Cowboys Defeat Panthers 21-7 (Is it next season yet?)

At the end of last year the Panthers franchised Jake Delhomme, and almost lost the star of their defense because of it. I wasn’t going to write about what a horrible move it was because, well, maybe they knew more than I did. Apparently not!

Let’s look at this: You are a running team. You play a ground pounding offense and make the playoffs. You score more touchdowns in both the season and the post-season by running the ball. Yet in the most important game of the year, you decide to throw the ball. What happens? Several interceptions and the most disappointing loss in recent memory; that’s what. At the end of the year you lose one of your wide receivers and now limit the number of people who can catch a pass from your horrible quarterback. Yet after making it harder for Delhomme to complete passes, and experiencing a terrible loss, you reward the limp arm with a huge contract and a franchise label.

Now we move forward. The preseason is over and camp has wrapped up, and we find ourselves three weeks into the season and completely lost. How could we be 0-3? What went wrong? No one saw this coming, right? Wrong! The signs were everywhere! Jake Delhomme is a quarterback in a run offense, he doesn’t have to pass and that is why he has survived in the league for 3 years as a starter. But something has happened over the course of time. Runnning Backs have aged, and no one on defense can help Julius Peppers out. Because of this more points are being scored against the Panthers, and the offense most throw the ball more often. With only Steve Smith to throw to and with a quarterback who has a terrible time throwing the ball there won’t be any good wins and Carolina will again miss the Super Bowl.

The Panther need to do four things to prepare for next year- yes, next year, this one is going to be a wash.

1) Find and groom a quarterback. There needs to be someone in place in case things don’t get better with Delhomme.
2) Find and groom a running back. It is not time for the panthers to discard their running backs, but who is the next big name in Carolina once this team gets too old?
3) Get Peppers some help! That’s simple enough, find the guy some help.
4) And lastly- get yourselves a new wide receiver. The new quarterback will need someone to throw too, help open up the run game, and take the pressure off Steve Smith

The 2009-2010 Season is over unless some deals and big moves are made. Until then, start counting down to next season.