Week 14

Unfortunately, this post a continuation of the last one. Last week (12/2) the Panthers had the good fortune to play a team as feeble as themselves, the San Francisco 49ers. They ran trick plays with success, had 6 takeaways and generally dominated their former NFC West foes. This week, they played the Jacksonville Jaguars, their "expansion twins" with dissimilar results.

The Jaguar are everything the Panthers aspire to be. They have a powerful running game, a hard-hitting defense designed to stop the run and a QB who rarely makes mistakes. The Jaguars even have Jack del Rio, the former Panthers defensive coordinator, as their well-dressed head coach.

They Panthers hung tough for the first half, but the Jaguars poured on 27 points in the second to make the game a snoozer. Vinny Testaverde was unusually inaccurate, with diminished power on many of his passes. Steve Smith was limited to a few harmless catches, the running game was ineffective and the Panthers' could not score a touchdown, the hallmark of their continually abysmal offense. Jon Beason once again shone in a losing effort, with 12 tackles, 10 of them solo.

If Vinny continues to act his age, Matt Moore may see more reps and more snaps, if nothing else to prepare him to be an adequate backup to Jake Delhomme next year. Though David Carr was signed to be a Plan B at QB, he has now been relegated to 3rd string for the past two games and it remains to be seen if he will fulfill both years of his contract with the Panthers. The Panthers would have to win their remaining three games and receive substantial help to reach the playoffs.

The Patriots and the Colts both heaped on the points, but it was the Cowboys who caught my eye this week, with yet another magical win. They have also had close wins over Buffalo and Washington, and their only loss is to the 13-0 Patriots.