The Panthers have irritated the NFL Football gods
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by S4G
11/19 I suffer from being an out of town fan of an NFL football team... in this case, the Carolina Panthers. That does not mean that I do not feel it when my team loses though.
It's not like I expected a different result. Brett Favre is a great Quarterback. He may have lost some zip in his arm, maybe in his feet, but his mind is as sharp as ever. He's also gotten a good core of players around him this year. But the pain is still stings this morning.
I've been reading on the internet about how the fumble caused my Peppers was ruled a fumble, but the Packers still kept the ball because the refs could not determine who had possession of it(?!?). Personally, I think this is more due to #90 not being as dominating as he used to be. I mean, when a team/player is playing well things tend to go their way more often. I'm not sure why that is.
The maximum effective range of an excuse, ANY excuse, is zero meters. The Panthers have been pretty good about not making excuses, but the results are still not what anyone (except their fellow NFC South members) want. This year has been confusing to say the least. Last year the offensive coordinator was fired by being too 'conservative', but the team is not just hurting offensively.
The special teams have really not been performing this year. I mean, how can you let a team return a 'pooch punt' for a touchdown! But that's not the only issue here... the game of field possesion has been lacking. Lately rookie Robinson has been improving his return yardage, but what is really killing them is allowing the opposing teams to get such good field position on their returns.
And what has happened to the defense this year? Have they all of a sudden aged? Last week one of the team members was quoted for saying "stats are for losers". Well, what about this stat "4-6" - the number of games the Panthers have won and lost? I know Mike Minter retired, and I don't begrudge the man. He put in his time, and he basically played for as long as his body could take it. I am not sure who's idea it was to move Julius Peppers around the field, but so far I would say it's not working - but remember, I am an ArmChair fan. For as long as I can remember the Panthers have always had a weakness in their defense with the possible exception of the Sam Mills, Kevin Greene, and Lamar Lathon era. I remember watching a game versus the Washington Redskins, the Panthers were up by like 21 points with about 12 minutes to play. My dad paid for a pair of tickets so we could go in person, and he turns to me and says, "looks like the Panthers will get their first win against the 'Skins today". I turned to him and said, "there's still plenty of time. Besides, <the Redskins RB> is pushing the line around". The very next play the Redskins ripped a 60+ yard touchdown run. The Panthers lost that day. And I see it... as a fan I see it. So if I see the weakness, opposing offensive coordinators have to see it. Sometimes they just don't have the personnel to take advantage, but more often than not... they do.
On offense, one bright spot yesterday... one of the other receivers took a step forward yesterday. Drew Carter made himself known. Now, if he can just make that more consistent.
The Panthers play New Orleans next week, and then {{San Francisco 49ers|San Francisco]] the following week - and things get bad... if I were the coach... Vinny Testaverde would be declared the starter until the end of the year (or until he wears out)... work on getting Smitty healthy once more... and stop moving Pep all over the field. Sure he was double teamed all the time, but he was a one man wrecking crew - if you ask me, this was an experiment to postpone the contract renegotiations back a year so they front office can make sure they have enough cap room to keep him around.
I am going to keep rooting for my Panthers... and when they play on Sunday night football against the Cowboys in December I will be wearing my Wesley Walls jersey... but right now... I just don't see them having better than a 7-9 record this season, and it's more likely to be 6-10...
In my opinion.
