Six things I liked about Carolina's 30-15 win over St. Louis, which pulled the Panthers up to 3-3 this season with a game against 0-6 Tampa Bay Thursday night (one of the things is pictured above -- Captain Munnerlyn's pick-6 interception return on the Rams' first play from scrimmage.)
1) Cam Newton. The quarterback had his second straight extremely accurate game. He went 15 for 17 for 204 yards with one TD and zero INTs, and one of the two incompletions was a drop. When Newton is throwing it like that, very few teams will beat Carolina. Now he needs to get a few more short-yardage carries, as the Mike Tolbert handoff is getting too predictable and had bad results twice Sunday (a safety and a personal foul penalty on Tolbert).
2) Steve Smith. His 800th career reception was a memorable one, as he scored on a 19-yard TD and left two Rams defenders grabbing air. The biggest star of the Rams/Panthers double OT playoff game from 10 years ago looked like he was 24 again on that play.
3) Captain Munnerlyn. The game's first play from scrimmage resulted in a pick-six for Munnerlyn. It was a heck of a play by No.41, who had to make a diving catch of Sam Bradford. Bradford's weirdly off-target throw (it was apparently tipped) and then weaved his way down the left sideline for a 45-yard TD. Munnerlyn later had a nice fumble recovery, too, on a fumble caused by Mike Mitchell, who was the subject of my Sunday column and was very active in the game (drawing a personal-foul penalty and making a sack among other things). He also hit Bradford going out of bounds, knocking the Rams quarterback from the game.
4) Graham Gano. Has this kicker been huge this year or what? Gano hasn't missed all season and hit three more on Sunday. His 50-yarder Sunday with 11:32 to go put the Panthers three possessions clear of the Rams (making the score 30-12) and basically clinched the game. Gano has been having a Pro Bowl-type season through six games.
5) The crowd. On a beautiful blue-sky day, Panther fans had a lot of things to cheer about and did so (with a side helping of fights that further inflamed them). The pink-themed halftime celebration was also well done.
6) Quintin Mikell. The former Ram didn't get suckered in when St. Louis went for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the first quarter, guarding perfectly against the play-action pass and forcing an incompletion. Mikell also came on a safety blitz and bothered Bradford on Munnerlyn's pick-six.
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18 comments:
Good game--best game I have seen in years. Munnerlyne is outstanding. It was like he set the tone for the team and they were on fire from then on. This team has some great players who make plays. They got to keep Cam moving and fired up --he seems to get slow as the second half is in.
He needs to stay kicked in gear. But great games guys--keep it up.
If this is the best game you've seen in years, I'm thankful I wasn't watching the other games you were watching.
Munnerlyn's pick-6 on the first play set the tone for a wild and crazy game. A couple of times I thought I was watching hockey instead of football!
Great team win . Coaches seem to have had a fire lit underneath them the last 2 games,RON DO NOT DARE let up now the next 2 games are against division teams WE MUST HAVE THESE WINS! GO PANTHERS!!!
The pink-themed halftime celebration was also NOT DONE WELL, Breast cancer awareness are supposedly a environmentally friendly organization??????
@Anonymous 6:15pm- I'm pretty sure they announced that the balloons were environmentally friendly. Not sure the details, but I do recall seeing an announcement on that. I thought it was a great halftime ceremony and well done.
Lets hope Stewart really contributes when he returns,The difference between him and Tolbert is Tolbert will hit the line smashmouth style and Stewy will try and side step until he sees a opening, Which on a 3rd and 1 I like Tolberts style,Its quick and powerful and straight ahead, Now to break a big run Stewys style is ok but that will also get you tackled in the backfield hesitating or side stepping for an opening, With Stewys size and speed he should hit the line hard punish the defense until he breaks one for a TD.He`s much faster than Tolbert and has about the same weight.It would be like Tolbert with wide receiver speed.
I meant the best game with the Panthers in years. Silly!
Mike Shula is the worst play caller in the NFL. The series when the panthers were on the goal line and he gave the ball to Tolbert and he didnt get in was terrible. When the panthers are at the goal line, cam with the run pass option should be the only thing called.
Wrong on goal line. Tolbert is a great short yardage option. Just because we won doesn't mean the Rams don't have a strong defense. They may well have stopped Cam on that play also.
Fox announcer in post game owes Charlotte an apology as he threw out a blanket statement about Charlotte Fans having NO CLASS. Tens of Thousands of fans get labled because one throws something on the field at long?
@Michael Chapman: welcome to being black in america.
I hated that we continued to use the same play over and over with DeAngelo. DeAngelo is not a smashmouth back, if you remember he is the dash of the smash and dash duo. DeAngelo is better utilized with a quick short pass where he has more room to manuever. He just doesn't have the power to run it up middle. He does however have the speed. It was obvious from this game that the coaches wanted to open up running game more, but it exposed a lot of weaknesses. The running game will be much improved when Jonathan Stewart returns. We need our smash back!
Absolutely great game and a wonderful time to be a Panther fan!!! Let's get this W against Tampa Bay, move to 4-3, and enjoy a long rest before the Falcons come to town!! So PUMPED!!!
I was watching a football game, and a hockey game broke out.
Yes, on point 5, the throwing of bottles at players and flicking them off was awesome. We have the best fans in football.
@mexoplex - stupid comment, take it to the political board if you want to make a point about race. The comments about the fans had nothing to do with that, and you know it.
Best Hockey Game I've ever seen in Charlotte...
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