot of areas, but I mean, that's what the challenge is, right? If we were perfect, then we'd be 17-0, but that ain't the case."

It might not have been perfect, but considering where they were as a rush defense not that long ago, it was closer than it's been in years.