The Panthers Clobber the Vikings

In my last post I was all gassed about seeing Brett Favre play and I claimed that he was the real reason I was going to last night's game. You know what happened? As soon as our team came on the field I wanted to see Brett Favre on his back with Julius Peppers dancing over him. I guess I am a Panthers fan. It was great to see Brett play. He played well and threw some nice passes but that Panthers team played its collective ass off and beat a team that is a favorite to make the Super Duper Bowl. Well done.

Last night's game was the perfect example of why this season has really pissed me off. This is a very good team that should be in the playoffs. It's well coached and full of talent. Our defense is excellent and we have two starting running backs with all pro talent. For some reason our coach stuck with a broken quarterback months longer than he should have. Matt Moore, who started last night, may not be the answer (as was said by the Panthers radio broadcasting team after the game,) but he played way better than Jake Delhomme. I really am confused as to why Jake Delhomme could not be sat down as some point during this season. He didn't need to be fired or lose his role as the starter and face of the franchise but when you are playing as badly as he was you don't deserve to start. I really just don't get it.

Another thing that confuses me about this team is that it has no kick or punt returner of note. Nobody is concerned about our kick return teams. I think there should be one player on each NFL team that is there exclusively to return punts and kickoffs. Not only that but he should be good at it. During the John Fox era we seem to put together good teams and then during the preseason they remember that they need a kick returner and then they try to find one from the players at hand. Field position plays a big part in football games and I don't understand why kick returning seems like an afterthought with this staff.

Still, last night was big fun. Melanie and I lucked out and went to the best Panther game of the season which was also, not surprising, Steve Smith's best game of the season. They are finally getting the ball into his hands. Just get him the ball and good things will happen. It has been a few years since I had been to the stadium and there is nothing like an NFL game.

A few pictures I took at the game can be viewed here. They're not that great because we were way up high but they is what they is.

I did take one panorama and I'm pretty happy with it.










Concessions

I'd like to thank Jerry Richardson and the Panthers organization for the decent vending prices. I bought a coffee, a soda, a hotdog and a bag of peanuts for less than $20. It's funny that a privately funded stadium doesn't gouge like the publicly funded arena just a few blocks away.