The Carolina Panthers had a perfect opportunity to put the NFC South on notice. At 3-2, they were in first and facing the banged-up 1-5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. What transpired was, quite literally, one of the ugliest games of football we've had the displeasure of watching in a long time.

Before that, the Panthers were surging. They had won two in a row over teams that have been in the playoffs a lot lately. They returned home after a big win with a chance to really put the NFL on notice and arrive.

They failed to do so, and justifiably, they tanked in the NFL Power Rankings as a result.

Panthers get deserved drop in NFL Power Rankings

In all three phases, the Panthers were crushed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Special teams were astonishingly bad. The run defense channeled its Week 1 form. The offense looked like the unit from years past, with abysmal pass protection.

The Panthers even got outcoached by, with all due respect, someone who has been on the hot seat for a long time now. It was ugly, so it's no surprise that they've crashed and burned in the weekly rankings. They deserve it.

Sporting News' Vinnie Iyer dropped them from 17th to 20th in the Power Rankings this week. Last week, we complained that 17 might be too low. 20 might be too high after that debacle.

"The Panthers faced every kind of terror in their loss to the Buccaneers at home, killing everything positive that was rolling with Bryce Young and the defense. The awful run defense keeps haunting them as they gave up another 258 in Week 7. They don't have much time to sulk with a Thursday night game at Green Bay," Iyer wrote.

Carolina doesn't have much time to prepare and try to get back to their winning ways. They're up on Thursday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers, which is not an ideal matchup. That is shaping up to be another loss, which would drop them to 3-4 after such an inspiring start.

The good news with that is that they only have to live with this failure for a few days. Normally, this would last a week or longer, but the Thursday kickoff means there will be something else to talk about soon.

The Panthers have been quite good this year, especially after Week 1. They laid an egg at a bad time, and they deserve every bit of the immense criticism they are receiving this week.