I'm picking Panthers Sunday

Some notes about Sunday's Arizona-Carolina matchup -- which will be the Panthers' final home game of the season:

-- Who was the most recent quarterback to throw five interceptions in this series?
If you said Jake Delhomme, you’d be wrong. Yes, Jake did exactly that in the infamous playoff game Jan.10, 2009. But it was Kurt Warner who unraveled in November 2009 in the Panthers’ 34-21 win in Arizona, throwing five picks.

-- These two teams’ troubles at quarterback have been close to mirror-image this season, too. You know the Panthers’ issues. The Cardinals, meanwhile, starting in August have gone from Matt Leinart to Derek Anderson to rookie Max Hall, back to Anderson and now to rookie John Skelton.

-- With two rookies scheduled to start at quarterback Sunday – Skelton for Arizona and Jimmy Clausen for Carolina – let’s just say that the blitz will be a well-used weapon. Skelton won his first start last week with the Cardinals, even though he completed only 15 of 37 passes.

-- In the awful NFC West, the Cardinals are only 4-9, sit in the division cellar and still aren’t eliminated from the “race” to win the division. They are just two games behind co-leaders St. Louis and Seattle, who are both 6-7. Somebody from the West is going to end up with a first-round home playoff game, which is just plain wrong.

-- The Panthers rushed the ball very well at Arizona last season and will try to do exactly the same thing Sunday. It has been enlightening to see Mike Goodson become such a big part of the offense in DeAngelo Williams’ absence.

-- I’m 10-3 picking Panthers’ games this season. I’ve picked them to lose so many times in a row I’ve lost count, but I’m thinking they will do just enough Sunday behind their revived running game to possibly mess up getting the No.1 draft pick in 2011. Wouldn't that be sort of typical?

My pick: Carolina 17, Arizona 16.

A hard time to be a fan in Charlotte

I wrote my column for Thursday's newspaper and online here on how these are the sorts of times that try a pro sports fan's soul in Charlotte.

That's not to say there's nothing to cheer for in Charlotte and the surrounding areas. Your local high school or middle school team may be having a great year in something. You might be a Duke fan, in which case you have to be ecstatic. You might enjoy going to Checkers games. You might be the parent of a youth league football team that just won a national championship in its division.

But, more than likely, you are also a Panther fan at some level if you live in our area.

The NFL is easily the No.1 spectator sport in America, and Panther games still easily get far more viewers than the next 2-3 sports combined.

So there is something of a pall cast upon a city when a team goes 1-12 like Carolina has this year -- at least I feel one. Of course, I'm in that business. I know there are many more important things in life, but people like to talk about the weather and about football this time of year, and both of them have been pretty darn bad lately.

Clausen should continue to start -- for 3 more games only

My column today on Jimmy Clausen and how unfit he is to be the Panthers' long-term quarterback has drawn, at last count, 225 comments, which isn't the most a story of mine has ever gotten but has to be in my personal top 10 all-time.

I've also gotten some e-mails asking questions about the column, and I'll respond to 3 of them here:

Q: Are you saying Clausen shouldn't be a Panther at all in 2011?
A: No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying he should be a backup. I think he could do that job adequately, but I think we've seen enough now to know he will never be an elite NFL starter and possibly never an adequate one, either. Certainly, he is pretty terrible right now.

Q: Should the Panthers start Brian St. Pierre now? Or Armanti Edwards?
A: No and no. I agree with John Fox, who says he doesn't anticipate a change at this point.
BSP certainly isn't the long-term guy here -- might as well give Clausen the work, because he needs all the reps he can get. And Edwards? I'd like to see him with 4-8 plays in the shotgun "Mountaineer" formation next week, absolutely, but he is ill-equipped to be an NFL starter at this point because he has been playing WR most of the year.

Q: What about Cam Newton? Shouldn't the Panthers draft him if Andrew Luck decides to return to Stanford for his junior year (but Newton, a junior, declares early as expected)?
A: I don't see why not. As I wrote today, I think the Panthers have to take a QB with their first pick, because that's the NFL's most important position (and it's not close), and they don't have their QB of the future on the roster right now.

5 things I didn't like in Atlanta's 31-10 win over Panthers

Time for the traditional "5 things I didn't like" blog. Don't know if yall even remember, but I do actually write a "5 things I did like" blog whenever the Panthers win -- that just hasn't come up for awhile.

So on with the negativity for these 1-12 Panthers, who thankfully have only three more games to go:

1. Jimmy Clausen. The Panthers' overmatched rookie quarterback has now thrown 193 passes in a row without throwing a TD pass. He threw 24 passes Sunday and only got 107 yards out of them. He is 0-7 as a starter and still hasn't had a 200-yard passing game. Clausen will be the subject of my column for Monday's newspaper, and let's just say it's not going to be pretty. (UPDATE: here's the column).

2. The weather in Charlotte. In a word, nasty. Panther coach John Fox said that -- given the cold drizzle and the fact his team was 1-11 entering Sunday -- he couldn't blame the fans for not showing up. And they didn't. (The sun did come out for awhile in the second half, though).
The percentage of empty seats -- easily more than half were empty -- reminded me of a Monday night Bobcats-Timberwolves game at Time Warner Cable Arena.

3. The first quarter. Carolina was outgained 133-6, outscored 14-0 and out-first downed (I know, it's not a word) 7-0 in the first 15 minutes. Not much of a way to reward those loyal fans who did show up.

4. The pass blocking. Clausen was sacked five times as Atlanta blitzed often to take advantage of the rookie's inability to make good decisions consistently.

5. The "no lateral." OK, it's a little thing. Richard Marshall made a nice play on the last play of the first half, intercepting Atlanta QB Matt Ryan with a lot of room in front of him (but also 5-6 potential tacklers).
Marshall had to score to make the play really count, though. He was hemmed in at the 40, which would have been just the right time to try one of those risky laterals so many defensive players love to try in practice. Instead, Marshall just went down, taking one of Carolina's few scoring chances with him.

Panthers lose 31-10 to Atlanta

Carolina dropped to 1-12 Sunday with a 31-10 loss to Atlanta Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in what was easily the most poorly-attended home game of the year in Charlotte.

I'd estimate the actual turnstile count Sunday was around 25,000, which left almost 50,000 empty seats on a day where the weather forecast was bad, it drizzled early and was cold the whole time.

Atlanta jumped to a quick 14-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game and the Falcons (11-2) were never seriously threatened after that. By the end of the game, there might have been 1,000 people left.

Michael Turner scored three touchdowns for Atlanta. Matt Ryan threw for 227 yards for the Falcons and controlled the game most of the time he was on the field.

On the positive side: The Panthers are still in line for the No.1 draft pick in the 2011 draft.

The Panthers were able to rush the ball very successfully Sunday -- for more than 200 yards all told -- but as usual couldn't throw it to save their lives. Jimmy Clausen barely managed to throw for over 100 yards, getting just enough on the last play of the game.

Atlanta goes ahead 31-10 on Turner's third TD

The Falcons just took their biggest lead of this game, going ahead 31-10 on Michael Turner's third TD following a Jimmy Clausen interception.

Clausen threw a rare ball down the middle on the Panthers' previous possession, and it was tipped, picked off and returned to the Carolina 16. It took Atlanta four plays to score from there, with Turner scoring standing up and drawing many boos from the few fans left in the stadium.

Kasay connects: Atlanta still up 24-10 in 4th

The Panthers have gotten a 36-yard field goal from John Kasay, cutting Atlanta's lead to 24-10 with 9:44 left in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers got just inside the Atlanta 20 -- again with the run, as Jonathan Stewart and Mike Goodson have now combined for more than 200 rushing yards -- before stalling when Jimmy Clausen tried to hit Gary Barnidge ("Gary Barnidge?!" TV analyst John Lynch said disbelievingly) on third-and-6.

The Panthers did have a couple of bright moments on the previous defensive possession, too, sacking Matt Ryan on two straight plays. There are maybe 10,000 fans left in the stadium, but there probably weren't more than 25,000 to begin with.