Regrets? Yeah, Panthers and Rams have a few

There were several things that never should have happened in the game Sunday. You can see one of them above, where Robert Quinn is screaming at Cam Newton while Newton wanders off the field in a semi-daze after being hit by the St. Louis defensive end.

The previous blog item talks about six of the things I liked most in Carolina's 30-15 win over the St. Louis Rams Sunday. But there were also more things than usual in a Panther win that I found distressing in both teams' behavior. Here's a short list of four -- feel free to add or comment to it.

1) The picture above shows Robert Quinn, the Rams' defensive end, yelling what Newton would later refer to as "explicits" following Quinn's hit of Newton. Listen, I know football is an emotional game, but there's something wrong with this. You hurt a guy, you know he's hurt -- and then you yell at him?!

Newton said this was what prompted the ensuing brawl -- not that Quinn hit him (it was legal), but what he said later. It made the normally mild-mannered Jordan Gross go after Quinn, and then the fracas started.

And what the heck is wrong with Quinn anyway?

I used to really like the guy. I went down to South Carolina five years ago to write about him when he was in high school -- he had survived a brain tumor and was about to make his collegiate choice. I liked him and his parents, both of whom I met.

Quinn ultimately chose North Carolina, but the Tar Heels certainly wish he didn't now. Quinn was heavily involved in the agent scandal that has brought the football program to his knees. Now he's a great NFL defensive end, but he's doing needless stuff like this.

(After the game I didn't have a chance to talk to Quinn, but he didn't say much to other reporters besides noting that his hit on Newton was legal, which it was).

2) Chris Long (see picture at end of this blog). I know Long regrets throwing the punch that led to his ejection -- he said so after the game. But video shows at least two Panther fans throwing things at Long while he made his "walk of shame" to the locker room.

Long didn't get hurt, but c'mon, man -- those Panther fans should be as ashamed as Long. The actions of a couple of knuckleheads made everyone in the stands look bad. As Fox Sports' Dick Stockton correctly called those fans' behaviors on the telecast: "Inexcusable."

3) Sam Bradford/Mike Mitchell play. On a fourth-quarter play in which Bradford scrambled for a one-yard gain, Mitchell pushed him out of bounds. Then he lifted his arms to the sky and celebrated. Mitchell said later he didn't know Bradford was hurt -- "Absolutely not man, c'mon. I'm not that type of guy," he said. And he thought he had gotten a sack on the play (one yard earlier on the push-out, and he would have). And he avoided any personal-foul penalty then or at any other time in the game.

Still, I'm sure Mitchell regrets so dramatically celebrating the play that ended up putting Bradford out for the season with a torn ACL. Certainly, it didn't look good on TV. And I personally regret Bradford getting hurt (which was not Mitchell's fault, just bad luck). I think he's a classy guy and enjoy watching him.

4) One last regret, and this is just a personal preference. Can we ban the use of the word "chippy" to describe incidents like these? What does that even mean? It is becoming as prevalent as "it is what it is" as a catch-all phrase.



Chris Long walks off the field after being ejected. Fans threw at least two items at him during this walk.

Six things I liked in Panther win over Rams

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.

Panther human bowling ball actually loves bowling -- and my Sunday prediction

Both of these pictures represent Mike Tolbert, the Panther running back also known as a human bowling ball.

Mike Tolbert is 5-foot-9 and 245 pounds. He has become the Carolina Panthers' primary short-yardage back. He is so low to the ground and so powerful that he is often likened to a human bowling ball.

In his six-year NFL career, Tolbert has scored 36 touchdowns -- including three this season for the Panthers. But for the first 35 of them, he never put his unofficial nickname into one of his touchdown celebrations.

On No.36, however, he did. After his second TD in Carolina's 35-10 whipping of Minnesota a week ago, Tolbert pantomimed a bowling routine in the end zone -- pretending to roll a ball and then clenching his fist as all those invisible pins went down.

"My friends call me the human bowling ball sometimes," Tolbert said. "So I did it for them."

Was that a strike you rolled, I asked?

"Nothing but strikes, man," Tolbert said. "I'm going for a 300 game."

If Tolbert scores against St. Louis in Charlotte Sunday, will he do that again? "I don't know," Tolbert said. "I don't plan those celebrations out."

I hope he does do it. That celebration fits him like a pair of multi-colored bowling shoes, since it turns out Tolbert knows what he's doing in an alley. Tolbert said he bowls twice a week in the offseason in San Diego. He said he averages 160 and has a high game of 217.

"I've even got my own ball," Tolbert said, "drilled just for me. I don't use my thumb at all, so it's a two-hole ball."

I like that the Panthers' human bowling ball is a good bowler. It makes me feel like life has a certain synchronicity, in the same way that the fastest man in the world has the last name of "Bolt" and that one of the most famous crossword puzzle editors ever had the last name of Akenhead. Seriously.

-- OK, onto the game. The way the Panthers can beat the Rams is to run the ball. St. Louis is 30th in the NFL in rush defense. DeAngelo Williams, Tolbert and the offensive line all need to have good games Sunday.

-- Weird stat: Of the 32 current NFL head coaches, eight played in the league as well. Of those eight, four played with the Chicago Bears, including both of Sunday's coaches. Ron Rivera said he and Jeff Fisher do like each other but Rivera is not as close to Fisher as he is to another former Bears teammate who turned into an NFL coach -- Minnesota's Leslie Frazier.

-- Rams quarterback Sam Bradford has been very good the past two weeks. Carolina must rattle him, because when Bradford gets hot he is extremely accurate. But he's a pocket passer for the most part, which should allow for more pressure.

-- I've picked the Panthers' outcome correctly the past three weeks in a row. To make it four straight, I'm going with this: Carolina 23, St. Louis 16.

Caustic radio host pens poignant book about Hope Stout and 2003 Panthers

Who knew a radio guy could write? And who knew Keith Larson had a soft side?

Larson, the longtime WBT radio morning host who specializes in political zingers, has penned a sweet, honest and surprisingly good book called "That Season of Hope."

On the 10th anniversary of the Panthers' 2003 Super Bowl season, Larson examines that year through the prism of an extraordinary girl -- 12-year-old Hope Stout, a spunky, redheaded Panther fan who was dying of bone cancer.

For those who don't remember this true story of have never heard it, Hope was asked by the local Make-A-Wish people what her heart most desired. Her wish? To raise enough money to help the other 155 children on Make-A-Wish's local list have their own wishes granted.

On Dec.19, 2003, Larson read about this story in The Charlotte Observer in an article by Elizabeth Leland. Larson never met Hope in person, but he did interview her on the radio that same day for 11 minutes and 50 seconds.

"Those 11 minutes and 50 seconds changed my life," said Larson, who still replays that interview every December on his show (thatseasonofhope.com also has audio of that interview -- check out segment 11).

Larson and his wife Nancy -- who gets a writing credit as well for her organizational help -- will make no money off this book. Author proceeds are being split among three charities -- March Forth With Hope, Make-A-Wish and the Carolina Panthers' "Keep Pounding" cancer foundation.

I plan to have a fuller review on the book and what prompted Larson to write it in my column in Wednesday's Charlotte Observer.

When Panthers are good, they are very, very good -- Carolina whips Vikings, 35-10

The Carolina Panthers absolutely bashed Minnesota on the road Sunday, 35-10, in a surprisingly lopsided game. I thought they would win (see my pick below) but not by that much. Which brings me to five quick observations about the game:

1) Have you ever heard the poem about the little girl with the curl right in the middle of her forehead? Stay with me on this one, because that kid reminds me of the Panthers. When she was good, she was very, very good -- but when she was bad, she was horrid.

That's the Panthers (2-3) this year. They have won their two games 38-0 and 35-10. They have lost three times -- by one, five and 16 points. They still haven't proved to anyone they can win a close game -- but they proved again on Sunday that they are good enough to blow out some teams on the right day.

2) I thought the biggest play of the game was the Panthers going for it on fourth-and-1 and making it from the Minnesota 2 with the score tied 0-0 in the first quarter. Kudos to coach Ron Rivera for going for it on fourth down -- twice! -- in that early drive. Rivera is really changing his stripes in terms of going for fourth-and-1s since that Buffalo debacle. But Steve Smith catching that short pass from Cam Newton (after Smith dropped a potential TD pass in the first quarter last week against Arizona) set the tone for everything that came after. Smith's block later on a Minnesota linebacker was impressive, too, although by then the game was over.

3) The Panther defense was absolutely stifling, getting all over Matt Cassel and mostly shutting down Adrian Peterson. The defense kept making its opportunities count -- Mike Mitchell had two interceptions thrown right to him, yes, but how many times have you seen Panther defensive backs drop those? Thomas Davis made his blitzes count. Greg Hardy had a lot of pressure that caused Cassel to get uncomfortable. The Vikings had scored at least 24 points in each of their first four games.

4) A number of Panther fans had emailed me about getting Derek Anderson into the game, but this wasn't what they had in mind. Anderson came in with 6:02 to go to wind down the clock after Newton played one of his most complete games ever, throwing for three touchdowns, running for another and not having a single turnover. It was a near-perfect day by No.1.

5) The Panthers will need to be good again this coming Sunday at home against St. Louis. The Rams blasted the Houston Texans in much the same way that Carolina blasted Minnesota, winning 38-13, and quarterback Sam Bradford won't make as many mistakes as Cassel did.

My pick for Panthers vs Vikings and some pregame notes

Are you ready for some scoring?

We should get some on Sunday, when Minnesota hosts Carolina. The Vikings' lackluster defense should be something of a cure for Carolina -- and if it's not, we can be guaranteed that the offense's problems are rooted very deeply. The picture above (shot by The Observer's David Foster) is worth the ol' one thousand words about that -- it is of Brandon LaFell dropping what should have been a fourth-down completion inside Arizona's red zone last Sunday in Carolina's 22-6 loss.

Minnesota has given up at least 27 points in every game this season, which is a large part why the Vikings are 1-3, just like Carolina.

On the other hand, the Vikings have scored at least 24 points in every game, primarily because fearsome running back Adrian Peterson is almost impossible to keep out of the end zone. That opens up the passing attack for whichever quarterback the Vikings are currently employing. If Carolina doesn't get into the end zone Sunday -- which is what happened last week in the Panthers' horrid 22-6 loss to Arizona -- it will be a huge surprise.

-- The Vikings and Panthers have played 10 times in team history, and my favorite single play in those games was referred to in the boxscore simply as "Johnson 3 pass from Johnson." This was in 1997. The game was tied 7-all in the fourth quarter. Minnesota had it third-and-goal from the Carolina 3. Minnesota quarterback Brad Johnson faded back, fired – and had the ball knocked into the air by Panther nose tackle Greg Kragen. But it came right back to him. Johnson caught the ball and scored -- one of the few times in football history a quarterback actually threw a TD pass to himself. I still wonder how that was scored in fantasy football.

-- What a day Sunday will be for the Kalil family. Offensive linemen Ryan (Carolina) and -- Matt (Minnesota) play against each oter, and sister Danielle sings the national anthem beforehand. I imagine they will be all over the TV coverage -- at least as much as a couple of offensive linemen can be. We're not going to be filming "The Book of Kalil" anytime soon -- it's not quite that big.

-- Vikings offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave served the same role for Carolina in 2000, but then he quit early in the season in a "Take This Job and Shove It" sort of moment with then-coach George Seifert.

-- Hard to imagine that the Vikings made the playoffs last season. Both these teams look a long way from that goal right now -- each has only a single win against an otherwise winless team this season. I have picked the Panthers' outcome correctly the past two weeks -- including a pick of Arizona to upset Carolina last week -- after missing the first two. This time around I see the Panthers rebounding in a high-scoring game. Carolina 30, Minnesota 26.

It was past time for Armanti to go

Coach Ron Rivera said Armanti Edwards was the MVP of the Panthers' 2013 training camp, but that production did not translate onto the field once again.

Sometimes, a relationship just doesn't work out. No matter how hard you try, it just isn't going to happen.

That's the way it was with the Panthers and Armanti Edwards, who Carolina general manager Marty Hurney infamously gave up a future second-round pick for to take in the third round of the 2010 draft.

Edwards, an incredible record-setting quarterback at Appalachian State, tried very hard to make the transition to wide receiver. The Panthers tried very hard to give him the time to make that transition, allowing the "Armanti Experiment" to continue far longer than most NFL experiments.

But ultimately, it failed.

The Panthers waived Edwards on Tuesday, and it was probably past due. He's been here since 2010, and you could still count his big plays in a Panther uniform on his thumbs.

He finishes his career with Carolina with zero touchdowns in four NFL seasons -- that is the most damning statistic for No.14. Even his biggest plays -- an 82-yard reception and a 69-yard punt return, both in 2012 -- came with the same caveat. Yes, but he didn't score. On the 69-yarder, he was tackled by the punter, a source of much amusement in the locker room.

Edwards always practiced and played with class. Everyone who has ever met him comes away respecting his professionalism and his courtesy.

But the bottom line was he just couldn't play in the NFL. He was too slight, for one thing -- cornerbacks bumped him around. His lower-body strength was never quite there. He was fast, but not quite fast enough to make up for that.

Edwards was a tease for years, making one assistant coach after another think that well, maybe, it was finally going to work. Even when it seemed like the writing was on the wall for him to get released following the signing of kick returner-wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr., Edwards had a good training camp in 2013 and stuck around through August and then September.

But he couldn't survive October. This move really should have come sooner -- Edwards has been a non-contributor for a long time -- but it finally has come. I still think Edwards could be a quarterback again in the Canadian Football League. But he is not an NFL-caliber receiver. And no matter how hard he worked, that just wasn't going to change.