MIAMI -- Before the Miami Dolphins' game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, 13-year-old King Bell's national anthem performance drew a rousing reaction from the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium.
In the 30 minutes following the anthem, home fans didn't have much else to cheer for.
The 14-point underdog Panthers led 14-0 by the end of the first quarter, outgaining Miami 139-42 and limiting the league's top-ranked offense to seven plays and one first down over two drives.
When wide receiver Adam Thielen corralled an 8-yard touchdown pass from rookie Bryce Young to put Carolina up two scores, the home crowd went silent, worried about a potentially disastrous upset in the works.
That panic never reached the Dolphins' sideline.
"There was no pressure at all," wide receiver Tyreek Hill said. "I feel like last year, games like this one when we were down 14-0, there was doubt. It seemed like today was different. Everybody was calm, everybody was relaxed because we understand how the game goes and how well we are prepared."
Facing their second multiple-score deficit of the season, the Dolphins (5-1) responded with 35 unanswered points in a 42-21 win to equal the Kansas City Chiefs atop the AFC standings.
Miami trailed by multiple scores in eight games last season, winning two of them. When it fell behind multiple scores to the Buffalo Bills in Week 4, Miami crumbled in a 48-20 blowout.
"We wanted to make [the Bills game] a learning lesson for us coming into the game. So, I think we learned from it," wide receiver Jaylen Waddle said. "We still got a lot to grow from throughout the year, so we're going to come back and just try to keep building."
The Dolphins went three-and-out to start the game, their first time doing so on an opening drive this season. Their second possession was even worse, technically losing a yard over three plays.
Coach Mike McDaniel called the winless Panthers "the most dangerous opponent you can play" entering Sunday's game, insisting they would come out intent on getting in the win column.
They looked like it, holding a Dolphins offense that averaged a league-leading 114.2 first-quarter yards over its first five games to just 42 yards -- 27 of which coming on a pass from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to Hill on the final play of the quarter.
"There were some mishaps, but you've also got to give credit to their defense," Tagovailoa said. "Their defense did a good job with what they thought we were going to do, and some of them, they guessed right, and some of them, we just needed to be better with our technique."
The proverbial lights turned on shortly after Thielen's touchdown.
The Dolphins erupted for 177 yards in the second quarter, taking a 21-14 lead on three touchdown passes from Tagovailoa. Shortly before halftime, Tagovailoa found Hill for a 41-yard score -- his third touchdown pass of at least 30 yards this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
A week ago, the duo connected for a 69-yard touchdown on a play Tagovailoa changed in the huddle, unbeknownst to McDaniel in real time. This time around, McDaniel was more involved in any potential audible.
"He said, 'Here's the play, but if you want to do this, if you want to do that, I don't care,'" Tagovailoa said of McDaniel. "'It's not basically giving you full control, but I trust that you're going to make it right.' So that's what we did."
Miami kept pouring in points after the break, as McDaniel said his team never changed its mentality despite the circumstances it faced.
"This game was a special game for us because we fell short of expectations early, and so you learn a lot about your team in moments like that," McDaniel said. "And what I saw was a team that nobody was giving 'rah-rah' to each other at all, but no one was questioning, 'Hey, guys, we've got to pick it up,' insinuating there was a lack of effort. They just went and did their jobs, the same way I would expect them to do it if they were up 14-0."
The Dolphins finished with 424 yards of offense, well short of their season average (513.6) entering Week 6. But they also turned in their fifth straight game with at least 100 rushing yards after breaking the century mark only six times last season. Miami still leads the league in yards per game (498.7), passing yards per game (316.8), rushing yards per game (181.8) and scoring (37.2 points per game).
They're on pace to break the 2011 New Orleans Saints' record for total yards of offense in a single season, although they'll have the benefit of an extra game with the NFL going to a 17-game schedule in 2021.
But the stats and NFL records don't matter as much to McDaniel as much as seeing his team's growth.
"The next-most-important thing [besides the win] that we got from this game for sure was that ... half of NFL football is controlling your emotions," McDaniel said. "Do you get panicked or do you go in the tank when things don't go your way, or vice versa, do you let off the gas when you have a two-score lead early?"
Miami gets its biggest test of the season in Week 7 against the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).