START QUICKLY

The Panthers would love it if everyone stopped talking about their third-quarter offense.

But because I’d rather light a candle than curse their darkness, it’s worth pointing out how good they are to start games.

They’ve scored 66 points in the first quarter this season, the third-best total in the league at this point.

Unless they can arrange for a longer halftime, they’re going to have to figure out how to extend that into the second half at some point, but not getting into holes early in games can’t hurt.

IN THE ZONE

The Panthers went through their struggles in the red zone early in the year, but that has gotten better lately.

They’re 9-of-9 scoring touchdowns the last four games, a significant improvement over all the field goal-settling from the first part