As they had the past few weeks, a couple hundred fans on Sunday night gathered at Bank of America Stadium to welcome the Carolina Panthers back from a road trip. But this was different because their team was no longer unbeaten. This time, a chance at immortality was left behind in Atlanta.
"I'm disappointed for our guys. I think it would have been great for our guys to have been able to do something like that and make it special, but there was a lot of pressure, obviously, and a lot of attention," coach Ron Rivera said Monday. "It would have been great for this organization and for these fans."
"Probably one of the hardest things to do yesterday was get off the bus and see the welcome we got, because to be honest, I felt like we disappointed them."
This is what we came home to last night. This is loyalty. This is #PantherNation. #KeepPounding
https://t.co/Oa1I4LTOVY
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) December 28, 2015
If any fan is disappointed by a 14-1 team, that's on them. Sure, some of the air was left out of the balloon that's been Carolina's magical season, but little changed with the loss.
The Panthers are good enough to win the Super Bowl, but lust like every team, they have flaws. Against the Falcons, those warts weren't covered up as they were the past couple months. The Panthers' stars didn't play well, which was a fatal combination when mixed with an uninspiring pass rush, a suspect secondary and fundamental mistakes like dropped passes.
"Maybe, finally it was time," Rivera said. "Like a perfect storm, no matter what we were going to do we were going to have a tough time with it."
30 years ago, Rivera was on a team that ran into a perfect storm on a Monday night in Miami. During an uncharacteristically sloppy performance, the 1985 Bears fell to 12-1 with a 38-24 loss. Chicago then won its next six games–including the Super Bowl–by a combined score of 164-43.
"It was stunning because we didn't expect to lose, but our arrogance showed because we landed and a bunch of guys went and made 'The Super Bowl Shuffle,'" Rivera recalled before adding, "Not like we're going to do something like that."
"But it gets your attention and I hope it gets all of our attention. Hopefully, it sticks in our craw. Hopefully, it's something that helps to motivate us and drive us that we have a lot to prove."
Good read.
He hasn’t disappointed this Panther fan! KEEP POUNDING!!!!!