At 1:20 p.m. EST, all was well for the Carolina Panthers. The sun was shining over Bank of America Stadium, they had “forced” a Cooper Rush fumble, and Bryce Young was commanding the offense in a drive that took up eight minutes of game time and ended with points and a Panthers lead should .

Not so fast, my friend.

A Bryce Young fumble in the red zone after a dizzying spin move that left all-world pass rusher Micah Parsons in the mixer abruptly ended Carolina’s opening salvo and sent them into a tailspin that ended in an embarrassing loss to the Cowboys .

Robert Hunt, Carolina’s Pro Bowl-hopeful offensive guard, called that moment the turning point in this afternoon’s contest.

“We were very confident in what we could do. I thought we should have taken that first drive all game. But once you get out of that rhythm, it’s hard… once you get behind, you know, they’re obvious.” They’ve got No. 11 (Parsons), who’s a really good pass rusher, and everyone knows what we do (they made the best of their opportunities). They’re targeting us.

They’re on their heels.

Parson’s and his ragtag band of pass-rushing gremlins brought down Bryce Young a whopping six times. Amazingly, this is a career-high for the second-year quarterback, who has looked completely out of his depth in his first 18 starts as he found himself caught in the snares of opposing defenders an inordinate number of times from week to week.

Next up for Carolina is a home game with Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. Luckily, the Cardinals’ passing attack doesn’t have nearly as much success as Dallas’ fearsome front lines, but fear not: They’ll find a way to get their hands on Bryce Young. Everyone does it. Next week’s game has quickly become a turning point in the ascending curve of Young’s career, and ideally things won’t go in the wrong direction as quickly as they did today.

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