What the hell happened? That's the question I was asking myself after my Carolina Panthers got slaughtered 27-3 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
Jeff Garcia is now my most-hated NFL player. I can't stand the guy; I loathe him with a burning passion. He's the most bona fide Panthers killer there is. He's beaten us in at least three straight games—this past week, last year in Week Four—both times with the Bucs—and in Week 13 of 2006 with the Eagles.
This past Sunday, he helped the Bucs' winning effort by completing 75 percent of his passes and throwing a touchdown. In addition, his third-down-conversion rate was agonizingly high.
As matter of fact, this area of Garcia's game was so consistent that eventually, as a Panthers fan, you already knew that even if the Panthers managed to hold the Bucs on the first two downs, everything would be negated by Garcia on third down.
Garcia's performance against the Panthers yesterday was the most frustrating individual performance by an opposing player I've witnessed in a long time. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to wring Garcia's throat yesterday, as I watched him throw for yet another first down to a wide-open receiver. It was simply sickening.
But the pass defense had even more major lapses, aside from the standard poor coaching, that gave Garcia and his receivers all the room in the world to make plays underneath every time.
On a goal-to-go play from the Panthers' two-yard line, Bucs tight end Alex Smith found a gap in the coverage you could have put the whole state of Florida in, and Garcia found him for the easiest touchdown of both of their careers. That score put the Bucs up 14-0.
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