The Cats are looking to win four of their five games leading into Christmas, just as they did last season. We all thought then that it was a preview of what could be an 11-5 type season this year. And while it didn’t, the end of this season has brought the same optimistic feelings for next year’s squad.

Everything has looked better lately. The intensity level is much-improved and there seems to be a new-found confidence all the sudden. Cam Newton has been sensational (13 total touchdowns since his last pick,) DeAngelo Williams is actually getting the ball and breaking tackles (324 total yards in his past three games,) and most importantly, the players look like they’re having fun again.

I have a golden rule when it comes to fandom: Regardless of how things go, you support them as long as they’re trying their best. If they decide to quit, you can too.

Despite countless injuries, an annoying inability to run the ball, nonstop national media criticism of 23-year old Newton and the fans wanting to run Ron Rivera out of town, this team has never quit and is now seeing the reward of its hard work.

The Panthers might be 5-9, but as you are likely aware, this is far from a bad team. Seven of nine losses this season have come by six points or fewer. That means just add one touchdown in each of those games and viola: the Cats are 12-2. To further support the legitimacy of this team, all five wins have come by more than seven points. The Panthers still have a decent chance to finish the season with a positive point differential (currently just -22.)

As far as this game goes, the vibes are good. While there’s always a chance for a head-scratching loss, this game has blowout written all over it. It has the feel of last season’s home finale, also the final game before Christmas, when the Panthers took out a season full of frustrations on Tampa Bay in a 48-16 win. I honestly think there’s a better chance of winning this game by 20+ than losing it. We’ll see.

Only time will tell if the Panthers can: A) Finish this season on a high note, and B) Actually take this progression into next season. But at least for now, as we prepare to watch the Cats try for their first three-game winning streak since 2009, it’s fun to be a Panthers fan.

Unless it’s Brady Quinn.

That’s what happened to the Panthers on Sunday, as Quinn threw 19/23 for 201 yards and two touchdowns. Quinn didn’t throw a pick and was only sacked once.

That’s pathetic.

Now with that said, good for him and good for the Chiefs organization. It was actually nice to see them get a win with the whole Jovan Belcher situation surrounding them, but that’s no excuse for the Panthers.

Kansas City dominated the time-of-possession battle 37:13 to 22:47 and it had nothing to do with the Cats’ offense as Cam & co. only went 3-and-out once the entire day. This was a matter of not being able to get the Brady Quinn-led offense off the field.

Quinn’s QB rating Sunday was 132.1, the second-highest of his career. And even though Cam and the offense put up 21 points in just 22 minutes, it didn’t matter.

This is just the latest example of this team finding a way to lose. If the offense plays well, the defense doesn’t. If the defense plays well, the offense doesn’t. If both play well, special teams has a meltdown.

We’ve got some really good players on this defense. Charles Johnson, Greg Hardy, Luke Kuechly; but we’ve also got a lot of rebuilding to do. The secondary must be overhauled and the defensive tackle position needs work too. Our defense hasn’t been bad all season, but there are too many occasions that they simply can’t get off the field.

The bottom line is, this team won’t take the next step until they know what they’re going to get every week from the defense. That’s certainly not the case right now.

Sunday’s 27-21 overtime loss to Tampa Bay was just the latest in a three-year stretch of games that have made Panthers fans want to crawl into bed and never come out.

Now, to be fair, every franchise has to rebuild sometimes, and the Panthers began theirs following the Delhomme debacle against the Cardinals in the 2008 playoffs.  The 2009 season was the clear beginning of the end, while 2010 was completely mishandled by the organization and ended up a total waste.  In 2011, Cam Newton brought some excitement back to the organization and the team instantly turned from pathetic to competitive.

This year was supposed to be the next step.  It was supposed to turn competitive into successful, but it hasn’t.  It’s turned competitive into excruciating, and Panthers fans are getting sick of it.

It hurts even worse because it’s not what the fans are used to.  Say what you want about the Fox era, but since 2002, the ’10-’11 seasons were the first back-to-back losing campaigns this franchise has suffered through.  That’s 10 years without back-to-back failures; now the Cats are struggling through their third-consecutive.  This franchise is used to being resilient and the fans aren’t used to suffering for long periods of time.

A losing culture has crept into this organization, locker room, city, state, and region.  It’s not the fact that they’re losing; it’s the way it’s happening.  Carolina is 2-8, but could very easily be 8-2.  Sure, I know a lot of teams could say something like that. Woulda, coulda, shoulda right?  But this is a little different.  The Panthers have lost three games this season (Falcons, Bears, and this week’s Bucs) that they completely had wrapped up.  It would have taken a total choke-job to lose any of those; yet the Cats lost all three.

Losses like that are the ones that make fans give up, and that’s what I’m seeing this season.  All I have to do is log on to Facebook or Twitter on a Sunday afternoon, and it’s one comment after another from disgruntled Panthers fans about how they’ve had it and are done wasting their time with a franchise that causes so much heartbreak.

While some of that might be frustration, some of it is quite real.  I’ll text friends of mine whom I’ve always been able to talk Panthers with, and they’ll respond with “I’m not watching.”  The thousands of empty seats at Bank of America Stadium Sunday (the place was literally half-full in the fourth quarter) is a telling sign that people are growing tired of this empty feeling.

It’s time for Jerry Richardson to make a statement.  He proved he was willing to spend some money in order to win, handsomely extending Jonathan Stewart, DeAngelo Williams and Charles Johnson.  Now it’s time to spend the money to bring in an A-list head coach, a Jon Gruden or a Bill Cowher, someone who would immediately change the attitude around this franchise.

A losing culture is a tough thing to shake.  The last thing Carolina wants is to turn into Cleveland, Detroit, Arizona or Buffalo.  The Panthers’ administration needs to get this right before it’s too late.