Last on the ladder as recently as round 12, the Panthers have returned to being the best defensive team in the competition over the past two months.
In a wretched first half of the year, Penrith leaked 24.8 points per game. At that point, they were ranked 12th in competition for defence.
But in the six straight wins since, they have conceded just 11 points per match. No side has been more miserly over the past two months.
That figure is back in line with the defence Penrith's dynasty has been built on, with the Panthers conceding 13.2 points per game between 2020 and 2024.
"You can just feel like we're more resilient, we're stopping tries, we're making it hard for the opposition," captain Isaah Yeo said.
"Whereas that wasn't really the case for the first half of the season.
"They'd go down on our end in the first set, they'd put on a play, it wasn't under pressure, and all of a sudden they're scoring.
"But we're trusting the system a bit more, we're being a bit more proactive, particularly at the start of the games.
"We've relied on that for such a long period of time now, and we didn't have that for the first half of the season."
The Panthers' defensive return has put them back to sixth on the ladder ahead of Saturday's match against Wests Tigers.
Notably, Penrith have let in only seven first-half tries in their past six games, compared to 27 in their opening 11 matches.
"Off the back of that, you get in the game style you want. You get more ball in play. It all flows so much into each other," Yeo said.
"When we're defending well, it keeps the ball in play more.
"The flip side of that, when you're having to score points and get frantic ... it doesn't suit the way we've played over the last five or six years.
"We were having to tackle way too much because of the pressure we were putting on ourselves."
Most clear in Penrith's revival is that the team's scramble is back. Combinations have also become more familiar with new-look edges.
A line was also drawn in the sand by players after the round-12 loss to Newcastle, when they conceded 24 points in the first 24 minutes without State of Origin players.
"It was just like, 'We have standards here - we have a level that we want to play at, we have a level that we want to train at, and we're not doing it at the moment. Let's fix it'," second-rower Scott Sorensen said.
"And you very much felt the difference immediately at training.
"It's just more so doing your job. Being in the frame, competing, all those sorts of things.
"In the last few years we've really held ourselves to wanting to be a strong defensive team. We know defence wins games and defence wins premierships."
DEFENSIVE DYNASTY: PENRITH'S POINTS CONCEDED BY THE YEARS
2020: 13.4
2021: 11.7
2022: 23.3
2023: 12.8
2024: 15.4
2025 (Rounds 1-12): 24.8
2025 (Round 13-20): 11
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