The Carolina Panthers, coming off an absolutely dominating win over the Chiefs last week, were dominated on all sides of the game in Tampa Bay today.
Tampa Bay quarterback Jeff Garcia (15 completions of 20 attempts, one touchdown) had a productive day today, and Jon Gruden should realize the mistake he's made by starting Brian Griese lately.
Tampa Bay's defense looked absolutely wonderful, allowing the Panthers only three points for the entire game—deflecting a Jason Baker punt in the Panthers first punt of the day for a touchdown.
The Panthers were limited to 40 yards rushing, but they did lead the Bucs with 243 passing yards.
Steve Smith (six receptions for 112 yards), who was double-covered for most of the game, had a major case of the dropsies Sunday, costing Carolina at least two potential touchdowns.
Jake Delhomme (20 completions of 39 attempts, three interceptions) had a decent game. His numbers were actually very good, but not too good when you factor in the three costly interceptions he threw. The good news, however, is that Delhomme at least didn't commit any fumbles.
It was a very slow day for the running back tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, who combined for a meager 39 yards rushing—Williams for 27 yards and Stewart for 12.
The only score came on a John Kasay, 20-yard field goal with 12:31 left in the first half.
On the plus side, even though there were a few penalties committed by the offensive line, they did do a nice job protecting Delhomme from being sacked, and they didn't allow the Bucs' defense to create any forced fumbles.
Interestingly, the Panthers were not alone in points scored Sunday, as the Raiders and Ravens were also only able to manage three points in their respective losses.
This week is another lesson for the Panthers—the special teams need to protect Jason Baker; once his punt was blocked, and at least one other time he was pressured very heavily, but managed to get the punt off.
The offense—more specifically, the passing game—needs to work on not having so many dropped passes. A lot of those passes (at least two) intended for Steve Smith were in his possession, but they always seemed to pop out of his grip or were just dropped.
The defense made pathetic efforts, for the most part. They were not able to put any kind of pressure on Garcia or the Bucs' offensive line; and where was Peppers? I never heard his name mentioned in any kind of defensive effort, nor did he commit any penalties!
I'm glad he didn't commit any penalties, but it makes me wonder if he was in attendance for today's game in Tampa. Also, the Panthers' secondary made me sick. They couldn't intercept a momentum-changing pass today, or even deflect a pass.
I am very disappointed—as is the rest of Panthers Nation—by the lackluster performance put on the field by this team.
If this was a team with a 2-3 record or worse, I wouldn't be nearly as upset by the lack of a fight it put up.
Carolina is a better team than it has been, and there's no reason whatsoever that they shouldn't have put up more than three points in today's game.
Next week Carolina has the New Orleans Saints coming to Charlotte for the Panthers' third divisional game of the season.
I hope Carolina can wake up from the funk that made them play as horribly as they did Sunday. It's still early enough in the season that a record of 4-2 isn't bad by any means, but they can't afford to let too many more opportunities slip through their fingers.
6 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment
Bob Baumbarger 9 months ago
GREAT ARTICLE!!same o Panthers crap!!have a great chance to take a nice lead in the south only to blow it.this has happend year after year and I'm tired of it.today they did not look like a playoff team and for sure last weeks win was becouse the cheifs are a very bad team and not do to the panthers being a great team.one thing is for sure they better get there heads out of there a$$ or the saints next week will walk all over us even worse than Tanpa did and with the saints getting some of there starters back next week it don't look good for the panthers.so if we even think the Panthers are going to win a playoff spot they need to win at least 7 of the next 10 games or once again the panthers will be watching from home and FOX will be unemployed for sure. I still have hope but they have a 2 must win games in the next few weeks if they want to stay in the hunt fr the Playoffs.
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Eric Quackenbush 9 months ago
I like their approach during the week with we don't look beyond this week's opponent. Well if in fact that is the case then they must have been living too long in the past and they definitely let that win over KC go to their heads. What is up with Gross and those penalties? Between Gross and Otah, they have really hurt us with penalties. All I can say is now they better put-up or shut-up. Saints will be ready.
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Matt Gilmartin 9 months ago
We lost this game because of the hangover suffered from the Kansas City game. The difference in difficulty between the two teams from one week to the next would be hard for anyone to make an adjustment for. Of course, it didn't help that we played the weaker team first. I bet if we played the Bucs first and Chiefs second, we win both games. That way we play the stronger team first and can downgrade to the weaker team. The stronger team gets the better effort, the weaker team gets the weaker effort, but that doesn't matter because they suck. Point is, we gotta step it up against New Orleans next week.
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Eric Quackenbush 9 months ago
Dually noted Matt; at the same time, had we played KC after the Bucs, we may have played down to their level and lost anyway. In either case, we took one on the chin this week, and now they need to put this behind them and get ready for the Saints. 4-2 isn't too bad right now, but 4-3 won't look too hot.
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Matt Gilmartin 8 months ago
True, Eric. If we had played the Bucs first and Chiefs second, we might have been outplayed by the Chiefs. Still, I'd rather have had the Bucs game than the Chiefs game. Even so, if we had played the Bucs first, we still would have had a much better chance of beating the Chiefs after playing the Bucs. The Chiefs are so bad that we probably would've been able to win even if we weren't playing our best.
As for the Saints game, they're getting much better now. They seem to have found a solid rush defense in the last couple weeks since the Monday night game against the Vikings. Plus their offense will be getting a monumental boost next week with the returns of Colston and Shockey. I've got a bad feeling that we are gonna be looking at 4-3 and the division cellar this time next week. Pray that I'm wrong, but my gut feelings have mostly proven true this season.
I've guessed that we would win the Chargers game on that last play even before they snapped the ball. Even when we were down 17-3 to the Bears in the middle of the third quarter, I still had a gut feeling that there was still reason to watch--maybe we can come back, I thought. We did. Going into the Vikings game, I had a sinking feeling that we would lose. We did. I knew we would beat the Falcons and Chiefs. We did. On the other hand, everyone probably thought we'd beat the Falcons and Chiefs. Going into this Bucs game, something just didn't feel right. We lost. This week I've got another bad feeling, although I think the extreme intensity of the Panthers' performance yesterday left a horrible taste in my mouth and fearing the worst, though I don't think there's a Panthers fan out there who isn't really worried about this crap performance. All I know is, I'm usually right about the Panthers. Let's hope this time I'm wrong.
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Eric Quackenbush 8 months ago
Well, we'll just have to see what develops. Right now Moose is day-to-day with a sprained knee, and I think DJ Hackett has the same injury ailing him right now too, so we may be somewhat depleted at the wideout position against the Saints. Hopefully not, but like I said we'll have to wait and see.
As far as putting this loss behind me, that's not a problem. I did that, and by doing so I am still able to talk about our Panthers. I went to work today in full Panthers gear--I gotta support my Cats no matter what. That's one of the responsibilities of being a fan; I learned that by living here in Eagles country. Anyway, we'll hang tough in there, both us fans and our boys in black and blue. Let's just hope they do what they need to do to get a win against the Saints this week.
Thanks for being a fan too, Matt.
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