Panthers defense collapses against Bucs

CHARLOTTE, NC -- What more can the Carolina Panthers endure? Once again, a defense that was panned a year ago came up big for 54 minutes Sunday and allowed a struggling offense to do enough to notch a victory. But it didn't exactly work out that way in the 27-21 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Call them what you want -- snake bit, unlucky, just not good enough and even not well coached -- but whatever it is, the Panthers found yet another way to lose a football game. Some enterprising member of the organization could serve the sports world by chronicling the team's creativity when it comes to dropping games. "This is about as bad as it gets," head coach Ron Rivera said. "We had every opportunity. The bad part is, as I said earlier, when you have opportunities to close someone out with a four-minute offense (where) you can't take negative plays and unfortunately we did. Then you have an opportunity to stop them and for whatever reason we don't recognize and don't make a...