Takeaways, blown leads, big plays for and against. What’s up with Panthers defense?

Sunday was a classic case of good news, bad news for the Carolina Panthers defense.

First the good. Even though it took a 63-yard field goal from Graham Gano with one second left to do so, the Panthers beat the New York Giants Sunday 33-31. Defensively, the team didn’t allow New York to convert a third down in seven attempts, and safety Mike Adams twice intercepted Giants quarterback Eli Manning. Not only that, but the team held running back Saquon Barkley — the No. 2 overall pick in spring’s NFL Draft — to just 48 rushing yards on five attempts.

But there’s also the not-so-good.

Starting with the 432 total yards the Giants accrued. Some of that was Barkley, some of it was Manning — who finished the game with 326 passing yards and two touchdowns — and some of it was star receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who both caught and threw for a touchdown pass. Even taking aside Beckham’s 57-yard beauty to Barkley on a little Mike Shula trickery, Beckham had eight catches for 131 yards and a deep touchdown.

So, not ideal.

And that’s without mentioning the blown 11-point fourth quarter lead the team had, or the 14-point cushion that slipped away in the first half.

So balancing all of that, how do you evaluate the Panthers’ defense Sunday?

“I thought it was OK,” defensive end Julius Peppers said. “There were some good spots out there. I think we did pretty good on third down, the rushing defense was great. We’ve got some things we’ve got to clean up as well, but that’s why we come to practice every week.”

But that in itself masks some of the defense’s other apparent deficiencies. In back-to-back gamess, the Panthers have allowed Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton and now Manning to throw for more than 300 yards against them, while at the same time only recording one sack per game (and the lone “sack” on Manning came when Manning dove to the ground before linebacker Luke Kuechly could even hit him).

Six interceptions the past two games proves the Panthers are building a propensity for turnovers, but that hasn’t directly correlated to overall defensive success.

“We didn’t play well in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter,” cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. “When your team has an 11-point lead, defensively we should finish games, and we didn’t do a great job doing that.”

Speaking of that deficit, and allowing the Giants to get back into the game, Carolina’s defense allowed Manning and Co. to execute a near-flawless two-minute drive to give New York a 31-30 lead with just over a minute left. Manning went for 8 yards, then 12, then 40 — to former Panther Russell Shepard, at that — and then to Barkley for the 15-yard go-ahead touchdown. Four passes, 75 yards ... and almost no resistance whatsoever.

Oh, and that was without the Giants’ All-Pro receiver ever touching the ball.

Some of this will mend itself. As new safety Eric Reid gets his legs under him and further comprehends the playbook, his impact should grow. So too will rookie Donte Jackson’s as he accumulates more than his four games of NFL experience.

But in the interim, those concerns are somewhat ... well, concerning.

If there’s any final determinant in assessing the half-good, half-bad afternoon the Panthers defense had, though, it makes sense that it would be Kuechly, the team’s defensive leader, to find it.

“We did all right,” he said. “I thought we did better in the run game, obviously they popped a couple plays on us but that’s a really great back.

“Obviously they scored quite a few points on us, but it’s always better to correct after a win.”