Having gone from being 6-2 and well on their way to at least a Wild Card berth to losing their last three games to drop to 6-5 and out of a playoff spot, the Carolina Panthers face absolutely dire straits as the calendar turns from November to December and the NFL season progresses into its late stages. Viewed as among the class of the NFC just a few short weeks ago, the Panthers' freefall has been a jarring one that has sent the Panthers from being a good team with the potential to be great to one that may not even be playoff-caliber - As franchise great Muhsin Muhammad stated on Monday.

But although the Panthers have reached the event horizon of whether or not they are a good team or simply an average one, it should be noted that the franchise's great teams of the past have been faced with crises much like the one the present-day Panthers are currently mired in. While the 2015 team (Generally accepted as the Panthers' best ever) did not experience much adversity at all on their way to Super Bowl 50, the 1996 Panthers that went to the NFC Championship Game and the 2003 team that went to Super Bowl XXXVIII both had to fight through their own mid-season struggles - And both eventually emerged from them.

After going 3-0 to begin their season and becoming NFL darlings in just their second year, the 1996 Panthers suddenly hit a mid-season skid where they lost four out of six games from Week Five to Week 10 to drop to 5-4, culminating in an awful loss to an Atlanta Falcons team that had not won a single game up to that point and eventually finished as one of the worst teams in the league at 3-13.

After losing to the Falcons, linebacker Sam Mills called for a players-only meeting the very next day. As documented in Scott Fowler and Charles Chandler's Year of the Cat, the meeting was a tense one: Quarterback Kerry Collins was unhappy that none of his offensive linemen had retaliated after he was the victim of a cheap shot from Falcons defensive end Chuck Smith. Linebacker Lamar Lathon then went off on Collins, calling the second-year star quarterback out for his drinking habits and visiting nightclubs during the season. Other players went off on the offensive line, with wide receiver Willie Green telling guard Greg Skrepenak that he would "take (his) chances" against him in a dark alley with the way he was playing (Fowler & Chandler, p. 171).

Although it wasn't a pleasant experience for any players involved, the meeting worked exactly as intended: From Week 11 onwards, the Panthers never lost a game on their way to an improbable upset of the defending Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round of the playoffs and an appearance in the NFC Championship Game.

Years later, the 2003 Panthers had become one of the NFL's most-exciting teams, riding the "Cardiac Cats" moniker to many close victories and an 8-2 record by Week 11. But then, the Panthers went on the very same three-game losing streak that the present day Panthers face: The Panthers lost to both the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles, and were then smacked in the face in primetime when they lost in overtime to the 2-10 Atlanta Falcons.

At 8-5 with three games to go, the Panthers could have fallen apart - And looked to be doing just that in Week 15, when they trailed the 3-10 Arizona Cardinals 14-10 in the fourth quarter. But then, the Panthers battled back to claim a 20-17 victory by virtue of a 49-yard game-winning field goal for kicker John Kasay. The Panthers wouldn't lose again the rest of the season, going on a deep playoff run and claiming their first NFC Championship on their way to their first-ever Super Bowl appearance.

Well over two decades after the 1996 team's streak, and 15 years after the 2003 team's late-season adversity, the Carolina Panthers are again faced with tremendous adversity following mid-season struggles. With the New Orleans Saints running away with the NFC South and a Wild Card looking like Carolina's only way to have a shot at Super Bowl LIII, the Panthers face a five-game stretch where they have absolutely no margin for error. Make one misstep, and the chances are good that they may not get the chance to play January football.

But if there is any solace for the Carolina Panthers of today, it is that the great Carolina Panthers of yesterday were in the same position that they are in now - And they rose to the occasion when they needed to the most.