Monday Morning Thoughts: Panthers fall in Overtime to Falcons

Thoughts following the Panthers overtime heartbreaker.

Something about that felt...different. 

The last time the Carolina Panthers played a football game with meaningful stakes this late in the season was 2017. The 2017 Panthers made the playoffs, lost in the wild card round, and haven't sniffed the postseason since.

In 2018 Carolina went 7-9. They finished the next three seasons 5-11, 5-11, and 5-12. This season they started 2-5, but on Sunday, they had a chance to take control of the division and their playoff destiny by beating Atlanta. And for a few fleeting moments, it seemed like they may have seized that destiny.

D'Onta Foreman rumbled into the end zone for both a touchdown and the ensuing two-point conversion with 3:06 left in the fourth quarter to give Carolina a 28-24 lead. With 3:06 on the clock and an anemic Falcons' offense stepping onto the field, Carolina fans started to believe that this would be the meaningful victory they had been hoping for. They started to believe that their team would have a shot at more meaningful football.

4 plays, 75 yards, and 52 seconds later, Damiere Byrd waltzed into the end zone and restored the Atlanta lead to 31-28.

An unsuccessful four play offensive drive followed up by a Younghoe Koo field goal stretched Atlanta's advantage to 34-28, and the hope that Carolina fans once had was all but gone.

And then, it happened.

PJ Walker and DJ Moore connected on a 65-yard strike that was touched by the football gods. The collective roar heard around the Carolinas could have been measured on a decibel meter, and for that singular, fleeting, moment, Panthers fans chose to believe.

They chose to believe in the underdog story of PJ Walker, that maybe he could be the bridge to the future that David Tepper had been searching for. 

They chose to believe in the culture that Steve Wilks is building that has been sorely missing since Ron Rivera was fired.

They chose to believe that this team, at the bottom of power rankings written by any publication you could think of, had a chance at shocking the world and making a run.

They chose to believe that a football team could win a game even though they gave up more than 17 points.

They chose to believe that this time, it would be different.

Until it wasn't.

Eddy Piñero flubbed the elongated extra point (caused by DJ Moore removing his helmet, which, is a conversation for another day), Atlanta went on to win in overtime (after Piñero missed another chip shot kick), and Carolina is back to the basement of the NFC South. 

Carolina sits at 2-5, sporting the second worst record in the league, and their fate of picking near the top of the draft is coming into clear focus. 

For weeks now Panthers' fans have cared more and more about the results of college players in Columbus, Tuscaloosa, and Lexington, and less and less about the on-field result of the Panthers. 

But for a moment, things were different. 

Sports bring out human emotions that can't be found in many other places, and for a few hours on a dreary afternoon in Aiken, South Carolina, I, among many, allowed myself to believe too. 

One day, the Panthers will play meaningful football week in and week out, and we'll all be better for it. Until then, moments like Sunday are what fans need to cling to. The roller coaster ride of a team that was left for dead that for a few minutes, drew viewers across the country in for a finish that script writers wouldn't pass because of how insane it was. 

It was different until it wasn't. Objectively, competitive football is more fun than tanking for the "what if" of a draft pick. On Sunday, both sides were pleased. The Panthers played a game that will be remembered for a long time, but in the end, they came up short, which helps their draft standing. 

As the calendar turns to November, the leaves change, the weather gets colder, and the NFL playoff picture comes into clear view, the Panthers will be on the outside looking in yet again. And no matter how they got there, it's the same story as the past five seasons. So yes Sunday felt different- and it was different- but really, it's more of the same, and that's disappointing.