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Guaranteed
Ass-Kicking If you enjoy watching beat-downs, then you loved this past weekend of sports. Where do you want to start? How about our local NFL team, the Carolina Panthers....they are simply a lousy football team. The 37-6 dismantling by the Jacksonville Jaguars was a perfect example of what good teams do to bad teams in the NFL. How many Panther fans would trade Jack Del Rio for John Fox? OK, it's not a fair question at this stage of the game...just like it wasn't fair for the Jags to continue to embarrass the Panthers in every phase of the game. Team officials have been using the quarterback excuse all year, since the injury to Jake Delhomme. But I wasn't aware that Jake made any tackles or played defense for this group of Panthers. Say whatever you want about the conservative approach of Fox and his "Yes-Man", Jeff Davidson. The Panthers' defense is as weak as the team's offensive issues at quarterback. Other than the play of rookie Jon Beason, they have been awful....and Sunday was no different. They were manhandled. Once again, the defense gave up 30+ points....even with a healthy Jake in the lineup, this team can't beat many teams as long as the opponents score 30+ every week. The 37-6 blowout put the team's finishing touches against the AFC South at 0-4, and the team has been outscored 122-41. In the big picture, Carolina is now 5-8 with their next three games against first place teams in the NFC West (Seattle), NFC East (Dallas) and NFC South (Tampa Bay). The worst thing that can happen to the Panthers is that their opponents rest all their starters as they get healthy for the playoffs, and the team somehow back-doors itself to a couple of meaningless wins. At this point, why waste another throw-away season and drop positions in next year's NFL Draft? Last year, the Panthers won their last two games against teams mailing it in and finished with a deceiving 8-8 record. This year, Fox looks to perform his misdirection act again while the team continues to suck out loud. The local fans have seen enough and the owner finds himself in a very difficult position.
After the 31-point thumping by Jacksonville, the Panthers' Mike Wahle stated that the effort was garbage. From my perspective, that's a disservice to trash. The Panthers' pathetic display of football wasn't the only ass-kicking over the weekend.... I guess Anthony Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers won't be running his mouth anytime soon. After guaranteeing a Steeler win over the unbeaten Patriots, New England proceeded to destroy the Steelers 34-13. The Patriots seemingly feasted off the Pittsburgh secondary and now have a perfect 13-0 record. Ricky Hatton, let me introduce you to the fists of Floyd Mayweather. In one of the most anticipated welterweight boxing matches in quite some time, Mayweather beat up the previously unbeaten Hatton by knocking him out in the 10th round. The East Carolina Pirates entered the weekend with an all-time record of 0-for-life against the ACC. Earlier in the week, the Clemson Tigers rolled into Greenville, N.C. and smacked ECU by 15 points. The loss sent ECU to an all-time mark of 0-57 against the ACC. On Saturday, the disappointing N.C. State Wolfpack made an unusual appearance at Minges Coliseum...they left town with a 6-point loss, thus becoming the answer to a trivia question. Name the first ACC team to lose to East Carolina in men's basketball? Independence High School was in search of their eighth consecutive N.C. State High School football championship. Despite surrounding controversy about illegal players and tactics, the Patriots fell short in their quest for #8. Coach Tom Knotts, who has rubbed just a few people the wrong way with his on and off the field demeanor and decisions, was left with a runner-up trophy and a ton of questions surrounding his program. Arkansas Football continues to embarrass itself and the SEC with their never-ending search for a head football coach. The first ACC coach say "no thanks" was Butch Davis of North Carolina. That was followed up by Clemson's Tommy Bowden...and finally Wake Forest's Jim Grobe said nooey to pig sooey. The last time I checked, Ted Roof, the recently fired Duke coach, was carrying a "Will work for food, or Arkansas" sign somewhere near the Triangle. Speaking of the SEC, I watched some of the Kentucky-Indiana basketball game this weekend....the Hoosiers of the putrid Big Ten bombed the SEC's blue-blooded program by 19 points. I'm a big fan of new Wildcat coach Billy Gillespie....but damn, Kentucky sucks. There's no question that Tubby Smith left the program high and dry. I know that the two-time defending champion Florida Gators are taking a step backwards, but that's nothing compared to the current state of Blue Grass Hoops. Jim Nantz of CBS Sports called my show last week and made the prediction that the Indianapolis Colts would be the team that beats New England....in the AFC title game. Joe Theismann called, too...he stated that he's not sure that Tim Tebow will be a big-time quarterback in the NFL and that Steve Spurrier is not a great teacher of quarterback play....let the debate begin. For the record, Tebow won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, becoming the first sophomore to achieve that distinction. Arkansas' great running back Darren McFadden was the runner-up for the second year in a row. The last time a player finished second in the Heisman voting in back-to-back years....it was North Carolina's Charlie Choo-Choo Justice in 1948-49. |
Packman
on Sports Commentary
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