Tetairoa McMillan catches on to lift Carolina against Lions

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Tetairoa McMillan caught 14 passes for 192 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including this 10-yard score in the third quarter to lift the Carolina Panthers to a 32-26 win against Detroit on Oct. 4, 2026. at Bank of America Stadium.

Tetairoa McMillan’s pass-catching explosion lifted the Panthers in primetime.

After disappearing in a Week 3 loss to the Cleveland Browns with just two catches for 17 yards, McMillan bounced back with a 14-reception performance with 192 yards and two touchdowns in a 32-26 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football. 

“I feel the trust from obviously the coordinators just making calls for me, getting the ball in my hands,” he said. “And, obviously, Bryce [Young] giving me the opportunity. So, I am just super grateful for sure.”
Panthers coach Dave Canales said Young and McMillan didn’t have the best week of practice, but it didn’t show in the game. 

“I’ve got to be honest, it was not a great week of practice for the two of them,” Canales said. “There were some misses. They had to work through some stuff and talk through it. And I've been a part of this before, where you don't make a judgment on what’s going to happen on Sunday as the guys continue to work and find that. And then for it to show up like that tonight was beautiful.”

McMillan tied Muhsin Muhammad for second all-time in Panthers history for receiving yards in a game and tied for second in receptions with Christian McCaffrey (14) — who also has the most in franchise history with 15. McMillan joined Amari Cooper and Hall-of-Famers Randy Moss and Issac Bruce as the only players in NFL history to have at least 190 yards and two receiving touchdowns in a primetime win prior to age 24. 
When asked about what wasn’t clicking in practice between himself and Young — and what changed — McMillan didn’t have a direct answer. 

“Who knows? Maybe just the atmosphere, the primetime moments,” McMillan said. “Everything just clicked tonight. … There were some plays throughout the week that we may not have hit on, but shoot, the [offensive coordinator] called it. Brad [Idzik] called it tonight, and Bryce trusted it, and he made a good throw, and we converted, so I can’t tell you what happened tonight. Maybe it was just the Charlotte air.”
Young admitted to a rough week of connecting with McMillan, but didn’t lack confidence in their ability to put together a good game.

“When it’s someone like that, I trust [McMillan] so much,” Young said. “We have so many bank reps from these two years, in the off season, OTAs, all that stuff. You practice enough, you’re not going to get every route, but I know the player is. He’s special. I always trust him. That confidence is never going to fade, so no practice one day is going to change any of that.”

Young finished 29-of-41 passing with 329 yards and two touchdowns. Early in the fourth quarter the crowd started chanting “MVP” for Young and again when the Panthers were winding the clock out. Currently Young is leading the NFL in passing yards with 1,268 with a 62.4 completion percentage. He is tied for third in passing touchdowns with nine.

Young played it off and said that isn’t what he wants to focus on.

“[Those] are statistics,” Young said. “For us, the only stat that we care about is the win column. Super grateful to be able to get that done tonight. We’ll celebrate [for 24 hours] and then get going into the bye week, see what we can clean up. We will come back and get ready for the next week.”

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