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          Panthers lead Bears after returning punt 79 yards for a TD

          • David Newton, ESPN Staff WriterNov 9, 2023, 08:48 PM ET
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              David Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Carolina Panthers. Newton began covering Carolina in 1995 and came to ESPN in 2006 as a NASCAR reporter before joining NFL Nation in 2013. You can follow Newton on Twitter at @DNewtonespn.
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          CHICAGO - The Carolina Panthers had gone 96 games without a punt return for a touchdown.

          Until Thursday night.

          Ihmir Smith-Marsette avoided a tackle on the catch and then used his speed up the middle for a 79-yard touchdown in the first quarter of a prime-time game against the Chicago Bears in which both offenses started slowly. The Panthers had only 27 yards of total offense before the return.

          Smith-Marsette is the seventh player in Carolina history to record a punt return touchdown, joining Steve Smith Sr. (4), Corey Brown, Kaelin Clay, Eric Guliford, Iheanyi Uwaezuoke and Winslow Oliver.

          It was Carolina's first punt return for a touchdown since Clay returned one in Week 12 against the New York Jets in 2017, and it was the fifth punt return for a touchdown in the NFL this season. That's significant because there were only five total punt returns for touchdowns between the 2021 and 2022 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information.