Let's be clear: The Carolina Panthers didn't lose in New Orleans because of their offense. But that unit didn't help much in the first half — again.

When receiver Devin Funchess hauled in a 17-yard reception late in Sunday's second quarter, it broke a string of 19 straight drives without a touchdown. The offense's output in those drives?

11 punts, three interceptions, two field goals, two missed field goals and a safety.

"It's been the story of our season: Penalties and self-inflicted wounds," tight end Greg Olsen said in a morose Panthers' locker room. "At some point it needs to change because if not, you just continue to stand up here and say the same thing and we all look ridiculous."

Heading into Week Six, the Panthers ranked 16th in the NFL with 54 first half points. In the same category last season, they led the league with 266.

The offense's first half slump started way back in Week Three, but only after quarterback Cam Newton scored on a three-yard rush against the Vikings. Since then, that 10-0 lead has since served as a line of demarcation.

Combine Carolina's two first half performances versus the Broncos and 49ers with their first quarter against the Vikings and you get 44 points. In the four second quarters and three first quarters since, they've totaled just 20, and seven of those came courtesy of safety Kurt Coleman's pick-six in Atlanta. The slump's especially bad in the first quarter, where the Panthers have now gone 50:20 without scoring a single point.

Because they brought a struggling, banged-up, inexperienced defense to New Orleans, coach Ron Rivera could have scrapped his strategy of deferring to the second half after winning the opening coin toss. But as he's done since the start of 2015, Rivera chose to kick to the high-powered Saints. 12 plays and 75 yards later, New Orleans was in the end zone and Carolina was already in a hole.

"Nope, not by one bit," Rivera said when he was asked if he was tempted to make the Saints kick off. "We did what we wanted — we scored just before the half. (In the second half) we had the ball, had a chance, drove it down a little bit, but we didn't score right away.

"If you can score before the half, come out, get the ball, score again, you've got a little bit of momentum. That's what I was trying to do with that."

Most NFL teams are better playing from ahead than from behind, but the Panthers are especially Jekyll and Hyde. So the fact they’ve now been outscored 50-20 in the first half since Newton strolled into the end zone against the Vikings is a problem.

But what's behind the slow starts?

"I have no idea," receiver Kelvin Benjamin said. "It wasn't fast. They started way faster than us."

Not a long-winded answer, but sometimes you don't need lots of words to say plenty.