Repeat Performance?

As the Carolina Panthers gear up for their Week 12 game this Sunday in Atlanta against the Falcons, their gleaming 8-2 record stands at the forefront of all the action. At 8-2, the Panthers now have one of the best records in the league, helping to earn them the number three power ranking this week from ESPN. Standing just behind the undefeated Titans and the 2008 Super Bowl-winning Giants, the Panthers undoubtedly have their eyes on the prize – the Super Bowl, that is; but with all this talk about going to the top, Carolina remembers the team’s up-and-down 2003 season that left them as the second place team in the league as they lost to New England in the Super Bowl.

The last time Carolina was 8-2 was in 2003, when a tough Carolina team including veterans Jake Delhomme, Brad Hoover, Jordan Gross, Steve Smith, Muhsin Muhammad and Julius Peppers took the Panthers to the Super Bowl despite a rollercoaster of a season that involved five straight wins at the beginning of the season, followed by three consecutive losses and then some playoff magic. The 2003 Panthers fell just short of earning a Super Bowl title, but now with new coaching staff and several new valuable players (think DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart,) the 2008-2009 Panthers could make history repeat itself – to a more favorable outcome this time, of course.

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