0-8 . . . so what?

A lot has been made about the Panthers not having played anyone yet. Well, having done a quick check around the league I can safely say "so what?"

*The two universal picks to go to the Super Bowl are a combined 0-5
*Tampa Bay's only wins have come against teams that are a combined 0-5
*Atlanta's only win came against a team that is 0-3

My point is this, we won games that we were suppose to win and if we AT LEAST have a good showing in Green Bay followed by a win against Arz and Dallas, we'll have all the respect we need. I'm happy with the title of "worst of the best." It is a far cry from the "worst of the worst" we had last year.

 

*Oakland is 2-0 but has beat only teams with a combine record of 0-5
*NY Giants are 2-1 but has beaten only teams with a combined record of 0-6
*Chicago is 2-1 but and has beat teams with a combine record of 1-5 (the 1 win by Atlanta was against a 0-3 team)
*Green Bay is 2-1 but and has beat teams with a combine record of 1-5 (the 1 win by Atlanta was against a 0-3 team)

more...

 

I guess the "so what" comes from trying to make something out of a 3-0 record and ignoring the 0-8 record of the opponents. I'm sure you've got your reasons for thinking the Panthers are a great team, but if you predicate their greatness purely on the wins and losses, you'd have to come to the conclusion that the teams they beat all suck.

I guess if you wanna throw out the 0-8, you should throw out the 3-0 as well and argue from some other standpoint.

 

huh?

 

of course there is always the cliche that good teams win the games that they are supposed to win.

there is a little truth in the wins being hollow, but frankly, a team coming of a 1-15 season and going 3-0 is a huge accomplishment. i remember seeing a poll back in traing camp on espn with a big majority voting the texans would get more wins than the panthers this season. heh. IF green bay goes down this sunday, i think the talk of meaningless wins will all but cease.

 

If 3-0 record = good team
then 0-8 record = bad team(s)

 

okay, then tell me why in the ESPN Power Ranking the Raiders are 3rd, the Bucs are 7th, the Bears are 8th, the Packers are 11th, the Steelers are 13th, the Giants are 14th, the Rams are 15th and the Panthers are 18th? In 0-8 theory, No one above has beaten anyone worthy. All wills are against losers. My point is that you can't say the Panthers haven't played anyone while giving these other teams a pass.

 

so i was a little bit bored and looked some things up...


the three team CAR has beat are:

BAL (0-2)
DET (0-3)
MIN (0-3)

Who else beat them?

BAL was beat by TB (2-1) and CAR (3-0)
DET was beat by MIA (3-0), CAR (3-0), and GB (2-1)
MIN was beat by CHI (2-1), BUF (1-2), and CAR (3-0)


Clearly MIN is choking, but what's interesting is taking the combined losses from the teams that defeated BAL DET and MIN you have:

TB lost to NO(3-0)
MIA lost to nobody
CAR lost to nobody
GB lost to NO(3-0)
CHI lost to NO(3-0)
BUF lost to DEN(3-0) and NYJ(1-2)

New Orleans beat the teams (TB, GB, CHI) that beat the teams (BAL, DET, MIN) that CAR beat... follow? It's a little convoluted, but I thought it was interesting. Makes me think that NO 3-0 record was earned more than was CAR's.

 

Clearly they're looking at other factors -- not just the record. They see who's played who and how they did, what they did last year, etc. It's pretty early in the season to ignore last year. Keep in mind that a 1-15 record buys you some pretty weak competition for the next year (aside from divisional play).

My point is simply if you want to claim greatness by the record of wins, you need to look at who those wins came against. You'll quickly determine that 0-8 is the sign of weak competition if you subscribe to the win/loss record being an indicator of ability.

If you've got other reasons for thinking the panthers are a good team, stick with them till a little later in the season...

 

The only difference between each team's schedule is two games (specifics listed below). At the beginning of the season it would have appeared that the Bucs had the hardest games. Now I think it is a tossup between them and the Saints. But still, we are talking about only TWO games in a 16 game season. Big deal. You are correct that the Saints have won against the toughest teams to date but to say the Panthers have won against the weakest is ignoring that that accolade reasonably could belong to 6 other teams (listed above).

All NFC South teams play: Baltimore (0-2), Chicago (2-1), Cincinnati (0-3), Cleveland (2-1), Detroit (0-3), Green Bay (2-1), Minnesota (0-3), Pittsburgh (0-2)

Panthers play: Arizona (1-2), Dallas (1-2)
Falcons play: NY Giants (2-1), Seattle (0-3)
Saints play: San Francisco (2-1), Washington (1-2)
Bucs play: Philadelphia (2-1), St. Louis (0-3)