Bye Week Blues for the Carolina Panthers

The bye week for the Carolina Panthers could not come at a worse time. Coming off a heart breaking loss, where the Panthers let an easy victory over the Minnesota Vikings slip right out of their hands, finally endings with a 31-yard miss by Panthers kicker Olindo Mare.

This one left a bad taste in the Panthers mouth’s I can guarantee. The Vikings were and still are an inferior opponent even to the Panthers and playing at home, the Panthers should have one that game. Instead, they now have to wait two full weeks until they can retake the field and try to get the memory of this debacle out of their brains.

I can bet that two weeks for the team is going to feel like an eternity. Like I said yesterday this game hurts. It was like a kidney shot. I mean I sat their watching the game and was just shocked when I saw the kick was no good. I didn’t yell, didn’t jump around like a child, I just sat there completely shocked and numb at what I just witnessed. It definitely wasn’t the ending I expected, especially after that great drive down the field by Cam Newton and the offense with just two minutes left.

At first I was skeptical of the Panthers chances to tie or even take the lead at the start of the final drive. Newton and the Panthers had been there three times before this year against the Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints and in each game had come up short. So needless to say expectations were not very high. But when Newton completed the forth and 14 to Brandon LaFell for a 44-yard reception, I believed.

Man, that was a beautiful pass from Newton, maybe one of the best in his young career. But I thought at that point there was no way the Panthers were going to lose this game. But they did. A phantom holding call from a 70 year old gimping old man on Steve Smith neutralized a first down for the Panthers and a dropped pass by Greg Olsen forced the Panthers to kick the field goal. And from there we know the story.

The outcome of the game sucked, and for many fans like myself it hurt. But I can promise it will get better. Maybe not this season but the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to come into view just a bit. I can see a spec of light and hopefully it will begin to get bigger and bigger, we just have to wait two weeks to see. So I leave you with this, Panther fans I know you wanted that win bad, I know I did. But you know what sometimes you can’t always get what you want. But maybe, just maybe this is what the team needed.