Carolina Panters: An In-Depth Review By 2nd And Wrong

CAROLINA PANTHERS

By: Frank White

Consistent and competent, Carolina is always an enigma of a team. In fact, they've never been worse than 7-9 since 2001 with Mr. Weinke. Even so, they fall short of expectations a lot and everyone seems to think the cause of their problems is Jake Delhomme; he's hot and he's cold and all that.

When he plays well they can beat anybody, when he doesn't it gets really ugly. It isn't a quarterback centric team unless it has to be; John Fox's bread and butter is his defense and an excellent running game, so for Jake to have a chance to screw up it probably means their big guns aren't working.

They were a very good team last year, losing in a collapse to the Giants late in the season but otherwise getting the wins you expect with a first round bye as a bonus. A year earlier most of their losses had come from late collapses which had mostly been remedied.

Oddly enough, the team had fewer first downs than its opponents during the regular season but had a lot more yards. This speaks to the big play ability of its running back duo and the dominance of Steve Smith and his new old teammate Muhsin Muhammad with 18.2 and 14.2 yards per catch averages respectively.

Generally speaking a great running game, big play ability and solid defense is going to give you a good chance against anybody. That'll do.

So, the playoffs huh. You take an explosive team that has everything going for it in its first playoff game where the opponent's run defense continues to deliver from beyond the grave and five interceptions later the Panthers are run off the field. Having placed money on a certain favourite winning this game, I don't know what to tell you.

I could tell you Jake Delhomme and it's always a gamble, but it doesn't make it sting any less. They were a great running team going up against a Cinderella with apparently bad run defense and sublimated because of their suddenly atrocious passing.

The result was ridiculous, and as much as you have to hate someone asserting your win was not the result of your own effort, when you throw five interceptions early in a playoff game, you gave it to them.

It is possible the Cardinals' defense was just that good, but considering how the Panthers went toe to toe with better opponents during the year, five interceptions is just not in the gameplan.

For the defense, the stats were mostly middle of the pack but among them Julius Peppers got back to being Julius Peppers as the experts would say. We all know defense in football is a one man show. If they do well, it means Mr. Peppers absorbed 10 blockers and jumped 15 feet in the air for the pick.

If they don't do well, Julius forgot his cleats and unusually small helmet and shrieked like a little girl when a bug landed in his Gatorade. Defense is a team effort, honestly people. Anyway, 14 sacks and a Jon Beason later there's no more problem. They do a good job, and considering their success last year they could do worse than just rinsing and repeating.

Fewer punches taken in the face from midgets on offense would be cool, but if that's what it takes to win I wouldn't mind if they took Lucas to the woodshed on Wednesdays, especially since he isn't even on the team anymore. Just win baby.

Their interception totals are sort of disappointing at 12, with Beason as their No. 1 man with three. He's a linebacker and I'm sure this has something to do with where they put him to make plays, but when a linebacker who is apparently too short to play in the NFL is making a team-leading trio of interceptions in 16 games, you could have problems.

Everybody loves takeaways and hopefully Carolina can get more next year somehow. Draft pick Everette Brown might help with this, but it's too soon to count on him for contributions. Cutting Ken Lucas after the season hopefully won't hurt the secondary, which could hurt them in this regard, but they're a sensible organization and have dismissed good secondary players before to little effect.

On offense, Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams combined for an oversized fanny-pack of rushing yards, third highest average in the business and scored 11 and 18 touchdowns respectively.

It's a hell of a duo, though they do have room to grow. DeAngelo, despite it being his nature not to, could stand to be more consistent. I have no complaints with "2 yards, no yards, 47 yard touchdown out of nowhere" sequences, since that's what I liked about him in college, but it doesn't help their first down troubles.

Either way, those two had serious production, fantasy or otherwise, and there is no reason to think Jordan, Ryan and Jeff up front won't keep things on the up and up. They've got talent where it counts and it'll deliver the goods for the foreseeable future. In the offseason Gross wanted a big contract extension and he got it in grand fashion, which was a good move.

Jake Delhomme injuries would be rough for the team, but being more removed from his surgery and young players maturing around him should provide a suitable caretaker role in his golden years. Running and defense has been this teams calling card but they got away from it before last year, with less than impressive results.

I see no reason why this unit can't improve and top their end-of-season heartbreaker next year. I mean really, they should have topped it last year. What the Panthers still have is a respectable chance and that's all you can ask for in the NFL where your starting quarterback can hurt his elbow  injecting steroids into your star outside linebacker.  

It's a long season, things happen.

Overall, their late loss last season to upstart Atlanta and Hack Ryan are worrying within the division but I don't reckon it means much. They can run with them and will get them sooner or later, taking out the trash if they ever play a game Carolina needs. The window for this team is still wide open and they probably just need another shot after all they've suffered.

Their roster is young with Delhomme and Muhsin the only trouble spots, though I suppose you could say those are important spots. The Panthers have always struggled to find a significant other for Steve Smith and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of a backup for 34 year old Delhomme.

That being said, their young runners and talent on their offensiveand defensive lines should be good enough for the now, especially as big and raw Jeff Otah really gets the hang of this thing.

In the draft they traded their first round pick again, likely because last time it worked out so well and Everette Brown apparently really slid much further than people had expected. With that, I'm not sure if they're trying to make this selection for the very near future or if they just see something in him nobody else did.

Trading away first round picks can work for you but it was almost for a pick in the middle of the second round. That's a fairly big guaranteed loss of position, so let's hope they know what they're doing and it pays dividends both sooner and later.

The rest of their draft wasn't very spectacular but it need not be, and Duke Robinson is their kind of player. Hopefully he grows to be as good as he was at Oklahoma. Even so, they obviously don't have that many holes to fill and are just waiting for their stud RB's to come into their own and possibly for Jeff Otahto get more big-league starts at offensive tackle.

They also could have moved on a Jake of the future since NFL Europe went tits up but nothing happened there. Josh McCown and Matt Moore will have to hold the clipboards steady for now. Replacement probably isn't necessary yet though. Quarterbacks are scarce in the league and though Jake can be terrible, when he's on great things do happen.

Basically, he'll make you laugh and cry and not all that much in between. There's nothing inherently wrong with that as long as he maintains the gumption it takes to throw to Steve when he's triple covered, but not when he's quadruple covered. Well, sometimes, but don't make a habit of it.

A lot was made last season of the rise of Atlanta and the crazy division the Panthers play in. The Saints were the worst team at 8-8 and they matched the best team in the AFC West so there's that. They certainly appear as though they can play ball, supported by everyone playing very well at home and only the Buc's struggling out of conference.

That's a recipe for wins but they still have some distance to go before they can start to really apply pressure to the good teams come playoff time. A better overall record than the media darling NFC East is always a score for the people, a smooth 40-24 to 38-25-1.

An article from a few years ago had Steve Smith and whoever he's with as one of the best wide receiving duo's in the NFL. I mean they literally left the other spot in the duo open, not caring who it is. I'm a Steve Smith fan but it's kind of a kick in the pants to anyone later in the list.

I mean it only took one guy who isn't tall enough to ride most roller coasters to beat out most highly paid and entitled starting receiver pairs. You'd think they'd up their game after that but he's still one of the best so I guess they don't mind the distinction.

The Bottom Line

They played extremely good football last year and gave themselves every chance to succeed besides having "For God's Sake" Jake under center. They've made incremental improvements and kept Julius Peppers and Jordon Gross in the fold.

They're doing what they have to do and they should still own the division next year unless something terrible happens. This is the team the rest of the NFC South doesn't or shouldn't mind getting stood up by. I'm looking at you Atlanta, you ain't so hot.