Fowler: ‘Off the mark’ sums up season for Panthers

CHARLOTTE -- As Olindo Mare’s 31-yard, game-tying field goal attempt went sailing wide left on a sunny Sunday afternoon that suddenly turned dark, the Carolina Panthers were left to think about a half-season that has also sailed just off the mark.

Carolina’s last-second, 24-21 home loss to Minnesota on Sunday sent both the Panther players and their fans shambling out of the stadium like zombies on Halloween weekend. Now 2-6, the Panthers have played a first half of the season that has been tantalizingly good in stretches but ultimately heavy on the tricks and light on the treats.

The Panthers are 1-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less. As rookie quarterback Cam Newton said afterward: “The old saying is, ‘Some do, some don’t.’ Some come through in the clutch. Some don’t.”

The Panthers don’t.

Not yet. Not often enough.

While Mare’s last-second gaffe was the most obvious — and Newton was not referring to that miss, as the quarterback repeatedly defended Mare in his press conference — there were far too many Panther mistakes before that.

Steve Smith was called for a questionable holding penalty that negated a Newton run which would have resulted in a first down inside the Minnesota 5 with less than a minute to go. Before that, Greg Olsen had his hands on a highly contested Newton throw in the end zone.

“You have to come down with those,” Olsen sad. “The game would have been over right there.”

Before that, there were the defensive lapses — particularly on third down — and the three straight three-and-outs that Carolina’s offense stumbled through during the second half. The Panthers led 14-7 and 21-14 but gave it all up to Minnesota (2-6), a team that was also starting a rookie quarterback and struggling with many of the same issues.

“It’s like Groundhog Day,” Olsen said. “It seems like we’ve had this conversation six times this year.”

There’s no guarantee that the Panthers would have won the game had Mare made the kick with 26 seconds left. The game would have just gone into overtime, and my guess is whichever team got the ball first would have scored.

Mare called his miss “inexcusable.” His teammates were kinder.

“Mare is going to make 99 percent of those,” Panthers offensive tackle Jordan Gross said.

Not quite, but close. Over his 15-year NFL career, Mare has made about six of every seven field goals he has attempted from 30-39 yards.

Would John Kasay have made it?

That question was on the lips of many as they exited Bank of America stadium, grumbling. No way of knowing, of course.

Kasay — replaced by the Panthers in favor of Mare in the offseason because Mare was better on kickoffs — was awfully good in those situations. But Kasay wasn’t foolproof, either, as he would be the first to tell you.

But Mare would only have been kicking an extra point if Olsen comes down with a great catch, or if Smith wasn’t called for holding, or if the Panthers could have sustained the drive even after that holding call.

Smith (who had six catches for 100 yards and a touchdown) tried to hold himself back at first when asked about the holding call in the postgame. But then he came up with this gem about the official: “I got a few texts already saying in the HD it didn’t look too bad. But for a 70-year-old man gimping down the field, I guess that’s what he saw.”

The Panthers almost made a terrific comeback, with the key word there being “almost.” Newton’s 44-yard throw to Brandon LaFell on fourth-and-15 from the Carolina 35 on the final drive was a remarkable play, the kind that would have been remembered for months had it led to a win.

But then the Panthers came undone.

“We are not mature enough to get past those types of mistakes,” coach Ron Rivera said later. “We just aren’t. We are a young football team that has made too many critical errors in critical situations.”

He can say that again. They are close, which is a vast improvement on 2010. But the Panthers have little to show for it except that 2-6 record, which ultimately defines them. As Newton said: “I don’t classify us as a good team.”

And they aren’t. The Panthers in, fact, couldn’t beat a pretty bad team Sunday.

The future is promising, but it sure is taking awhile to get here.