Kyle Allen has had some up and downs this season.

Now 5-2 as a starter for the Panthers in 2019, Allen has felt the incredible highs of throwing for four touchdowns at Arizona in his first start and the cruel lows of throwing three interceptions and being sacked seven times as Allen and the Panthers were embarrassingly blown out in San Francisco.

But mistakes and errors are acceptable for a young quarterback when you’re not making the same errors in judgement consistently, when you’re learning from them – which is exactly what Allen is doing.

“The more mistakes I make, the more I learn from them….at the same time, I know I’m a young guy, but I’m the quarterback of this team. I can’t be doing that,” Allen said after the Panthers 24-16 loss in which he threw for 300 yards and led the Panthers to the brink of a touchdown in the fourth quarter that might have tied the game if the Panthers had been able to convert the ensuing two-point conversion as well – but also had two crucial turnovers that the Packers turned into ten points.

“This is a very talented team, and when we play clean football, we can win a lot of games,” said Allen. “It doesn’t matter what age I am; it doesn’t matter how many starts I have. I have to play clean football, or else it’s not fair to this team.”

300 yards and a touchdown, but also two turnovers?

“Not good enough.”

“He learned from the past week and you don’t see the same mistakes the next week,” said DJ Moore, who had his second consecutive game with 100 receiving yards as he and Allen start to gain a rapport. “There’s multiple things – you can see he’s smarter on certain plays in knowing the situation.”

The highs and lows continued in Green Bay, an error like a fumbled snap in Green Bay territory as Allen pulled it too quickly from Matt Paradis – the ball bounced off Paradis and into the arms of Montravius Adams – was in the midst of a first half where Allen completed 11-of-13 for 107 yards and staked the Panthers to an early 10-7 lead; he showed escapability in the pocket, even rushing for 12 yards – he had rushed for two yards total in his previous six starts.

Allen made another mistake, an interception where he was trying to force the ball into Jarius Wright in the end zone put the Panthers in a two-score hole. A two-score deficit that Allen proceeded to almost make up in the fourth quarter where he threw the ball 22 times for 141 yards, including a key fourth-and-10 conversion as the snow picked up and the conditions worsened.

The low of the interception mirrored on the opposite side by the final drive, which Greg Olsen called “as impressive a quarterback display [he’d] ever seen.”

The fourth quarter Allen put together was impressive – you could see flashes of the quarterback the Panthers are hoping he can be going forward, including an absolutely stunning pass to Jarius Wright for 21 yards which led to the Panthers first fourth-quarter score or the sideline floater to Olsen that dropped into the tight end’s arms just as he slid out of bounds.

But he wasn’t perfect in that fourth quarter – he had two throws that should have been intercepted by Jaire Alexander and missed Christian McCaffrey on the penultimate play with eight seconds left as the running back broke open coming out of the backfield on the right side of the field.

“I did – and I missed it,” said Allen. “[If] I put it on him and he scores, we go for two – so that’s on me.”

Highs and lows – Allen stared at the video screen after the incompletion, clearly mourning his mistake.

But learning from it – you can bet that next time, that pass will be on the money.

Josh Klein on Twitter
Josh Klein
Editor-In-Chief at The Riot Report
Josh Klein is Editor-In-Chief of The Riot Report. His favorite Panther of all time is Chad Cota and he once AIM chatted with Kevin Greene. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshkleinrules.