Panthers Send Vinny Out a Winner
The Carolina Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday in what could likely be Vinny Testaverde’s last game in the NFL. If it is indeed Old Man Football’s last hurrah, I for one am glad that he was able to leave the field of play a winner. This hasn’t been the best of season’s for the Panthers, to say the least. While it is true that the Bucs - having already wrapped up their playoff seed - fielded basically their second-string for most of the game, it is still nice that Vinny can tell his kids that the last time he left the field of play, he did so with his head held high as a winner.
While this has been a disappointing season for the Panthers, to say the least, there has been some good that has come of this year for them. For starters, the Panthers have proven to the rest of the league that David Carr has a glorious career ahead of him as a used car salesman. They won’t have to pay out the nose for Julius Peppers during the offseason, after the extreme disappointment that was his dismal 2007 stat sheet. Beyond that, it’s back to the drawing board now for the Panthers, who will need to find a way to win next season if they want to save their head coach’s job.
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Peppers Heads up ESPN List
In a somewhat hilarious story on ESPN.com, Julius Peppers has been named the NFL’s biggest underachiever of the 2007 season. While this isn’t exactly good news, it’s the biggest piece of news on ESPN.com about the Panthers right now, as their season is all but over now, and they’re looking ahead to next year.
Here’s hoping that this story - and the many others like it that are sure to follow in the offseason - will motivate Peppers to reconnect with his defensive intensity. Peppers has 2.5 sacks this season. That’s not a typo. Over 15 games, Julius Peppers registered 2.5 sacks. While the offense has felt the brunt of the fury of the fans in Carolina, upon further review, the defense didn’t do them many favors. One can only hope that they can fix these issues in the offseason.
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Panther Power Ranking is Poor
Happy belated Holidays! I’ve been out of town celebrating with the family and all that the past few days, and I took some time off from the blogs during this time as well. I hope everyone reading these blogs had a lovely holiday season of their own, but now with the holidays behind us, it’s time to shift our focus to the next winter holiday - The NFL Playoffs.
The Panthers enter the last week of the NFL regular season at number 24 in the NFL’s Power Rankings. While the Power Rankings point out that head coach John Fox’s job is reportedly not in jeopardy this season, the prevailing idea in the media is that by not firing Fox, the Panthers are just dooming themselves to another year of underperformance and mediocrity. I would have to say that after the past two season, I might be inclined to agree.
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Moore Extremely Confident
There’s a very short little blurb article here from the the Charlotte Observer about the fact that new Panthers QB Matt Moore wants the Panthers to throw the whole playbook at him this Sunday. This is my favorite story of the week, and even though it’s very short, I wanted to share it with you because it is very good news for the Panther organization. Never mind the fact that for the first time in months I’m not having to write about prospective starters this week. Not only do the Panthers know who will be starting, but they should also have tons of confidence in their new QB, who is extremely confident in himself.
I haven’t read much better news for the Panthers in quite some time. After the season everyone has endured, it’s good to know that the Panthers at least picked up a kid who is the anti-David Carr. This guy wants the ball. He wants to be in crunch-time situations. He relishes the challenges. And he should be your second stringer headed into next year. Release Carr, waive him, whatever. The man is useless. Vinny Testaverde, while an amazing story, is just too freaking old. And Jake Delhomme is injury prone. The Panthers need a great backup QB. They may not have to look any further than their own depth chart.
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Panthers Rise in Power Rankings
The ESPN.com Power Rankings are back once again to tell us who is the best and who is decidedly not the best in the National Football League this week. With only a couple of weeks left to go in the season, these Power Rankings are now especially important for two reasons. First of all, they are a good indicator of where each and every one of the playoff-bound teams stands heading into the final push of the season. Secondarily, the Power Rankings allow fans to assess their team’s place among the non-playoff teams. Is your team right there on the verge, in need of just one more piece of the puzzle? Or is your team rebuilding, in dire need of an epic draft or four to get you back into contention?
The Panthers managed to jump up three spots this week after new quarterback Matt Moore stepped in admirably and led the team to victory last Sunday. The Panthers are one of those completely enigmatic teams who fall somewhere in the 8-6 to 6-8 range of win/loss record. They’re almost impossible to figure out, with Delhomme’s injury. Who knows how good this team really is when they’re healthy? Right now, the Panthers could move in any number of directions. There are offseason trades and free agent acquisitions to make, not to mention draft picks to integrate. One thing is certain - this team’s window of opportunity is closing, and the Panthers need to act fast.
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Panthers have no Pro Bowlers
The Pro Bowl ballots are in, the votes have been counted, and the rosters have been announced. The Carolina Panthers will field zero players at the Pro Bowl. That’s not a typo. That’s not a mistake. The rosters are up, and the Panthers are on the outside looking in. How did this happen? How can a team that was considered to be near the top of the NFC only a couple of years ago have sunk so low so quickly? There are no easy answers here, but one must begin to wonder if perhaps a shakeup is in order for these Panthers.
How does a team with Steve Smith playing wide receiver not send at least one player to the Pro Bowl? This only serves to magnify the issues already present on the team. This season has been something of a nightmare for fans in Carolina, and this is only salt in the wound. This team has absolutely underperformed this season. They have been a different team ever since Delhomme sustained his injury, and they will likely need to make some big changes in the offseason. No one yet knows exactly what will change, but the fans would surely welcome something.
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Panthers Glad to Give Fans a Chance to Cheer
There is a great article on the Carolina Panthers website talking about the Panthers second straight home win over the Seahawks on Sunday. The Panthers had lost their first five home games of the season, and fans were beginning to wonder if they would ever actually leave their home field with the smug satisfaction that only victory can bring. Then, somehow, the Panthers finally won a home game, and somehow they reclaimed their competitive pride. The Seahawks were riding a five game winning streak coming into Carolina, and they left with their tails between their legs.
It’s great and very admirable that the Panthers have rediscovered their competitive fire, but it all smacks of “too little, too late,” doesn’t it? I will never knock a team for playing out the last few games of their season when all they have left to play for is their pride. However, it would have been nice if the Panthers could have figured things out a few weeks earlier, wouldn’t it? Now eliminated from the playoff race, this team has a renewed energy. Where was this energy when the Panthers still had a shot at the postseason? I don’t know about you, but I blame David Carr.
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Rookie QB Wins for Panthers
The Carolina Panthers bested the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday by a score of 13-10, on the strength of the play of rookie quarterback Matt Moore. Moore, Carolina’s fourth different starting QB this wacky season, played well enough to win the game on Sunday, which was all the Panthers could have asked from him. His play on the field should only cast more shame on David Carr.
For Carolina, this obviously will seem a bit like “too little, too late.” It’s almost sad, in a way, that the Panthers were finally able to knock off an NFC divisional leader, well on their way to the playoffs, for their second home win of the year. If only the Panthers had put this type of effort together earlier in the season, as opposed to having to play quarterback roulette. At the end of the season, there should be no problem reaching consensus as to which QB bullet shot the Panthers’ season in the head. If David Carr ever takes another snap for the Carolina Panthers, one would have to simply wonder, “Why?” Congrats to Matt Moore on his first win in the NFL.
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Will the Panthers Pay the Peppers?
With the playoffs now all but out of the picture for the Panthers, the print media in the area has turned their attention to more pressing matters, i.e. - making news out of basically nothing. Today, the news is about Julius Peppers and whether or not he’ll get a contract extension in the offseason. To be fair, this is actually kind of news. It’s not the kind of news you expect to be hearing from the Carolina Panthers with three weeks left in the season, but that is beside the point. Peppers was expecting to get a huge contract extension in the offseason. There are now those who are openly wondering if the Panthers may now hold their cards closer to the vest.
Peppers has had a down year. Actually, the man has had a very down year. He has 3.5 sacks total on the year. He’s posted that many sacks in one game in seasons past. No one knows exactly what has caused Peppers’ numbers to decline so sharply this season, but it could perhaps have something to do with out how terrible the Panthers have looked for stretches of this season. Perhaps Peppers was simply not motivated. There are any number of factors. However, Peppers still has one year left on his contract and could be franchised even after that. So this story, while interesting, may perhaps be slightly premature.
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Panthers Musings
I’ve pulled up this article with some random musings about what to do with the rest of Carolina’s season, now that the Panthers are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Suggestions range from giving DeAngelo Hall more touches to putting rookie QB Matt Moore out on the field for the rest of the season to see what the kid has in him. DeAngelo Hall should certainly see more time now, as he was a sleeper fantasy pick early in the season, and everyone knows he has the talent to be great. We need to see what he can do with a heavier workload though.
However, the Matt Moore thing is just awful. The kid was undrafted. No offense to him, but you can’t be hanging your Super Bowl hopes and dreams on an undrafted rookie QB getting the ball to Steve Smith for an entire season. If Jake Delhomme isn’t your guy moving forward, then you need to find your QB of the future in this year’s draft or your quarterback for right now via a trade or free agency. In the meantime, Carolina fans need to just keep their heads up, continue to support this team, and hold out hope that things get fixed in time for next year. Steve Smith isn’t getting any younger.
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