For more than 20 minutes, Cam Newton sat alone in the Georgia Dome visitors’ locker room, a towel draped over his head, staring into his locker.
All around him, teammates dressed in virtual silence. Attendants spoke in whispers. Reporters coaxed defiant, sun-will-come-up-tomorrow quotes out of a few players, but all the while, Newton just sat and stared, as if the small locker contained any kind of answers as to how the 14-0 Panthers could lose 20-13 to the stumbling Atlanta Falcons.
The Panthers’ perfect season vanished in a slow drip of crossed signals, missed assignments, failed third-down conversions. There was no one play the Panthers could point to as the decisive one, not even the best-of-the-season catch by Julio Jones that gave the Falcons the lead once and for all.
“This was their Super Bowl,” Panthers tight end Greg Olsen said, a few feet away from Newton. “We wanted to win one game. We picked a bad day to have a bad day.”
Olsen was one of many Panthers in the funereal locker room to hit on the same themes: the Falcons played out of their minds, the Panthers didn’t execute, 31 teams would like to be in Carolina’s position. It’s all true, all correct, but it rings awfully hollow in the first minutes after a winnable game.
“I know this is not going to define us, is only going to make us stronger,” cornerback Josh Norman said. “But still … “
The Panthers had every opportunity to win this game, not only because of the team’s innate talent but because of Atlanta’s exceptional, generous ability to give away games to its opponents. Newton got the ball twice in the game’s waning moments, once with 2:23 remaining and once with 1:30 remaining, and both times couldn’t push the ball over midfield. It was a numbing, frustrating conclusion to what had been, with the exception of a pristine opening-drive touchdown, an erratic, uncharacteristically sloppy and ineffective Panthers performance.
"We got our ass kicked today, and to a large degree we deserved it,” Newton said later. “Offensively, defensively, special teams. I'm talking with the mirror in front of my face."
Newton finished the game with an unremarkable 17-of-30, 142 yards passing line. He rushed for the Panthers’ only touchdown, concluding that sterling opening drive, and after he scored he rolled into a series of celebrations that took him more than a quarter of the way around the field at the Georgia Dome.
It’s that level of celebration, combined with Newton’s solemn demeanor in the locker room, that drives home the point: the Panthers’ greatest challenges lie ahead, and they might well be their own greatest opponent. It’s easy to celebrate and gloat when things are going well. Carolina has now lost for the first time in 18 regular-season games, dating back to last season. Your ability to handle a loss atrophies without use; it’s now up to the Panthers to forget this day, close out the regular season on a victory and wait for whichever wild card/weak-sibling division champion clambers through to the second round.
Sure, losing a shot at a perfect season stings. (“It doesn’t tickle,” as Newton put it.) But here’s the thing. Perfection was never really the goal, or at least it shouldn’t have been. Carolina remains on the inside line for a Super Bowl berth. Style points aside, that’s what will now determine if this season is a success or a failure. The 2007 Patriots—and the thousands of unworn “19-0” T-shirts—are a pretty definitive answer to the question of whether regular-season perfection is preferable to a Super Bowl victory.
“We’re not used to losing,” Norman said, smiling a weary smile. “Sucks, man.”
True enough. But it’s going to suck a lot worse if the Panthers lose again this season.
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