CAROLINA PANTHERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 9, 2025

Kellen Moore

New Orleans Saints 17, Carolina Panthers 7

KELLEN MOORE: One phase has a down moment; the other phase picks them up and so I just thought it was a really good example of our team playing together, having a ton of joy as they went through it and I thought the physicality was a positive. We knew that was going to be a physical game with the way those guys play. They're a really good team. They've had a ton of success the last few weeks and so we knew it was going to be a battle.

Q. They ran right down the field the first time they got the ball. What changed for their side and what did you do?

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, obviously we had some missed opps on that first drive. It was unfortunately but I thought our guys just hung in there, kept battling, tightened things up a little bit more and so I felt like after that it was pretty good.

Q. Do you feel like this is the best game your team has played?

KELLEN MOORE: I think in all three phases, playing complementary football and we know there's missed opps out there, there's opportunities we want to grow in and we got to talk about and get better because of, but I just felt like all three phases were really playing well together and collectively.

Q. What did you think of Tyler?

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I thought Tyler took an awesome step today. I thought he made some big-time plays, some off-schedule plays to the Juwan, off-schedule, moving within the pocket. I thought he hung in that pocket really, really well, delivered, can't say enough good things about CO, Juwan, these perimeter guys, the plays that they made.

Q. A blocked field goal could have been a real change in momentum. How well were you playing the role on that and you stood up right after...

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I thought the beauty of that is the rule is the rule. The ball went past the line of scrimmage. We touched it. That's their ball. I understand that rule. Something we talked about a lot. In the heat of the moment, you see a football and your natural reaction is to recover the thing and so we get to educate ourself because of that but I thought the guys responded was just phenomenal, respond there to create a turnover after that.

Q. Take us through the touchdown for Juwan, before that moment, why you called that specific play, what was the progression, what you saw.

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, really good play. That's the backside route. You're playing a high-low game on the front side. He worked through his progression, stepped up in the pocket and really found Juwan on the backside of the original play and so I thought it was a really good example of Tyler's ability to move, keep his eyes down field and make a play.

Q. That being a big moment in the game, do you say anything to Tyler beforehand or is it just play clock --

KELLEN MOORE: Play call, let him play, he's playing really good.

Q. His composure in those third-and-medium, third-and-long situations, is that a game-changer for the offense in a way? Seemed like a lot of big plays came then.

KELLEN MOORE: Definitely was a really good, some really good moments there because of that. I thought, again, playing in the pocket, stepping up, stepping up, finding the guys down fold. I thought there were some big-time opportunities there and third downs are hard downs. For us to come away with some really successful plays on that I thought credit to those guys who are out there making the plays.

Q. Was Chris' speed and verticality, does that help offset you guys trading Rashid? Did he run of the routes he would run today?

KELLEN MOORE: That's a good question. I think CO can attack every element of this feel and so we're going to be able to utilize it. He obviously made a phenomenal play down field a couple of times. A few of the other guys got in there and played some roles. Maybe not as many targets to those guys but those database were out there playing and they did an awesome job executing so we feel like this group is going to grow together and progress.

Q. Dowdle was the hottest running back in the NFL in the last five weeks. What were y'all able to do to slow him down?

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, team football. Team football. Team football on defense, assignment sound, gap sound, tackled really well. We missed some tackles. He broke some tackles there but I thought we just did such a good job of not giving up those big, explosive long runs as we went.

Q. Do you think this game meant something more to Chris just considering what happened in this stadium with the concussion a year ago?

KELLEN MOORE: I think that's fair to ask CO. His experience is -- he's had to navigate that through this entire journey and so obviously you can anticipate that's something that's going to weigh on your mind a little bit, that's natural but the way he played today, I mean, that was just incredible. Incredible plays, phenomenal. The energy, the juice that he brought to our team, I thought it was a really special performance.

Q. You mentioned the awesome step for Tyler. What do you look for now from him and where do you want to see his development grow from here?

KELLEN MOORE: We're just going to keep growing. Every game there's going to be five plays we're going to say we want to improve on those. There are going to be some plays we can lean our hat on and continue to reinforce. We just got to keep growing.

Q. That eight-minute drive to end the game. How important was that to seal this win off?

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, that was such a cool drive. Just a really, really cool drive. Physicality, offensive line battling, it was really Taysom and the running backs and they just went for it. Really cool drive for those guys. Really an identity-type drive where you can lean on when you talk about being a physical football team and grinding games out like this, that's a really gad example of it.

Q. (Inaudible).

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, traditionally normally we prefer to defer. We're trying to get a little bit of a spark the last few weeks. It didn't get the result that we hoped so we'll decide each week how we best suit this and make that decision before the game.

Q. (Inaudible) figure that out beforehand? How do you...

KELLEN MOORE: Which direction you're kicking and all that stuff? Yeah, usually that's communication with special teams and just talking ability field conditions and stuff. Sometimes there's wind that factors into that.

Q. What did you make of the first half sequence? Near the end there where you guys...

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, obviously trying to have the last possession of the drive, the last relevant possession of the quarter and so I got to look at it to see if we weren't able to get the points you want. I got to look at seeing where we can improve there. Execution-wise, schematically, get ourselves in position maybe. I'll look at how those time-outs progressed and where we can potentially improve there.

Q. You hit on it before but I'll ask it again. When Tyler converts those third downs like that, what does that tell you about him?

KELLEN MOORE: He's executing and playing really good football. Those are not easy downs. We talked about there are hard downs in this league and teams that can execute in those downs and make plays, they're the ones that are the most successful teams. Credit to our guys who went out there and made those plays, the protection, Tyler, the perimeter guys. Some guys stepped up.

Q. You now have a bye week next week. How can you use this win to kind of use that momentum going into the final stretch?

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, obviously you won't play for 13 days now and to have a win as your last moment, I think that can carry some momentum, some energy. Our guys got to recharge during a bye week. We got to use it to an advantage and put ourselves in position to kind of attack this back end of the season and so I'm excited for our guys to utilize that and get ready to go.

Q. What was working about the run game?

KELLEN MOORE: Physicality, Alvin, credit to him. Just some physical, dirty runs where he was able to finish really well and I thought there was some progress there and just got to keep growing in that area.

Q. You were talking about the 1-8 start (inaudible) the energy in the locker room is still (inaudible) you say that but if the wins aren't coming...

KELLEN MOORE: No doubt. We are here to win football games and we want to win football games collectively and so it takes the entire group. I give a ton of credit to our guys T way they battled the last few weeks to come up short a number of games in a row and to come back, recharged, ready to go each Wednesday, ready to put in a new plan and just go about the week every single week the same way and so I think it's credit to our guys. We have the right kind of guys in the building to keep growing and keep developing and keep getting better as a team.

Q. What did you see in the Alontae interception?

KELLEN MOORE: I didn't get a great angle of it so obviously big-time play. Just credit to him. Being in place and having vision on the ball, big-time play.

Q. Is there anything you guys are able to do to Bryce Young -- (inaudible).

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I thought a combination of rush and coverage. When those things tie together and they play complementary and our defense is able to play with a little bit of a lead and a little bit of that momentum and now you can feel like, hey, I can come after this quarterback, I can rush the passer. The DBs can play with a little bit more vision and play in some favorable situations. I think all that stuff adds up to favorable situations for us to go for it.

Q. I know that you guys didn't have -- you had a few turnovers but to be able to impose like that when you don't have five turnovers, what does that say how you're able to do that?

KELLEN MOORE: Just with them creating turnovers?

Q. Yeah, well, just, the way your defense was showing in the moments that they did it.

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, I thought the play style was really good. The physicality, the effort, the finish, to create a couple turnovers was game-changing for us and I thought our guys kept tackling the football. There are more opportunities out there that we're going to look at and say, hey, we're really close here, how can we keep getting better and keep taking advantage of these opportunities?