The good Carolina Panthers were a mirage. Loss to Vikings showed who they are

You can use 5,000 words to describe the Carolina Panthers’ problems, or if you’re short of time you can only use five:

They’re just not that good.

Carolina’s 34-28 overtime loss to Minnesota on Sunday was sometimes abominable and sometimes astonishing, and that 96-yard Panther touchdown drive in the last two minutes of regulation was a wonder to behold.

But the game itself was also another example of the Panthers getting themselves into yet another fix. This is a team that ties itself into a Gordian knot every Sunday, then spends the rest of the afternoon trying to mimic Houdini. That’s not the right way to play football. This is a team that doesn’t need to tear the house down, but it sure needs some repair work.

It turns out that Carolina’s 3-0 start was a mirage, built on a schedule that included two of the worst teams in the NFL.

The next three games have shown that the Panthers (3-3) are a scrappy team, but one with holes everywhere. Some of those holes are injury-related — star running back Christian McCaffrey is hurt again and will miss the next two games, too.

But some of the team’s sturdiest boards also turned out to be not that sturdy Sunday as Carolina played its first overtime game since the 2015 season. Wide receivers DJ Moore and Robby Anderson combined for at least six drops against the Vikings, which was part of the reason that Sam Darnold was headed for historical awfulness for much of the afternoon until that last drive.

The Panthers were absolutely forcing the ball to Anderson, again, and his 11 targets generated a ridiculously low 11 total yards (and one interception and one TD).

“What Sam needed today was he needed a little help from his friends at times,” Rhule said. “He needed some plays to be made. And we dropped a lot of balls.”

The Dallas road loss was understandable. But losing to average Philadelphia and Minnesota teams at home on back-to-back Sundays?

A playoff team should win at least one of those. I picked the Panthers to go 8-9 before the season began. That still seems about right, and possibly optimistic.

The Panthers are going to win some games because Carolina’s defense isn’t bad, even though it gave up a staggering 571 yards to Minnesota on Sunday. That was tied for second-worst in franchise history, although 75 of it did come on the game’s one drive in OT, when Minnesota called “tails,” got the ball and marched quickly down the field for the winning touchdown.

Teams have learned how to slow down Carolina’s edge-rushing tandem of Brian Burns and Haason Reddick by chipping them constantly. Carolina’s next defensive move seems unclear — receivers kept breaking open Sunday for the Vikings, even when only a couple of them were out on routes. Safety Jeremy Chinn really hasn’t made the sort of impact you would expect yet this season. The team is badly missing linebacker Shaq Thompson. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore’s Carolina debut can’t come soon enough.

What will be remembered from Sunday, besides that 96-yard drive, is all those drops the Panthers had from their two best receivers.

“You just got to catch the ball at the end of the day,” Moore said, and he’s right. Anderson declined to speak to the media Sunday but said he would Monday.

The Vikings could have put it away earlier.

“Most of the game they certainly outplayed us,” Rhule said.

Minnesota left at least 10 more points on the field, missing two field goals and a couple of two-point conversions.

But Carolina does fight; give the Panthers that. All three of their losses have been one-possession games.

What should the Panthers do differently? Here are four suggestions.

▪ Try Chinn back at linebacker more often, where he seemed to make a bigger dent in other teams’ offenses last year.

▪ Carolina needs to run the 2-minute offense earlier and more often, because Darnold obviously does better when he’s not huddling and defenses have fewer substitution options. It also helps the suspect offensive line, because the defense gets gassed. And people know that pressuring Darnold is the key.

“We knew that getting people at his feet, getting people in his face was going to make him make quick decisions (and) throw some interceptions hopefully,” Minnesota linebacker Eric Kendricks said.

▪ Teach Darnold you can’t call back-to-back timeouts, a lesson everyone should know by the end of their rookie year. That cost Carolina at least a field goal.

▪ The Panthers need to take more chances on the blitz. The coverage isn’t holding up with a four-man rush. Kirk Cousins picked Carolina apart Sunday for 373 yards, and in 48 attempts, he was never sacked (Brian Burns missed one late in the game when he went for a strip-sack to “end the game,” as he said, and then whiffed on Cousins completely).

Without McCaffrey, this is a Panthers’ team looking for an identity. It’s not as good as 3-0 nor as bad as 0-3. It’s flawed, with 11 games to go, and a lot of work to do.