For The Carolina Panthers, The Ghost Of Arizona Lingers

The Panthers should consider themselves lucky. If Panthers fans were half as passionate as the twenty thousand Bills fans who filled Bank of American stadium on Sunday, John Fox would be sifting through the smoldering rubble, trying to find the remains of what had happened to his once promising season.

To say that the loss to the Bills on Sunday is just one of the worst losses in franchise history might be generous. The Panthers dominated the game in every single way a team can. The Bills didn't break 100 yards of offense until midway through the fourth quarter. The Panthers defense played their best game since they shut out Denver in 2008 in front of many of the same fans who watched in horror yesterday as the worst QB in the NFL passed 44 times against the league's worst rush defense. It was a failure in every sense of the word. It was a backbreaking unlike anything the Panthers had endured since 2001, when a week six loss to woeful Washington left them at 1-5 and in a tail spin that didn't end until they lost 15 straight games.

One thing is for certain, however: the season is over. A quick glance of the schedule reveals maybe two more wins, and that's only if the Buccaneers don't regain their swagger and the Saints sit their starters in week 17. The house of cards has completely collapsed, and it is necessary to fully examine what all has happened before we begin to diagnose how to fix it.

It Starts with The Front Office

The front office, beginning with the $53M Chris Gamble contract in November, embarked on a series of misadventures that would eventually doom the team and severely hinder its options in the future. I'll begin with the obvious one.

When the Panthers resigned Jake Delhomme to a 5 year, $42.5M contract extension following the implosion against the Cardinals, they claimed they were seeking cap relief. However, after that performance, the only competition the Panthers would have had for his services were teams in Canada. The deal was not only a thanks for all the years of hard work he had put into the team, but a guarantee that the Panthers still viewed him as their guy.

The deal has blown up in their faces spectacularly. For Marty Hurney, it is difficult to imagine a real world situation where a failure of this magnitude would not immediately cost him his job, with the exception of working on Wall Street. It's not fair to say that Jake Delhomme single-handedly lost the Philadelphia game with his five turnovers because it's doubtful that the defense the Panthers fielded against Atlanta and Dallas would have been able to slow down the Eagles. However, bad coaching decisions aside, the lion's share of blame for the Bills debacle should rest squarely on Jake's shoulders.

It is now clear that Jake can no longer make twenty yard throws. As a Panther fan, the only thing more terrifying than the thought of Jake throwing a ten yard out over a corner's head is throwing a twenty yard dig into the middle of a zone defense he does not understand. He isn't stepping up in the pocket, he is not making reads, and what little accuracy he ever had has left him faster than the Panthers playoff chances.

He topped it all off yesterday with a painful press conference in which he fought back tears while admitting he is the problem. It reminds Panther fans of Kerry Collins quitting the team in 1998 and trudging to New Orleans with his tail between his legs. It's impossible to play quarterback in the NFL without what is quite possibly a ridiculous amount of self confidence, and it is clear that Jake does not have it.

Jake Delhomme was not even the first player to be overpaid for middling performance. Chris Gamble's previously mentioned contract was a complete head-scratcher for anyone familiar with the team. Gamble is a very athletically talented corner, and that is where the praise ends. He is consistently out of position and was beat deep by Lee Evans on Sunday on the Bills only play longer than 20 yards. The joke that corners are receivers with bad hands is no more appropriate than with Chris Gamble. The man is incapable of making a big play, and famously did not get his flu shot this year because he knew he would not catch anything.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?