Cat Scratch Reader
Trying to understand the Carolina Panthers is a fool’s errand in that the less effort you make to understand them, the better off you’ll be. In this week’s Optimist, Walker described being a fan of the Panthers as a “senseless act of hope”, which is the perfect way to describe it.
Whenever the Panthers show you one thing, there’s little to no chance you’ll see it again next week. One week, they’ll perform better and you start to think they figured it out and have started heading in the right direction. The next week, well, the game we saw on Sunday happens. Sadly, the Panthers—over the entirety of the franchise’s history—have provided more than enough evidence that this is who they are.
It’s maddening. Play-by-play, game-by-game and season-by-season… it doesn’t matter. It always feels like a crapshoot on what you are going to witness. Something positive rarely begets another positive moment – more often than not, it usually proceeds something devastatingly negative. If they score a touchdown, they’ll miss the extra point. If they get past the 50 yard line, they’ll still end up punting. If they’ve been one of the best kickoff/punt coverage units for the first 3 weeks, they’ll give up 50 yards a return once they start getting some praise. If they win by 30 one week, they’ll lose by 30 the next. They have a winning season, you can bet your mortgage they’ll have a losing season the next.
If there is one constant, it’s that the Panthers are perpetually inconsistent.
Nevertheless, we will still show up again next week hoping for something different. Hoping for ‘it’ to finally click. If the current regime is going to dig themselves out of this hole, they’ll have to make something happen soon and keep it going.
Keeping with the theme of inconsistency, let’s take a look at all the aspects of the Panthers’ devastating defeat to the New England Patriots that will need to be better if the Panthers are to have any sustained success the rest of the season:
