When does a fan want his own team to lose?
In situations exactly like Sunday’s, when the Carolina Panthers could have put themselves in position to possibly grab the No. 3 overall selection in the 2021 NFL draft with a loss to the Washington Football Team.
Instead, in what was a very 2020 kind of twist on the season, the Panthers (5-10) chose Sunday to play one of their better games of the year. They held on to beat Washington (6-9) and former Carolina coach Ron Rivera, 20-13, but in the meantime pushed their own spot in the 2021 draft order down toward the bottom of the top 10 with one week left to play in the regular season.
According to Tankathon, the Panthers would have the No. 9 overall pick in the 2021 draft if the NFL season had ended Sunday night. Of course, there are more games to play and the “strength of schedule” tiebreaker will change things some more in Week 17, but this felt like a Pyrrhic victory from a long-term perspective.
Normally, after a loss I write about things I hated regarding what happened to the Panthers and after a win I write about things I loved.
This time and in this column it’s a mixture of both, because this win was both a curse and a blessing for Carolina — but, in my opinion, more of a curse. The difference between 5-10 and 4-11 is negligible except for where it puts you in the draft order. The Panthers entered the game at No. 5 and exited at No. 9.
That “It’s Best To Lose This One” opinion was shared by a number of Panther supporters. Before the game, I asked on Twitter for Carolina fans (who compose the majority of my followers) to vote on who they want to win this game.
Of the 514 respondents, 71 percent said they hoped Washington would win.
The drop in draft order Carolina now takes is significant, because Carolina will undoubtedly be in the market for a quarterback to be the heir apparent to Teddy Bridgewater, and those franchise QB types get gone quickly.
Not that Carolina can’t get a QB at number 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 or wherever they end up picking — Brigham Young quarterback Zach Wilson and/or North Dakota State QB Trey Lance may be available, for instance.
But there would have been more options at 3 or 4, like Ohio State’s Justin Fields. Jacksonville will almost certainly take Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence at No. 1 — the Jaguars have now clinched the top draft spot, and the Jets have clinched No. 2, where they could take Fields. But almost everything else is unclear after that.
On the other hand, it’s difficult to purposely tank a game in the NFL. Carolina could have tried by benching a number of starters Sunday, but even then, Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins probably would have lost the game regardless.
Haskins was terrible, with three first-half turnovers, and eventually was benched in the fourth quarter in favor of former Panther Taylor Heinicke. Not only was Haskins immature off the field this past week, he was awful on it. Haskins (154 passing yards, two interceptions, one lost fumble) was thoroughly outplayed by Bridgewater and flummoxed by Carolina’s strong defensive effort.
As for the Panthers players: “We don’t care about draft picks,” Carolina running back Mike Davis said afterward.
And that’s understandable, because the players don’t know if they will even be here in 2021.
Carolina played one of its most complete games of the season, with a special-teams touchdown (a fumble recovery by Brandon Zylstra after a muffed punt) adding an extra TD to scores by Davis and Robby Anderson.
The Carolina defense dominated Haskins, who was playing without his best wide receiver in Terry McLaurin. He eventually was pulled midway through the fourth quarter for Heinicke, who gave Washington a spark and should have gotten the call at halftime. Instead, Heinicke got Washington to a late score with just under two minutes to play.
But then Panthers wide receiver DJ Moore recovered an onside kick many of their fans undoubtedly wished they hadn’t recovered, and that was that.
Now, if the Panthers win again vs. New Orleans in a week, the Carolina fans are going to be really upset.
