Recovery

After many hours of reflection and some serious psycho therapy, the loss to the Giants may have sunk in with all of us by now.  Our Carolina Panthers simply didn’t get it done.

There are some problems still here hanging over our heads, though.

So, you ask why they are hanging over our heads?  Let’s face it, fans that follow a team religiously, faithfully, play by play tend to feel a loss like the one our team suffered in the New Jersey landfill for quite a while.  And the fallout can be brutal.  Worry and stress can replace the euphoric feelings created by a big win.

And logistically the fallout has yet to be cleared up.

• A playoff berth was earned over the weekend but was locked up only when Dallas lost to Baltimore on Saturday night.
• There’s no chance that the Panthers will earn the number one seed now.  They can, however, claim the number two seed with a victory over the New Orleans Saints.
• If, God forbid, Carolina loses in New Orleans, the second seed is almost definitely lost.
• A loss also would mean that the Panthers would go limping into the playoffs as a wild card team as opposed to a division winner since Atlanta will almost certainly destroy the Rams and that would give the upstart Falcons the NFC South crown.

Say it ain’t so!  Forget all the media hype that came with those huge victories over Tampa Bay and Denver.  We don’t care about all the love being shown to our team.  That won’t get you to the playoffs and certainly won’t help you advance.

But we started to believe in something.  The general consensus among the fans was that we were rooting for a special team with a chance to accomplish something we’ve never seen before.

If Carolina winds up anything except the number two seed, the odds of something special occurring are slim and we know it.

Will the veterans rally the team?  Can the players get this loss out of their heads?  Is it possible that the Panthers become the first NFC South team to win on the road all season?

If the answer to any of those questions is no then everything we’ve seen this team achieve may very well lead to far less than we had hoped for and, even worse, far less than they are capable of.

If guys like Muhsin Muhammad, Jake Delhomme, Steve Smith and Jon Beason take control and refuse to allow this team to lose, there will be a happy ending to the regular season and a bye week to follow.

We’re with you until the bitter end, guys.  Go earn it!  It’s yours for the taking!