Monday night offered another dud with Carolina beating Tampa Bay 24-10, although I can’t entirely blame this one on the schedule makers. These were both playoff teams last year and went at it in the NFC South.
After watching this game, I think the old Bill Parcels quote of: “you are what your record is,” sums up the Panthers right now. At 5-4, Carolina is a borderline playoff team that is a meltdown away from finishing 8-8. The Panthers are terrible on third down conversations, can’t run the football consistently and Jake Delhomme continues to make bad decisions on a weekly basis. However, Carolina is getting exactly what it figured it would get with Keyshawn Johnson lining up opposite Steve Smith. A defense simply cannot load up on Smith anymore because Johnson is great at working the other side. Not to mention Julius Peppers is without a doubt the best defensive player in the game right now.
In my opinion, the jury is still out on this Panthers team, but Smith and Peppers are so dangerous that they can keep Carolina in the hunt for the rest of the season by themseleves.
Most impressed with: Peppers will give rookie tackle Jeremy Trueblood nightmares for weeks. As noted before, Smith is impossible to cover one on one with no safety help. Ronde Barber (one of the best defensive backs in the league) found that out again tonight.
Least impressed with: Rookie QB Bruce Gradkowski had a rough night. He under threw two open receivers, which turned into two Panther interceptions and also lost a fumble after he had already scrambled for a first down in the second half. Cadillac Williams doesn’t look good to me either.
