CHARLOTTE – A true feel for the fleeting nature of momentum in the National Football League could be found in the postgame locker rooms of the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers Sunday afternoon at Bank of America Stadium.

Atlanta was the team that opened the season with the forward lean of a team ready to make history with the franchise’s first back-to-back playoff seasons. The Falcons glided into the playoffs last year behind offensive-rookie-of-the-year quarterback Matt Ryan, a first-year coach and an effective running game that figured to get only better.

So here we are, nine games into the season and the Falcons are 5-4, having been defeated by Carolina 28-19 – their third loss in four games – while the Panthers are 4-5 with a Thursday night home game against Miami that raises the possibility of being 5-5 by the weekend.

The guess here is that if you gave all 32 coaches the opportunity to play it out from the start and see what happens, or offer them a 5-5 record with six games left in the season, about 90 percent of them would take the latter.

“I’m real proud of them and the way they fought back,” Carolina coach John Fox said after the game. “We dug ourselves into a heck of a hole at 0-3, so I like talking about (the team since then).”

Quarterback Jake Delhomme was about as bad as a professional quarterback could be and still draw paychecks at the start of the season. But if you looked at the stat sheet after Sunday’s game, you would have to say Ryan could have learned something from Delhomme’s example.

He completed 15-of-24 for 195 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, while Ryan was 22-for-41 for 224 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Much of the damage Delhomme inflicted came against Atlanta cornerback Tye Hill, the former first-round draft choice from Clemson who got his first start a week earlier and came away with an interception return for a touchdown against Washington.

In his second start, Hill got beat for 62 of the Panthers’ first 80 yards passing. Steve Smith beat him for the first touchdown, then he was picked on again for a reception that set up Carolina’s second touchdown.

After that, Hill watched the remainder of the game from the sidelines, a human reminder why they call this the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league.

Momentum is the key.

“Teams are built to be equal on any given Sunday,” Fox said. “That is what makes it a tremendous game for the fans and everybody. It’s the way the game is, how it’s always been and how it always will be.”

So they play Miami Thursday night, with a confounding collection of wildcat sets to learn in a very limited amount of time. Perhaps looking ahead to that, Fox had the Panthers play long sequences in a no huddle offense, which will require extra study sessions for the Dolphins.

“On a short week, all you can do is feed off the good things you did in your last game, so we’ll have something there to work on,” said Panthers third-year defensive end Charles Johnson. “You feed off what you got and you spend all your time in the film trying to get ready, then, before you feel ready, you go play.”

And with a little good fortune, the Panthers might wake up Friday morning with a 5-5 record, all even, ready for a late-season playoff run.

Imagine that.

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