Carolina Panthers' Week 11 Loss Tough To Stomach

Midway through the third quarter of the Carolina Panthers‘ 19-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, it became apparent that the winner of the game would hold at least a share of the NFC South division lead. The New Orleans Saints were losing 20-3 at home to the Cincinnati Bengals while the Falcons had just scored a touchdown to increase their lead over the Panthers to 16-3. Instead of bowing out early, Carolina fought back with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes from Cam Newton to give Carolina a 17-16 lead with six minutes left in the game.

So despite being in the middle of a four-game losing streak and everything that has seemingly gone wrong for Carolina this season, they were six minutes away from having a share of the division lead heading into their Week 12 bye. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they just can’t catch any breaks this season. After Matt Bryant‘s 44-yard field goal put the Falcons up 19-17 with two minutes remaining, the Panthers responded with a seven-play, 36-yard drive, only to watch Graham Gano‘s 46-yard field goal sail wide left and effectively end the game.

While it has been quite the brutal season in Carolina, I’m not sure if any of their seven losses were this excruciatingly painful. The typically reliable Gano had only missed two field goals coming into the game, but he matched that total on Sunday, including getting a 63-yard attempt blocked as time expired. The question is, has time expired on the Panthers’ 2014 season?

The Week 12 bye couldn’t have come at a better time for Carolina, riding a five-game losing streak and desperately searching for answers both offensively and defensively. It will be a time for the Panthers to get healthy, attempt to refocus and hope for divisional foes Atlanta and New Orleans to falter. As crazy as it may sound sitting at 3-7-1, Carolina is still very much in contention to win the NFC South.

The Falcons host the Browns in Week 12 before going on a four-game stretch of Arizona Cardinals, at the Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers and at New Orleans. Atlanta shouldn’t be favored in any of those games and it is hard to imagine them winning enough games to take the division. For New Orleans, they face the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night in Week 12 before traveling to Pittsburgh and then host Carolina in Week 14. Carolina has the easiest road down the stretch, facing each member of the NFC South once, along with Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns. There is so much to sort out over the next six weeks that it is impossible to project what will happen, but Carolina fans can hang their hat on the fact that somehow the Panthers are still very much in the mix to win the NFC South.

Andrew Skaggs is a Carolina Panthers writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @RantSkaggs and add him on Google.