The Carolina Panthers entered the previous four seasons with teams that were expected to compete for championships. They made the playoffs exactly one of those years, and it took an otherworldly season from Steve Smith to make it happen. The other years resulted in bitter disappointment, mostly caused by injuries.
During the first two weeks of the NFL season, Carolina has proved that, for better or worse, they don’t need Steve Smith to be bound for January.
The Panthers completed a daunting two-game stretch without Smith, who was suspended for punching cornerback Ken Lucas in training camp, with a 2-0 record by beating the Bears on Sunday, 20-17.
Carolina trailed 17-3 shortly into the second half but rallied, helped along by great punts by Jason Baker and their ever-opportunistic defense. Incredibly, both Panthers lines, offensive and defensive, seemed to improve significantly as the game went along despite heat indexes in the triple digits on the field.
Things looked bad early for the Panthers, who had lost their previous four home openers, when the Bears blocked a Baker punt and took it in for a touchdown. And for most of the first half, Carolina topped that by attempting to make Kyle Orton to Brandon Lloyd look like a modern-day Young to Rice type combination.
Offensively, the Panthers committed a mind-blowing seven pre-snap penalties—illegal motions, false starts, illegal procedures, they had it all—to kill any hope they had of moving the ball.
Somehow, the bend but don’t break Panthers’ defense was able to hold the Bears to just a field goal offensively for the half, which they matched themselves to end the first 30 minutes trailing only 10-3. However, a Jeff King fumble/Jake Delhomme interception turned into seven more quick Bears’ points early in the 2nd half, and the Bears led 17-3. The Monsters of the Midway looked on their way to crushing Carolina’s 2-0 hopes into a pulp.
That’s when the Panthers’ defense and rookie running back Jonathan Stewart took over.
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2 months ago
Not sure how you can say the Bears gifted wrapped this one.The Panthers helped the Bears out with a blocked punt for a TD and a fumble for at TD just like the Bears had 2 turn overs as far as I'm concern that was a push the Bears won the 1st half the Panthers won the 2nd they just did more with their chances than the Bears did
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