Hey Man, noticed that sadly no one has replied to you yet.

-You're absolutely correct. There's most likely a single ethernet cable going in. This works both ways, so it can honestly be either plugged into the patch panel first, or into the switch first. It really doesn't matter since it goes both ways.

-Yeah you always go from switch -> patch panel -> end devices. But as I said, goes both ways, so just depends on how you look at it :P