Stats reveal Panthers rely on late surge

Penrith's third get-out-of-jail performance in as many weeks begs the question; how long can they keep doing this?

The Panthers are a completely different team in the second half of games, highlighted with their late escapes in recent weeks and across the year.

Some observers have pointed out they went away from former coach Anthony Griffin's old-school game plan to play catch-up football after trailing at half-time, while others believe their fitness and game management led by James Maloney and Nathan Cleary is first class.

According to an NRL.com Stats analysis, Penrith have scored the least amount of points than any other side in the opening 20 minutes of games with a total of 68 points across the season.

In return, they've conceded 130 points - the fourth-worst in the competition behind Canberra (168) Newcastle (134) and the Gold Coast (134) – bringing their points differential to a competition low -62 in that period.

"I don't know what's going on, we tend to get ourselves in a bit of a rabble," Panthers prop Reagan Campbell Gillard said.

"Things aren't working to how we want to play, frustration settles in. We can address it and try to fix it."

Their second quarters are an improvement with 102 points scored and 96 conceded – a consistent balance seen across some of the more consistent sides over 80 minutes in the Telstra Premiership.

The Roosters (+72) and Canberra (+57) have the best points differential in this period.

"We don't mind coming back from behind so seem to play good footy after that," Panthers centre Dean Whare said.

"We need to try and push that to the first half. Myself it's pretty much the same [mindset], especially on the weekend we just dropped too much ball and tried to play safe.

"For us it's about trying to point the last 20 minutes into the first half."

Penrith's third and fourth quarters are their best and highest-scoring combination.

In the third quarter, the Panthers have scored the second highest amount of points with 130 to sit behind St George Illawarra, while conceding a respectable 96 points for an overall advantage of 34.

The best club over this quarter is the Roosters (+70 points differential) while the Knights (-87) concede more than they score in this period.

Penrith's strongest area, their finishes, is where most of their games have been won.

They've scored 165 points in the final 20 minutes of games and conceded just 67 for a competition-high differential of +98.

Only Melbourne (170 points) have scored more for a differential of +90.

"We're very lucky with the position we're in," Panthers fullback Tyrone Peachey said.

"We keep winning so that's all that matters, it doesn't really matter how the game ended up. We're in the position we are with how we're playing so can't be too angry about it."

After 22 rounds, only South Sydney have positive differentials across all four quarters, while the Titans have a negative points differential across each.

Cronulla, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Roosters have consistent numbers in each quarter with only minor differentials - indicating their tendencies to score points during any time of the game.

In another highlight, the Wests Tigers have conceded just 50 points in the opening 20 minutes of games, a clear standout in comparison to all other sides in the competition with Melbourne next in line on 72.