Panthers 2008 Schedule

I'm with you mlf...outside of winning the Super Bowl there is not a single game that I would rather the Panthers WIN..verses the Giants and at their house.

Unless of course we also get to meet them in the playoffs at our house.

And it is important that we take our house back this year...I'm tired of this rental program we have been on.

This is an interesting schedule. I'm ok with it as far as the timing of some of the matchups. It's really not that bad. Here goes...

1) SD= If we can somehow pull this one out, it would be great for momentum going into the year. Maybe the media will take us a little more seriously than last year. For the first time in recent years, Carolina will NOT be the sexy pick to win the NFC, and that's a good thing. I hope I'm wrong, but..   LOSS 0-1

2)CHI= Home opener against a team still living off its SuperBowl hype from 2 years ago. Winning at home is a feeling the team could get used to. The Bears won't be able to run, and Grossman (or whoever) will have to pass their way out. A key turnover and some shrewd Fox coaching seals the deal.  WIN 1-1

3)MIN= Peterson is all I see here. The Vikes might have a notable player taken from the draft that will need to be accounted for, but this one is totally winnable. WIN 2-1

4)ATL= Home against the division rivals. Nothing to be scared of here, as long as we have a win under our belt by this week. If not by now, then there's cause for concern. WIN 3-1

5)KC= Barring some crazy overachieving draft pick, I can't see the Chefs being much better than last year (aka not that good). A closer than we want, but..    WIN  4-1

6)TB= Going into Tampa could be tough, with both of these teams feeling like they can beat eachother. Might want to watch out in this one if the Bucs get another WR worth a flip across from Galloway. A season sweep of TB is alot to ask for, but we ge this one. WIN 5-1

7)NO= The Saints will be better this year than last, but still not enough. WIN 6-1

8)ARI= The Cards are always a very talented team and will be a tough out. Some have said they'll draft an RB to roll with Edge, I personally think they need defense (as always). This could be trouble, but I forsee a fun game to watch and root for the Cats. Especially when ARI shoots itself in the foot like they always do. WIN 7-1

9)BYE  we got this one

10)OAK= in the Black Hole. McFadden or not, OAK isn't that hot on offense. Russell will be better, but he still throws 100 mph passes to guys that aren't even 10 yards away. Both defenses go off in an ugly one filled with bad turnovers on both sides. A close shave, but...  WIN 8-1

11)DET =at home. The Lions are going to need this one, but no dice. They might start hot but this is where the real Lions come to play and lose. WIN 9-1

12)ATL =Road division rivalry game. Carolina makes a statement on the last drive after a back and forth battle. WIN 10-1

13)GB= Frozen Tundra. Whether Favre is back by this point or not, The Pack tend to have our number more times than not. You all probably think I'm crazy to have us 10-1 in wk 13, and you're right. LOSS 10-2

14)TB= MNF in the Queen City against the toughest team in the division. A dandy game filled with emotion and a Cadillac Williams injury. A season sweep over TB would be a tall glass of whatever you drink. LOSS 10-3

15)DEN= This would be a great home win. I don't know how they do it, but the Broncos can bring it from time to time and this is one of those times. I would love to see Shanahan do something dumb to cost them the game, but..  LOSS 10-4

16)NYG= The NFC East is going to be a wicked race by late December. The defending SB champs get one over on us, perhaps by sheer will.  LOSS 10-5

17) NO= After these last 4 Ls, the team scrambles to a more favorable playoff seed. If he's still upright, this will be Duece McAllister's last game (but that's for another post). Big statement game and the good guys win.  WIN 11-5

Playoff bound and Super Bowl driven, Carolina gives us something to cheer about this year.

We'll see you in December.

Actually, if you pay attention to the sport and offseason moves, you have to wonder what the Raiders are going to be like this year. Their defense has been very good for 2 years now with a more than terrible offense.

They now have a Quarterback, albeit young, but very mobile, very accurate in Jemarcus Russel. Justin Vargas and that offensive line came alive in the 2nd half last year. Remember how you were wondering why that one guy in your Fantasy Football league picked up Fargas and then he goes nuts for like 6 weeks in a row? Yeah well, pencil in Darren McFadden with him as well.

They went out and got a number one receiver, granted a possible age risk, in Javon Walker. They cut out all the dead weight from the Art Shell era with Jerry Porter packing his bags along with some other loose nuts. Drew Carter can play, Panther fans we know this, and being the 3rd option deep threat behind Walker, Ronald Curry (who we also know can play) for JeMarcus Russell, they have a new look offense which wont embarass them like it has in the past.

The Raiders also signed DeAngelo Hall which we all know is probably more mouth than he is All-Pro but he does free up Asomuoughe and Michael Huff to unload on people. They also signed Gibril Wilson for quality depth.

Now look at what Carolina has done so far in the offseason. we got DJ Hackett and Mushin Muhammed. We let Deshaun go and a couple starters in the offensive line which all but forces us to draft Ryan Clady or Jeff Otah with our first pick. Which means, we didn't add any big time play makers on either side of the ball. Yes Mushin is a good pick up but he's not going for 80 yards. We did nothing special and may not have even added a starter of defense in the FA market. We have to be realistic about our Panthers people, we are not a very good team right now. No team speed on defense. For whatever reason we havent figured out how to use DeAngelo Williams, we will see this year for sure, and even our owners want to copy other teams, the Steelers, instead of creating our own identity.

So with all those facts now on the table, you still want me to trade in my Panthers fan card, or maybe you should not be such a homer and look at the facts, the Panthers havent done much to make themselves anything other than a fair to slightly above average team. And fair to slightly above average teams in the NFL can lose to anybody.