Saturday, November 22, 2008

My Panthers-Falcons prediction

Thoughts entering the 4:15 p.m. Panther-Falcon game at the Georgia Dome Sunday:

** One of Carolina’s most impressive defensive performances of the season so far came against Atlanta. In that 24-9 victory on Sept.28, the Panthers never let the Falcons in the end zone, allowed Michael Turner only 56 rushing yards and gave up just 158 passing to rookie Matt Ryan.

** I think Carolina’s defense will be the biggest key. That performance against Detroit seemed so out of character – to give up 22 points to the Lions?? C’mon. I think Carolina would need to keep Atlanta to 17 or fewer points in this one to win.

** Watch what Atlanta does with Muhsin Muhammad in this game. He had 147 yards receiving in the last game, but the Falcons have retooled their secondary since then and they’ll pay far more attention to him this time.

** If Jake Delhomme has a third straight bad game, then this isn’t just a hiccup. This is an actual trend.

** Atlanta, in third place in the NFC South, really needs this one. Like the Panthers, the Falcons have been far better at home than on the road this season.

My prediction: Atlanta 20, Carolina 17.

9 comments:

The Big Cat said...

Are you kidding? I know you have to be unbiased as a journalist, but to think panthers sleep through such a pivotal game is a joke. Yes the panthers failed to impress against Oakland and Detroit but defense had a good game in Oakland and the run offense was astounding against Detroit. I expect the game to be close but a rookie quarterback will not lead the Falcons to victory against the Panthers. Focus on both teams flaws not just the Panthers. Atlanta will be hungry but they have plenty of flaws that you said nothing about. Unbiased ???? Come on Scott.

phishinheel said...

Big Cat, are you smoking something funny? The Lions ran over us at will. Their RB ran for over 100 yards, and they threw the ball almost every play in the second half.

The Big Cat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Big Cat said...

Reread the post. I said the panthers failed to impress against the two cellar dwellers.

I then pointed out the panther run game was strong against Detroit.

I said nothing about our defense against Detroit??

russl179 said...

Don't you wish the political side of this newspaper was equally unbiased?

Anonymous said...

In my prediction for this game jonathan stewart will have the dominant game this week with 100+ yds, the defence will get at least 1 touchdown, and jake will throw for 200+ yds with 2 touchdowns and the score will be Panthers 28 Atlanta 20

Unknown said...

This is the game where we turn it on. We're going to see some different things from the Panthers. They are NOT going to jump deep into their playbook and show everyone their entire scheme against 2 sorry teams. We didn't need to blow them out. We needed to win, and we did. I see this as a dominant effort by the Panthers on the road. It may not be a blowout, but it will NEVER be out of reach. Panthers 26, Falcons 17.

Panthrman said...

Agreed...Our boys did what they had to against the lowest (Raiders/Lions)of the NFL at this point without giving away our best. The next 6 games are crutial and they WILL step up their game, incorporate more plays (without giving away everything) to beat our conference foes. However, my prediction is 24-17... Carolina wins with last minute TD to a shut out Muhammad or TE.

Matt said...

Speaking of receivers, whatever happened to Dante Rosario? For a while he was turning out to be a really good sure-handed third option, but many balls haven't gone his way as of late.