Tom Krasovic: Hope springs eternal in the NFL; just ask Carolina after Sunday’s stunner over the Rams

Never count out the NFL’s ability to command attention in a wide spectrum of U.S. markets.

This year stands as the Season of Hope, even by the NFL’s generous standards.

As the schedule moves into December, the league is serving up a lot of “almost any team can become a contender” and “no one has a grip on the Super Bowl trophy.”

More proof of this theme arrived Sunday afternoon in Charlotte, N.C.

See the dismayed looks of Sean McVay and league MVP candidate Matthew Stafford of the big-market Los Angeles Rams.

See the smiles of second-year coach Dave Canales and quarterback Bryce Young of the mid-to-small market Carolina Panthers.

The Rams entered as 9 1/2-point favorites. Winning six straight games, they’d climbed atop many NFL power rankings.

Their point differential led the league. They stood first in fewest points allowed and sixth in most points scored.

But in this NFL season, all of that only meant the Rams were due to tumble.

Final score: Panthers 31, Rams 28.

The Panthers (7-6) exposed L.A.’s vulnerabilities at cornerback. They batted and picked off a Stafford pass in their own end zone. Cornerback Mike Jackson took a tardy and errant Stafford pass back for a touchdown.

The Rams (9-3) actually did a lot right. They averaged 7.4 yards per play and had no penalties until the final three minutes.

But even as the Rams still looked capable of mustering a Super Bowl-winning run, the NFL’s parity-driven identity was further affirmed by the Panthers exposing L.A. as only a good team.

The NFL system is built to achieve competitive parity. It inspires envy among MLB’s small-and-mid-market team owners who would love to obtain a salary cap, a franchise tag and media-revenue redistribution that offsets large differences in market size.

Defenders of the MLB system don’t appreciate how tough it is for the smaller-market clubs to sustain success, much less actually win the World Series trophy.

Consider: what would the Rams look like if clever mega-billionaire team owner Stan Kroenke and the brilliant tandem of McVay and general manager Les Snead were let loose inside an MLB-style system that favors teams in larger markets?

The Rams would resemble the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Panthers can vouch that the NFL doesn’t dumb-proof its system on behalf of smaller-market clubs. They’ve eaten a lot of misery, but those failures were unrelated to Charlotte being ranked 21st among U.S. media markets.

Crucially now, the Panthers seem to have smartened up under Canales, who began his coaching career at Carson High School. His play designs and calls as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant helped quarterback Baker Mayfield revive his career, and he’s making similar headway with Young, who, like Mayfield, is a former No. 1 overall pick.

Young benefited as well Sunday from big plays by fellow first-round draftees in defensive tackle Derrick Brown and receiver Tetairoa McMillan, the latter turning Young’s perfect deep pass into fourth-and-2 touchdown.

No less influential was obscure receiver Jalen Cooker.

The undrafted Holy Cross alum made high-stakes grabs, including a victory-clinching, third-down reception against L.A.’s soft zone defense.

Worst of all for the Rams’ claim to greatness, the Panthers ripped them for 164 rushing yards.

So L.A, in addition to allowing the Seahawks (9-3) catch them in the NFC West, joined a long list of nominal favorites to stub their cleats this year

Differentiating this NFL season from many others, there’s an extra-large number of teams that stood high on preseason odds boards and have lost up to six games through Week 13. They include the defending-champion Philadelphia Eagles (8-4), who were my preseason pick; and the Baltimore Ravens (6-6), Kansas City Chiefs (6-6) and Detroit Lions (7-5).

Lately, the parity party has served up another NFL windfall: The Dallas Cowboys, despite five defeats, have become relevant in the playoff race, further inflating the NFL team with the highest Forbes valuation — now at $13 billion — for 19 straight years.

Quarterback Dak Prescott is playing great, reflecting comfort with rookie head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who was a mentor to Canales with the Seattle Seahawks.

Prescott led Dallas to a Thanksgiving Day victory over the Chiefs by not allowing Steve Spagnuolo, an all-time great defensive coordinator, to outwit him down the stretch.

The Rams, among others, wouldn’t love to go against Cowboys receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens in the playoffs.

It’s never wise to expect the Cowboys to go far, but the way this NFL season is going, a hot quarterback may be able to cover more of his team’s flaws than in other years. With five weeks left in the regular season, the gate to the Super Bowl tournament is as wide as a football field, and none of the division leaders seem as imposing as recent champs such as the Eagles, Chiefs and Buccaneers.

Hope abounds, from Seattle to L.A. and over to Dallas and beyond. Even the Panthers, while not Super Bowl material, have a fair shot of winning their first division title since 2015.

While I’d still rather eat only broccoli for several weeks than watch the Raiders, to say nothing of the Titans and Saints, the NFL’s media rights partners can anticipate another strong stretch drive and Super Bowl tournament.

Hope sells. Always has, always will.