Do a little wiggle, Panthers fans. Or burn some sage. Or pray, or sweat it out, or scrub extra hard in the shower or whatever method you might feel will work best to exfoliate this season from your skin.
It’s all but over. Carolina will not make the playoffs after losing its final home game Saturday to Atlanta, and will not be able to scrape to at least a .500 record. There have been season-ending injuries to key members of the line, a star linebacker absent because of a concussion (and a coach making the right call thereafter), and a quarterback who, after an MVP season, finished five of his past six games with less than half of his passes completed.