Thoughts on Week Eight’s Game

“John Kasay wouldn’t have missed that kick!”

I might as well get that out the way now because I’m sure that was the first thought in just about every Panthers fan’s head after the missed kick by Mare.  So moving along from the obvious without adding too much fuel to the angry mob’s fire, here are my thoughts on Week Eight’s game.

• Penalties have been killing us all year, but I’m starting to notice that a lot of the calls that are killing us are really bad calls.  We seem to be getting 2 to 3 bad calls a game going against us.  Might be time for Rivera to criticize the refs in a press conference so that we can get the benefit of the doubt once in a while.
• That was a great effort by our defense to stop the run.  AP eventually got his yards but really even the best defense would have been proud of that performance.
• Another trend I’m noticing is that the Panthers are getting much better at gang tackling.  Earlier in the season, defenders would get there pretty much right when the play was ending.  Last night, there were three guys involved with every tackle.  This will help us in the future.
• If we could stop hurting ourselves so much in games our team would be scary.
• Cam really has got my hopes up for this team.  I can’t help to think of the potential our team will have once we get all our injured players back next year plus our draft picks in 2012.  We have a lot to look forward to and it is getting harder and harder to be patient.
• LaFell might not get hit with the ball often in games but when he does it always seems to be for a key play.  A player could earn an awesome nickname pulling stunts like that every week.
• Cam is doing so good I’m honestly starting to get nervous.  It is almost too good to be true.  I’m starting to worry that the bubble might pop any second.  I’m not sure if that is a testament to how good Cam is doing or a testament to my outlook on life.  Either way I hope he keeps it up.
• Jared Allen is a beast.
• After watching Jared Allen my initial reaction is to want more from Charles Johnson.  While Johnson is getting a sack a game, I’m starting to want to see him develop even further and start having multi-sack games.  Not to take anything away from Johnson, I just want to see him get even better because I think he can do it.
• I am developing a man crush on Captain Munnerlyn.  Dude is tiny but at the same time is a monster.  On two plays he went out there and mugged one of the larger wide receivers in the game in Percy Harvin.  Then goes out and spears the ball carrier on a kick return, gets a sack, and recovers a fumble.  Vote for this guy to make the Pro Bowl.

So what were your thoughts this week Panther fans?