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Carolina Panthers 2008/2009 Season


Andyc545

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That was an ugly ugly game today (so many penalties, and an inability to get the offense going in the first half) but I'll take the W! I was impressed how our defense was able to put up the brick wall in the 2nd half. If we're this successful without Smith, I wonder how we'll be with him? Go Panthers!!!

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So I was unable to watch the whole game b/c of work, but rookie Stewart seems to be a star. He had a strong presence the last game which seems to be reassured this game with his two TD's. With 2-0, the Cardiac Cat's are back in business! Going 2-0 without Smith really speaks something about the team this year. Now that Smith will be back next game, things are about to heat up.

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So I was unable to watch the whole game b/c of work, but rookie Stewart seems to be a star. He had a strong presence the last game which seems to be reassured this game with his two TD's. With 2-0, the Cardiac Cat's are back in business! Going 2-0 without Smith really speaks something about the team this year. Now that Smith will be back next game, things are about to heat up.
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Not to be pessimistic at all...but I can't help but wonder when Smith returns and becomes an Offensive Option, does that disrupt what seems to be working well so far with the Panthers? I hope Smith's return does nothing but elevate this team to another level from what we've seen so far.
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That was an ugly ugly game today (so many penalties, and an inability to get the offense going in the first half) but I'll take the W! I was impressed how our defense was able to put up the brick wall in the 2nd half. If we're this successful without Smith, I wonder how we'll be with him? Go Panthers!!!
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  • 1 month later...

Another great win by the Panthers at home today. 4-0 at BofA Stadium this year... Hard to believe they are playing so well at home when they couldn't buy one there last year. If we can beat the Cards next week and go into the bye week at 6-2, we are in great shape for the second half the year. Whatever John Fox has done to light a fire under the guys this year is working. The D is pretty stout... So far this year, we've shut down LT, Matt Forte, Larry Johnson, Michael Turner and now the #1 QB in the league Drew Brees. Go Panthers!

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Another great win by the Panthers at home today. 4-0 at BofA Stadium this year... Hard to believe they are playing so well at home when they couldn't buy one there last year. If we can beat the Cards next week and go into the bye week at 6-2, we are in great shape for the second half the year. Whatever John Fox has done to light a fire under the guys this year is working. The D is pretty stout... So far this year, we've shut down LT, Matt Forte, Larry Johnson, Michael Turner and now the #1 QB in the league Drew Brees. Go Panthers!
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Phew, that was one hell of a game. Probably the most fun I've ever had at a Panthers game. Of course sitting next to a Saints fan made it all the sweeter, and I've got a true half-and-half sunburn and a strained voice to show off my support and brag to everyone that I got to see Brees shut down in person. I honestly believe that if it weren't for the unnecessary roughness call in the first quarter, the game could have ended up looking just like the KC game. But what can you do? I heard a lot of people asking about the Wells-Farchovia tower as it definitely is looming over the stadium now.

However, being that this was the first of a couple games I am going to this season, I would like to express my concern that Carolina fans haven't seemed to catch onto football etiquette yet. They weren't yelling at the right times to be the "twelfth man." And the "wave" kept dying out after just a few sections despite numerous attempts to get it started. Either the Charlotte region doesn't have enough diehard football fans who attend games regularly, or our lack of a history of football has proven our locals to be inept at helping the home team as much. Then again, the Panthers defense did seem to get a lot of lucky plays and some blocked passes that should've been picks. I remain hopeful that we can still manage a playoff bye for the first time in team history though.

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Phew, that was one hell of a game. Probably the most fun I've ever had at a Panthers game. Of course sitting next to a Saints fan made it all the sweeter, and I've got a true half-and-half sunburn and a strained voice to show off my support and brag to everyone that I got to see Brees shut down in person. I honestly believe that if it weren't for the unnecessary roughness call in the first quarter, the game could have ended up looking just like the KC game. But what can you do? I heard a lot of people asking about the Wells-Farchovia tower as it definitely is looming over the stadium now.

However, being that this was the first of a couple games I am going to this season, I would like to express my concern that Carolina fans haven't seemed to catch onto football etiquette yet. They weren't yelling at the right times to be the "twelfth man." And the "wave" kept dying out after just a few sections despite numerous attempts to get it started. Either the Charlotte region doesn't have enough diehard football fans who attend games regularly, or our lack of a history of football has proven our locals to be inept at helping the home team as much. Then again, the Panthers defense did seem to get a lot of lucky plays and some blocked passes that should've been picks. I remain hopeful that we can still manage a playoff bye for the first time in team history though.

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If you are talking about the wave that originates in section 532, it has been successful twice this year. At the Redskins pre-season game, and when KC played.

Fans were noticably quieter this game. I'm not sure why, but I was guessing because it was chilly. Not a great excuse, but that's what I noticed. When KC played and the Bears game in the 2nd Half were much louder and rowdier, but both days were in the 90's.

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Yeah, the wave in the lower bowl didn't get very far either. They need to get them started during a TV timeout though. This week they tried starting it while the Panthers were on D and thats when Panthers fans are the loudest and already standing.

About the rules at the stadium. During the college game this year, so many guys take their shirts off that security can't keep up and just lets them do it. Some of it is security, but alot of it is just our fans. In a city where half the people are from somewhere else in the country, its just tough to get that hardcore fan base going. Hopefully time, along with some tradition will change that.

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^ Yeah, I agree with that, the wave is a little... something, not sure how to phrase, juvenile, silly, something along those lines. Truly passionate fans are more involved with actual plays and coaching strategies during a game. During timeouts and other breaks I would prefer to get food, talk, etc. Getting the crowd to act as a single entity is I am guessing the real intent behind the wave, but more effective is having each section of the stadium try to out "yell" the other, this is loud and often demoralizing to the visiting team (though more relevant in college football).

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I guess calling it juvenile is overly judgemental, when I take my daughters to a game sooner or later I am sure I will have fun doing it with them (because they will think it is fun), but you are right, if it is fun for you then that is all that matters. But was mainly thinking of the comments earlier about building up an avid base of fans, to whom the wave is not quite the "tool" of choice, instead, screaming, booing, raudiness, things more commonly asscociated with hard-core fans like you see in Piitsburgh, Green Bay, Cleveland, etc. The Carolina games are still quite tame, and the wave seems more something associated with "tame" (IMO).

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I 100% agree with what you have all said and I see how some could consider outlandish behavior in support of something you love as juvenile. I personally believe that fan and community participation is 75% of the game experience itself. If the stadium is full of reserved fans, it would get the feel of a tennis match: watching the teams go back and forth at each other and clapping when someone scores. Now I'm not putting tennis down. I actually like watching tennis matches. But sports like tennis are an example of places where reserved, but supportive behavior is the norm. But there is a time to be reserved and a time to let yourself have actual fun. To me, a football game is an example of the latter.

Football, as I have always known it, is a working-mans sport of pure brute force mixed with strategy that is meant to be crude, harsh, and thrilling. When a stadium doesn't light up, the game loses a lot of its luster to me personally. I am now actually a little devastated to hear that you can't be shirtless at the game as I was planning on going to the Tampa Bay game covered in blue body paint no matter how cold it gets that day. And the game wasn't that cold once you were inside the bowl in the sun. That is unless you were on the shady side. How can a football culture not accept one of its defining stereotypes though? I personally feel that they are keeping a lot from the experience by holding fans back from showing their true depth of pride in their team.

IMO, NFL games should all be like those at Lambeau Field or Soldier Field where, despite the depths of winter and its sometimes subzero temperatures, fans on the front row rarely sport much more than a letter on their chest and a thermos in their shivering hands. That may seem as a bit foolish to some, but it is an accepted part of the culture. I mean, go to almost any major college game like UGA, UF, FSU, LSU, etc and you'll get a true sense of what going to a football game can really be like. I'm not saying that any of you haven't; but if you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about. There is an air to a college game that is missing in BoA stadium but that I've felt in other pro stadiums in the past. Saying that college is "juvenile" by comparison would be correct in terms of demographic, but what's saying you need to act like an adult when you are going somewhere to enjoy yourself? Who is going to judge you? I judged those Panthers supporters sitting around me not yelling before a NO snap or jumping up and down after a big play. But it doesn't matter that they judged me or I judged them as I don't know who they are and won't remember them a week from now. If I go somewhere to have fun, nobody is going to hold me back. Once football culture becomes more acceptable at the stadium, more and more people will be able to come out of their shell and enjoy the games at their true potential. That's Charlotte's problem with sporting events. "We" love a winner, but ignore a loser. The Packers, the Bears, etc have packed houses even on years they can't put together a winning record. People are going for the experience, not just the events unfolding on the field.

And you are definitely right that Catman was starting the wave at all the wrong times, but that was exactly my point with Charlotte's lack of football etiquette. My friend has PSL's in 203 (the section one above and to Catman's right) and we were watching the wave fail time and time again going clockwise, then he tried sending it our way while something was going on on the field and noone around us was paying him attention (nor were we anymore.) But regardless of what he's doing down there, that's not even his job. Where the hell does Sir Purr go during the game? It seems like he disappears for long periods of time only to return for a video appearance every now and then. Isn't it his job to be getting the crowd into action? I know that is how it works at every college football game I've been to. Mascots don't seem to have any issues at those games. And why don't any of the announcements have something to show besides a VIC or AAA prize? Can't they organize a cheer besides "Go Panthers" in that stadium? How about some loud speaker organized "defense" or "choke" (for FG attempts) cheers? Kind of like at the old Hornets or Bobcats games for example.

I guess I have loved every level of football my entire life though. I have two very reserved banker parents that are from rival high schools in TitleTown USA (look it up.) They watch football, but don't really get into it like my brother and I always have. Our obsession probably roots from having a large extended family full of hardcore Notre Dame, Florida, Georgia, and Auburn fans. Thus, I may have an extremely biased view on what football should be on home turf.

In a way, I fear the advent of football at UNC Charlotte next decade as there won't be a football culture, or tradition, to add to the games when the team first sets off. Given this city's lackluster football culture, despite how long we've had the Panthers, it doesn't bode well for the Niners. That is, unless something changes around this town.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yea, this game has gotten me second guessing Jake again, even the sportscasters on Fox were criticizing him. But a W is a W and we shouldn't complain, no matter how ugly. Their only points in the game came off turnovers and penalties, so I consider this game a defensive shutout much like the KC game before. I expect the defense to do the same next week at home. This game was all defense on both sides though, except for a few breakout plays that finished in the Panthers' favor.

On a separate note, Moose is beginning to worry me too after he dropped a critical easy pass for the second time in two weeks.

With how the struggling Jags manhandled the Lions today, I have a confident feeling we'll see Delhomme and team back in full form by the time we reach Atlanta. More trouble brews on the horizon with that game, TB@home, and the @NYG game, they will define our season and, more importantly, our playoff berth.

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Jake was just awful today. Some days he plays great, and then sometimes he's embarrassing. That kind of inconsistancy cannot get you to the Superbowl. Hopefully he will get his mess together before the playoffs. I think how the Panthers do against Tampa and the Giants in December will be most likely how they do in the playoffs. :dontknow:

Panthers fan on the West coast.

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