Playoff race!

>>It’s pretty simple and clear I thought . . . likely being the lowest seed we would play the division winner with the best record (not receiving the 1st rd bye) and that should be either philly or atlanta.

Two teams recieve byes. Right now, the third team would be Green Bay.

>>Philly pounded us 30-8 earlier in the year.

Yes, they might do it again. Better to go hide, and not try. Bwawk, bwawk, bwawk.

 

Yeah that was my point.

 

It’s kinda funny. All of the other 4-7 teams fans are calling for coaches & GMs to be fired, the backup QB starting, start playing young players to develop them, etc.

Not trying to be a kill joy…but the three game winning streak was San Fran, AZ, and TB…that’s not exactly a tough stretch in the schedule.

 

True.

But when all the other teams are going down like linda lovelace, its hard not to be optomistic.

NFC sucks. YEAH!

 

If I remember this right the two top teams in the conference get byes. That is looking like Philly and Atlanta. The two division winners play home games against the two wild card teams. If say the two divisin winners are Green Bay and Seattle and the two wild cards are the Vikings and the Panthers then we would play at Green Bay. Certainly not an easy game but we could win it. It would give us a nice chance to avenge our opener.

I look for the winner of the North to host the last wild card team while the winner of the west gets the team that loses the North. I look for the Packers and Vikings to both get in.

 

. .. and that's MY point. I'm not trying to be a kill joy as much as devils advocate to any premature pompom tossing and high fivin.
My bad on that two teams get a bye (brain fart), but your mention of Green Bay reinforces my initial point. Until we beat a good team I’m not convinced that were deserve a place among the 12 best teams in football this year. We had much more talent on our roster in the opener and still got spanked by a good football team (at that time). Explain how we beat GB now. We don’t match up with them either. For instance, do Goings and Hoover offset Green and Davenport? What makes you so confident that we can run against their front seven and ours can stop Green and Davenport?
I’d just like to hear you guys if the tables were turned and the Panthers ended up 10-6 and missed getting into the post season with some 8-8 undermanned AFC team having a shot . . . some team we even beat earlier. Bottom line for me is I won’t believe we can hang post season until we prove it by beating a good team. We won’t get that chance until Dec 18 so we are all just speculating (and some of us are already starting to homer up). No one here has offered a logical convincing argument yet as to why the Panthers should be considered a top 12 team. Beyond that you’re just homerin’ at least as much as I am currently doubting.
I’ll wait to Rah Rah until there is more proof that our guys can hang. When we can stop someone ANYONE on 3rd down, when we can cover a TE or a back, when we can consistently stop the run and run against a better than bad team . . . then I’ll believe we might deserve a shot at the dance. Isn’t that what the playoffs is about? Or is it just a reason to drink and yell at the TV for one more Sunday for the masochistic pleasure of witnessing the inevitable? Okay, the drinking part is fun but no, I don’t want to have to hear it from my local GB and Pit fan friends on how the Panthers were “just lucky to get as far as they did again”.

 

Our loss to Green Bay prior to the injury rash was mostly superbowl hangover IMHO. How do we beat them if we meet them in the playoffs? Our defense stops their run game. We failed last time but we can do it. We still have a lot of talent up front. Peppers makes some plays on Favre. The Packers D is nothing special. We can score on it. Jake is playing good lately I am sure we could score on them. I am not saying it would be an easy win or even a likely win but it would not be a huge mismatch either.

 

>>and that's MY point.

No it wasn't. Your point was we might go to the playoffs and get spanked. So let's not.


I'm sorry. That's terrible.

Teams have to learn how to win. The Patriots have flaws, with their injuries, Troy Brown, a wide reciever, is currently their best cornerback. And they have made it work, with some convicing defensive effots against the Rams and Ravens. Cause they know how to win, despite flaws.

Newsflash. It's not just the middle of the NFC that's flawed. Green Bay lost 4 in a row for a reason, they've been able to mask defensive problems by getting leads early. Same as us.

And I'd rather be a flawed team that beat zona and tampa than a flawed team that lost to those teams (aints).

>>Panthers should be considered a top 12 team.

I missed the post where this was said. People are just excited to have a chance at the playoffs, and that the team is playing better. We lost to some mediocre teams, its good that we are now beating them.


>>I don’t want to have to hear it from my local GB and Pit fan friends on how the Panthers were “just lucky to get as far as they did again”.

Good lord, rake, you are worse than Dan Henning on a third and 10 and a three point lead. Let's just punt. Some mean fans might say something, and that will make me cry.

Pussy.

 

Piper, Try to keep your twisted knickers from telling me what my point really is. I won't lay down when you or anyone else here feels like personally dissing some inferior, and I'm not your pussy. You try to shame me from your overreaction as to my present concern and questions about our team, and you make the obvious statement “teams have to learn how to win”. You list a few general observations about the pats, and offer a limp comparison between GB and us. Not very convincing so far. Right now you’re coming off almost like one of these double-digit posters here who try and seize an opportunity to put down someone they judge to be a “lesser fan” for an understandable concern. See if you can substitute a legitimate argument for generalizations, empty chest pounding, and name-calling and I’ll begin to take you more seriously on this.
You are also choosing to ignore the couple of times in this thread where I have indicated that I’ll be a believer that we are a playoff team once we prove (Dec 18) that we can do what we haven’t so far this year . . . beat a good team. I’m probably as excited about our apparent improvement as most guys here. However, I simply won’t blindly accept that our current roster is ready for a post season run simply because a handful of media and the giddy folks here extol that the Panthers are currently projected to rise to the top of the NFCs rancid milk. I hope I’m wrong about the talent level of the guys we have playing right now but only time will tell, so lets give it a little more time.

 

People whined all last year that we couldn't beat a 'good' team. Just indy. We got hammered by Tenn, Philly, Dallas, even lost to Houston and Atlanta. Even had a close one with Arizona.

The playoffs looked different, though.