CHARLOTTE — Bryce Young has been in situations like this before. And he's shown he knows how to handle them.

Sunday's 30-27 win over the Cowboys marked Young's eighth game-winning drive in his young career, and his sixth since he re-entered the lineup midway through last season (16 starts).

That's created a certain trust among his coaches and teammates when he gets into those situations, even after early turnovers like last week's two against the Dolphins, or Sunday's interception off the hands of Tetairoa McMillan.

"I mean, Bryce is a professional man," tight end Tommy Tremble said after the game. "He's a good quarterback in this league, and he wiped the slate. You guys saw all the mic'd up stuff last week. He's calm, cool, collected. He knew, hey, next time we're going to make the play, and that's how he kept it.

"He didn't do any rah-rah stuff, didn't have to do anything crazy because he knew we're going to go down there, compete and win this game."

By definition, a game-winning drive has to come when you're tied or behind in the fourth quarter. And they don't have to end with touchdowns, as four of Young's eight came on field goals (three by Eddy Piñeiro and yesterday's first by Ryan Fitzgerald). Three came on rushing touchdowns (two by Chuba Hubbard and one by Miles Sanders), along with last week's touchdown pass to rookie tight end Mitchell Evans.

The point is the win, and they've seen him cool in those situations. Canales pointed to the fourth-down plays to Jimmy and Renfrow as evidence of that assuredness.

"Belief, consistency, he expects to win," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said when asked if there were common threads in Young's late-game performances. "This has kind of been wired into him forever. He was a high school winner, he was a college winner, in the pros, we're trying to build a team that expects to win, that expects to have success, and to see those outcomes become possible as a group.

"It's about belief, and that's what I see from Bryce, he just keeps believing. He just keeps going back and attacking, and when the odds are a little bit stacked against him in some games, I've just seen him respond really well in a competitive way. To take on the challenge and to hit it right up front, to go to his guys that he counts on team, Jimmy popping up, he goes to Hunter on the fourth-and-4, so guys that he's growing trust with, just finding a way to win."

It's important to keep this in context. The two he had during his rookie season were part of a 2-15 year for the team, and included a 15-3 win over the Houston Texans and CJ Stroud (who has five game-winning drives in 37 starts) and a 9-6 field-goal fest against the Falcons here.

The one trend that's evident is that he's gotten steadily better when the clock's ticking.

Of his eight game-winning drives, the first four were not exactly spectacular. Including the two in 2023 and the back-to-back wins last year against the Saints and Giants, when he was getting his feet back underneath him, he was a combined 15-of-26 passing for 166 yards with an interception in the fourth quarter (60.74 rating).

In the last four, which included overtime wins against the Cardinals and Falcons last year, and the last two weeks, Young has been 27-of-40 for 269 yards with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a touchdown run in the fourth quarter and overtime (111.35 rating).

As he does with the ball, Young's first instinct is to spread the credit around.

"Just trust; everyone in the huddle trusts each other, we all want those moments," he said of the late-game situations. "We want the game in our hands, we want to execute.

"We want to leave no doubt as offense, we didn't want to leave them any time, and that speaks to the trust, from coach from the staff, and the belief we have in each other."

That confidence has, however, become contagious. Last week against the Dolphins, defensive tackle Derrick Brown was not surprised that Young came off the field resolute after a turnover.

"Everybody wants him to just fail at this, in those situations," Brown said. "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.'"

Likewise Sunday, outside linebacker Patrick Jones II said the relationship has become symbiotic.

"It's trust in the team," Jones said. "We go out there. Bryce knows we're going to give him the ball back, and then we know once we give him the ball back, all our trust is in him, and we trust him to go out there and finish the game."

Looking around him in the league, he's in the company of some high-level quarterbacks. He trails fellow No. 1 overall picks Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence, who have nine each (in 71 and 66 starts, respectively, to Young's 34 starts). And he's ahead of quarterbacks including Teddy Bridgewater (seven in 65 starts, none here in 2020), and Jordan Love (five in 38 starts with the Packers, who have found themselves ahead more often).

Again, you'd prefer he didn't always need to rally late. His only other win as a starting quarterback in 34 starts (16 of which came his rookie year) was the 30-0 shutout of the Falcons here earlier this season.

But the stats point to a player who is confident.

He was 17-of-25 passing Sunday against the Cowboys, with three touchdowns and an interception for a 114.8 rating. But when he trailed on the scoreboard, he was 10-of-10 for 125 yards and three touchdowns, for a perfect 158.3 rating.

Young's quick to credit everyone other than himself, however.

"You know, my confidence comes from God," he said. "It comes from this team, so it's, it, it's always there. I'm super grateful to be where I'm at. I'm grateful to be a part of this team. I'm grateful to be able to have the guys that I lean on every single day.

"So, I have a ton of reasons to be confident in moments like that, we all trust each other. We all believe in each other and, you know, we're going to have to continue to keep stacking it."