Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
In a big matchup against a big opponent, a ‘measuring stick’ game, the streaking Panthers went on the road and had a chance to come out and show not only their opponent, but the rest of the league, that they belonged among the teams that will be competing for a championship come January.
And then they gave up 50 points and were outclassed, outplayed and outcoached, looking like they didn’t belong on the same field as their opponents.
If the Panthers 51-13 loss at Levi’s Stadium today felt familiar, if it felt almost eerily similar to their 52-21 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday Night Football that started the Panthers down the path that took them from 6-2 to 7-9, you’re not alone. The Panthers noticed it too – that’s why Greg Olsen stood in front of the locker room after the third-most lopsided loss in franchise history and told his teammates that they have the chance to rewrite the ending to this story – that this drubbing at the hands of the undefeated 49ers didn’t have to turn their 2019 season into another horror movie as their loss to the Steelers did in 2018.
“To ignore that and pretend it’s not going to happen,” Olsen said about a loss like this detonating the season. “It happens if you allow it to happen. We allowed it to happen last year, never got our momentum back and it tanked our season.”
“Is this group going to respond better than last year? Is it going to be just one bad game? That’s the plan – but it doesn’t just happen. You’ve got to make that happen.”
The words echoed throughout the Panthers locker room after the game were accountability and honesty. Each and every player is going to have to evaluate themselves with a clear mind when they watch the tape; rookie Dennis Daley, who played left tackle for most of the game, said plainly – “I played a bad game, all I can is build on it and learn from what I did” after the line allowed seven sacks on the day and rookie Nick Bosa’s interception of a screen pass came on a failed cut block.
The Panthers can’t dwell on this loss, mostly because they can’t afford to lose another one next week as the Saints continue to win – they’re now 7-1, Drew Brees looks completely healthy as he rattled off over 370 yards and almost an 80% completion rate in their win over Arizona Sunday – and the Panthers are on the outside looking in to the playoff race is a hotly contested NFC – two games behind in the win column for the wild card and 2.5 behind the Saints.
They’ve got the Tennessee Titans coming to Charlotte next week, a team that just got back to .500 and would love to take advantage of a Panthers team that is sulking over their poor performance from the week prior.
“We need to hold ourselves accountable,” said Greg Van Roten. “We need to be very honest with the film, we need to make the corrections that we need to make – we need to refocus. At the end of the day, this is one loss – it can turn into two it can turn into three, we saw that last year. We need to refocus and really make sure we tighten up. Because Tennessee, they smell blood. In this league, you cannot let a team take advantage of you when you’re down.”
“You can’t talk about it, you have to actually do it….When we have practice on Wednesday, it needs to be our best practice of the season.”
“Tennessee don’t care,” echoed Gerald McCoy. “We can’t allow one loss to turn into two – after we watch this tape, we’ve got to put it behind us.”
One of the reasons the team feels confident they won’t repeat 2018 is the veteran presence in the locker room of guys like Bruce Irvin, who was signed to a one-year deal to not only provide a pass rush – he has 3.5 sacks in the past four games and his safety today attempted to provide a spark in a game that desperately needed some kindling – but to set a precedent for younger players in the locker room of how to recover when you hit a bump in the road.
Irvin remembers the blowout in Pittsburgh because he was watching it as a member of the Falcons – and he holds himself personally accountable for ensuring that this loss will stand alone and not define the Panthers’ season.
“We’ve got different types of guys in here [this year],” said Irvin. “Me, myself, I will not allow that. I will not allow a seven-game skid off of one game. That said, I’m going to be honest with myself and everyone else has to be honest with themselves, correct it and keep moving. We’ve got a game next Sunday.”
“We’re going to be alright – you’ve got my word.”
“I just try to lead by example – I’m a very honest and blunt guy and I’m going to call it like I see it. Hopefully, I can set an example of how I carry myself and how I play; hopefully, young guys can see that and kind of follow my lead.”
The Panthers also have the ace up their sleeve of a possibly returning Cam Newton to bolster their play moving forward – but that’s not something they want to count on quite yet.
“You don’t just go out and win games,” said Luke Kuechly. “That’s what happened last year – we kept saying next game, next game, next game – there’s always a next game – but you don’t just go out and win games. That’s not how the NFL works. That’s not how football works.”
“We have to know and understand that seasons can be very fragile.”
Which is why Olsen doesn’t want this one to slip away like the last one did.
“We can see what happens when you don’t get back on track – you let one bad night ruin the entire second half of the season.”
