Panthers spoil their own Falcons comeback: Best memes and tweets on late-game chaos

The Carolina Panthers lost to the Atlanta Falcons in overtime in what was quite possibly the dumbest ending to the stupidest NFL game of all time.

It’s unclear if anyone will ever fully recover from perhaps the zaniest battle for first place in NFL history.

What the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons put us through could lead us all to being institutionalized. In a battle for first place, the 2-6 Panthers ripped defeat away from the jaws of victory more feverishly and more shamelessly than the NFC South franchise best known for committing such egregious acts. Somehow, someway, the Falcons are 4-4 and in first place, baby!

It has been A YEAR in the NFC South this season, and no game will ever stand as a better testament to than that this car crash of an overtime thriller in the Battle of I-85.

There is Big Ten West energy, and then there is this. If you watched Northwestern-Iowa on Saturday with Brock Osweiler in the booth because you are an absolute sicko, this was the game your deranged and empty soul craved.

Not saying Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma were in the presence of greatness, but they sure as hell saw something historic in Uncle Arthur’s Spaceship in the heart of Downtown Atlanta, alright.

I mean, where do we even begin to get our heads around this boondoggle of a football game?

Carolina Panthers out Falcons-ed the Atlanta Falcons in this overtime thriller

Not only was this a rivalry game between two teams that hate each other, it was also Marcus Mariota’s 29th birthday. Not only was all of Atlanta and Charlotte watching this game, but so were people in Eugene and Honolulu. The gang was all here to watch the grandest of spectacular catastrophes unfold inside of the Billion-Dollar Sphincter. It stunk, but we could not look away…

Atlanta went up 34-28 after Younghoe Koo made a chip-shot field with seconds left. Needing a miracle, P.J. Walker essentially pulled a Minneapolis with a Prayer at Jordan-Hare to find D.J. Moore in the Falcons’ end zone. That made it 34 all with a PAT needed to win it. Then, Moore channeled his inner Elijah Moore and Egg Bowl dog peed the Panthers away from 3-5 and first-place victory.

He took his helmet off when he was on the field, resulting in a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing PAT. As if Florida alum Eddy Piñeiro wasn’t already having a bad weekend after how the Cocktail Party turned out, he missed the PAT. Atlanta got the ball back, eventually taking a knee to head to overtime. The Falcons won the toss, but then Mariota threw a pick to seal it … or so we thought…

The Falcons were dead, but Piñeiro missed a chip-shot field goal, Gary Andersen style. The Dirty Birds would not SNAFU this one again, as a few completions and incredible Mariota scamper set up Koo for the eventual game-winner. The game may have been played in a dome, but it screamed Big Ten West 11:00 a.m. CT kickoff energy or two 2-5 Ohio teams doing some MACtion in the fog…

Carolina is one step closer towards drafting C.J. Stroud, while Atlanta is lucking into the No. 4 seed.