Drue Tranquill, Andy Reid, and Patrick Mahomes talked about Sunday’s game against a Carolina club that is getting better.

The Kansas City Chiefs will play the Carolina Panthers, a team that began the season 1-7, on Sunday in Week 12 in an attempt to bounce back from their season-opening loss to the Buffalo Bills.

However, the Panthers picked up steam before to last week’s bye, winning two in a row to raise their record to 3-7. Carolina is a club the Chiefs cannot ignore, according to Kansas City linebacker Drue Tranquill, as a number of young Panthers are beginning to settle under first-year head coach Dave Canales.

Tranquill observed, “They’ve definitely played better over the last two weeks—and I think they’re starting to gel; starting to mesh a little bit.” “Those young men are becoming more at ease. In the summer, they acquired some quality offensive line players. Personnelly, it’s a good group, but we’ll need to pay close attention to details.

The Panthers’ ground game, spearheaded by starting running back Chuba Hubbard, has been a major factor in their comeback. This season, the fourth-year back has averaged 5.1 yards per carry, which has translated into 818 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid praised Hubbard after he recorded a season-high 153 running yards and a score against the New York Giants in Week 10.

So offensively, they obviously have a good quarterback [in Bryce Young] and a good running back,” Reid said. “At the moment, he is playing excellent football. They have an excellent offensive line, and wide receiver 17 [Xavier Legette] is a fantastic player. They have been doing a great job of moving the football in the last several games.

Even with these advances, Carolina’s defence is still among the league’s worst, particularly when it comes to stopping the run, as they have given up the second-most running yards in the NFL (1,601). In Week 10, Tyrone Tracy, the running back for the Giants, amassed 103 rushing yards. The week prior, Alvin Kamara, the running back for the New Orleans Saints, blew the Panthers defence away with 215 yards from scrimmage.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes would benefit greatly from a game plan that emphasises a potent rushing assault in order to recover from his two-interception performance against Buffalo last week. By relying on the running game, Kansas City could create more controllable passing opportunities and maybe release explosive plays to spark the attack, which would ease some of the load on its quarterback.

Although Mahomes acknowledges the Panthers’ recent progress, he sees this game as a great opportunity for the Chiefs to go back on track and win a much-needed comeback.

Regarding the Panthers’ defence, Mahomes remarked, “They have a lot of talented players.” You’ve probably noticed it during the past few weeks. They put up a lot of effort, and as the season progresses, their football skills improve.

Going there to play them will be a huge task for us. They will be hungry because they just had two victories and a bye. We’ll have a fantastic chance to go out there and look for a way to win.