Carolina Panthers: A rally teases hope after a laughably poor performance

What happened this time?

The first quarter of this game was a wonderful sight for sore eyes of Panthers fans everywhere. “Touchdown Curtis Samuel! Touchdown DJ Moore! Christian McCaffrey with a BIG run!” This was the team we’ve been seeing all year. Then, in the second quarter, things slowed down. The pocket began collapsing too fast, Allen started overthrowing people, the Redskins began taking advantage of the poor run defense. Perhaps the most upsetting part of the first half was the loss of the team’s third defensive anchor. He returned to action, but that wasn’t something any of us wanted to see.

The third quarter kicked off with even less encouragement than the second quarter. Washington marched up and down the field on offense and the Washington defense made mincemeat of Kyle Allen over and over again. Then Old Reliable took a jarring hit that warranted an ejection and possibly another loss for the year.

Finally, the last quarter began with a collapsing pocket on back-to-back plays. Then Washington took a commanding lead as Butler went down and the run defense completely collapsed. At one point it seemed like the team just gave up. Twenty-nine unanswered points after a convincing fourteen-point lead. Until, finally, there was a rally. The rushing touchdown by Allen, the (historic) recovered onside kick by Carter, the first down passes to Moore…and then the flop. The Panthers were embarrassed in their own home (again) in the same fashion they’ve already lost three times. Now they’re on track for an even worse record than last year.

So what exactly is going on with the Panthers?