Josh Norman, Eric Reid had big roles Sunday. Greg Olsen’s should have been bigger.

The Carolina Panthers didn’t deserve to win on Sunday, and ultimately they got what they deserved.

Washington led the entire game and edged the Panthers 23-17 when a last-chance Carolina drive fell 16 yards short of the end zone.

The Panthers did have a decent chance to win the game late, getting the ball at their 16 with 3:11 to go, down by six. But after moving steadily down the field for 68 yards, quarterback Cam Newton threw three straight incompletions from the Washington 16 in the final minute and the Panthers lost the ball on downs. Carolina dropped to 3-2 on the season.

“We gave ourselves a shot but just couldn’t overcome all the mistakes early,” Panthers tight end Greg Olsen said. “The first half was about as poor a game as we’ve played collectively as a team in a long time. When you spot a team 17 points in this league on the road, it’s hard to overcome that.”

Olsen said he was “a little rusty” after coming back from a foot injury, but he did contribute four catches for 48 yards. I wish one of Newton’s final three passes had targeted the tight end.

Down 20-9 early in the fourth quarter, the Panthers got a pinpoint drive from Newton to get within one score. Newton found Torrey Smith both for the touchdown and the two-point conversion, and Carolina had pulled to within 20-17 with more than half the quarter still to be played.

The Panthers had fallen behind 17-0 in the second quarter, owing in large part to three first-half turnovers. Two of those came from rookie wide receiver DJ Moore, who lost two fumbles. Former Panther Josh Norman had a big day while often jawing with Newton. Norman picked off Newton on an underthrown ball and also caused one of Moore’s fumbles.

▪ Norman, as you might imagine, was pretty happy about how Sunday turned out. He got benched for a series Monday night in Washington’s blowout loss to New Orleans. A photo of him laughing jubilantly in a postgame conversation with Newton was making the rounds on social media. “I was preparing myself for this one,” Norman said afterward. “I knew it was going to be a special weekend.”

▪ Panthers safety Eric Reid bit on a pump fake by Washington quarterback Alex Smith in the first quarter, allowing Vernon Davis to run down the seam for an easy 22-yard touchdown catch. “Totally my fault,” Reid said of the TD after the game.

▪ The Panthers’ special teams were introduced to loud applause at home a week ago against the New York Giants and then responded with a dream game that included scoring a touchdown off a muffed punt and a 63-yard Graham Gano field goal with one second left to win.

This time, Carolina made so many special-teams errors in the first half, including a missed Gano extra point and a fumbled Moore punt return, that if the Panthers special teams had been introduced at halftime on the road they would have been applauded again.

▪ Greg Van Roten recovered a Cam Newton fumble in midair and started trying to rumble around the right side of the line. The play ended up being counted as a 7-yard loss for Van Roten, who likely had his first and last chance to run with the ball in an NFL game on the play. In the “when-it-rains-it-pours” category, Washington had a similar play after a strip-sack by Julius Peppers, but in that case the play gained 8 yards and set up a Washington field goal.

▪ Washington’s FedExField has a very obvious attendance problem. Once boasting a capacity of more than 91,000 seats, Washington has been removing seats regularly over the past several years. The stadium is now listed with a capacity of 82,000 and looked to be no more than about three-quarters full Sunday, at best.

▪ No points for gutsiness for Panthers coach Ron Rivera in the first quarter. If he had wanted to establish some early momentum on the road, he could have and should have gone for it but didn’t on a 4th-and-1 at Carolina’s 47 on the Panthers’ first drive.

Washington’s Jay Gruden, by contrast, then went for 4th-and-1 from his own 45 just a few minutes later, making it and keying a touchdown drive.

Rivera defended his call afterward. “Fourth-and-1 on our side of the 50?” Rivera asked. “No. We punted the ball. We got the ball back. We had an opportunity.”

▪ Washington fans get tired of quarterback Alex Smith only throwing the ball short, so they gave him a loud cheer for an incomplete 40-yard pass late in the third quarter.

This story was originally published October 14, 2018 at 4:18 PM.