On Wednesday, Panther's coach John Fox announced that Jake Delhomme would start this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. This signals Fox either still has faith in his starting Quarterback at doing a good job or he does not have a viable option in back up Matt Moore. Jake will have the chance to avenge his horrible performance he performed in last year's playoffs against the Cardinals that threw the Panthers out of the playoffs. In that game, Jake had 5 interceptions and 1 fumble. A humiliating performance. While he hasn't exactly been performing much better this year, Jake has the will, drive, and heart to not let it happen again. But that doesn't mean it won't happen again. Unfortunately desire alone is not good enough to get the job done in this league, and while I applaud Jake "going down swinging", I would much rather see him get back to his feet.
This game hurt. Of all the games played so far this season, this one has been the most pivotal one. Unfortunately it was pivotal in the wrong direction; the Panthers dodged left and success dodged right. Losing to the Bills 20-9 at home was a tough one to swallow. The game was one that we should have won and if a person were to look at the stats, they would have thought the Panthers had won: We produced 425 yards to their 167, we had 20 first downs compared to their 9, and we held onto the ball nearly 10 minutes longer. All of those stats would suggest domination, but they do not take into account the turnovers: 3 by Jake Delhomme and 1 by Kenny Moore. These turnovers gave the Bills great field possession and resulted in easy points for them that they probably would not of been able to score if they had to of drive the whole field. While I like Jake as a player and the persona and mentality he produces, sometimes you have to cut your losses: It is time to bench Jake for one game and try starting backup quarterback Matt Moore. I am not saying Matt Moore is better than Jake, I just think we need to mix it up a little and see if it works because lets be honest, we can't sink much lower. Then, we had some momentum going, Jake made a nice long pass to Steve Smith and Jonathon Stewart ran it in for a TD. But then Kenny Moore lost a punt just as soon as it was starting to look like we were making a comeback. Also, I was surprised by John Kasay missing two field goals. He is practically guaranteed points if he is kicking, so this was an odd sight to see. So once again it was not all Jake's fault for this loss, but we need to start altering our game plan for a little bit.
Hopefully the Panthers mix things up a little, try starting Moore for just a game, and maybe we will see some type of difference, for better of worse, and lets pray this game was not the final nail in the coffin.
The Panthers have a good chance to win another game this week when the Buffalo Bills (2-4) visit us at home. We are favored in this game and while Jake Delhomme and our pass attack still is not functioning well, our running game is improving greatly. This could set up some a very productive offense because the Bills have allowed 961 rushing yards in their last 4 games. Both Jonathon Stewart and DeAngelo Williams will likely have great stats by the end of the game. Now assuming our running game works, then hopefully our receivers, especially Steve Smith, will get a few good looks. Steve Smith, who only had one reception in last week's game, has been frustrated recently with his lack of contribution to the team. He will start to emerge sooner or later since you can not contain that much talent forever. My prediction is the Panthers will win by 10.
The Carolina Panthers recorded their second win of the season against our division rival Tampa Bay Bucs. The Panthers scored the most points in a game yet this season with 28, while still allowing the Bucs to score 21, but 14 of these were allowed on special teams and by a pick 6. This pick 6 brings up the performance of Jake Delhomme: for him it was a relatively bearable game. While his numbers were nothing to be impressed by (9 of 17, 65 yards, 1 Td and 2 INT), they got the job done. So while our passing game was not existent, our running game won us this one. DeAngelo Williams ran for 152 yards and 2 TDs and Jonathon Stewart ran for 110 yards and a TD. The offense lived off the running attack this game and the game winning drive that scored a TD with about 30 seconds left was completely based off the run. So it seems that we can manage to win if our running backs are productive and we rely little on the pass, but then again this was against a win less team. To win against respectable teams, our production on the ground will have to continue so that Jake is able to start throwing the ball a little better. But regardless, we came out with a W on Sunday.
Coming off our first win of the season, the Panthers have a great opportunity to win again this week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs are having a worse season than we are as they are 0-5 right now. I think we can win this game for multiple reasons. First, Jake Delhomme is no longing playing like a high school quarterback. While he isn't exactly breaking and making records, he is getting the job done sufficiently. Minimally. Another main reason why the Panthers will win tomorrow is that the Bucs are a horrible team right now. Even though we only have one more win than they do, we are still the better team. Also, it was a game against the Bucs last year where DeAngelo Williams and Jonathon Stewart became only the 6th pair of running backs with 100+ rushing yards and 2 TDs in the same game. So hopefully this is the game where our running game finally gets going and becomes the huge threat it was last year.
It was the play that sealed the first win for the Carolina Panthers. On third and 8, with two minutes left, Jake Delhomme ran a bootleg run to the right and stiff armed a defender to make a first down. It was a surprising play; no one would expect a play where Jake is suppose to run for 8+ yards where success meant a win and failure meant the Redskins would have a chance to score and win. Had Jake not succeeded and the Redskins were able to score a TD and win, the Panthers would be in the biggest hole yet. But he made it. With that one run, at least in my mind, Jake has regained the majority of my confidence in him and I'm sure his teammates feel similar. Hopefully this is the start of a new Panthers team that has regained its confidence and will be able to win.
It is nice to finally be able to talk about a win for once. All of preseason and the first three games of this season have been hard to handle. At times we just weren't playing well and other times we were just horrible. While the win over the Redskins 20-17 was not a gorgeous win, it was an exceptional win though. The Panthers were able to overcome a 15 point deficit and hold off the Redskins on some decisive plays in the last few minutes of the game. With great performances by Thomas Davis, Kenneth Moore, and finally Julius Peppers, our team finally had players to laud. This win will give the Panthers much needed energy and restore their lost confidence, so hopefully they can continue this upward swing and have a winning season.
Since it is a bye week for the Panthers, I'll talk about some of my favorite player for the Panthers.
I love John Kasay. Everyone I know who is a fan of the Panthers is a fan of John Kasay. There are several clear reasons why is a the most beloved member of the team, starting with the fact that he is the only player left on the team from the original Panthers team when they were created back in 1995. Also, he is a very good kicker and has won us many games in the last few seconds. If you took a poll of Panther fans, I think John Kasay would rank as the most liked and the player with the most fans and least amount of criticism. While Julius Peppers and Steve Smith once could of claimed this title, they can't now due to Peppers clearly wanting to leave the Panthers and appearing lazy to most people and Smith can't either after breaking Ken Lucas' nose in preseason last year.
I would enjoy seeing Kasay kick for us until he is in a wheel chair and this might be possible because there are no signs of him slowing down at the ripe age of 39.
