We all know the score from yesterday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons. We mostly knew it before the opening kickoff: a tattered Carolina Panthers defense was always going to allow the Falcons to score on almost every possession. A talented, but still gelling Panthers offense missing a sizeable portion of its starting offensive line was never going to keep up.
Yet keep up they almost did, in spite of too many penalties on faces old and new along the line, Andy Dalton, Chuba Hubbard, Dionate Johnson, and Xavier Legette had the Panthers within striking distance of the Falcons until late in the fourth quarter.