Not that they have clinched anything, but here's an idea of how big the Panthers' win over Tampa Bay was on the NFC playoff race. Carolina went from being a 5-seed playing in the first round at Arizona, to being a 2-seed, getting the first round off with a bye, and then hosting a second round game. That works both ways of course, so no time for a letdown against Denver. The Broncos are (8-5) and will be the AFC West champions. Then it's the (11-2) New York Giants at the Meadowlands, followed by the (7-6) New Orleans Saints who could be fighting for a playoff spot.
Of course, the Giants game is the biggie, big enough that the league has "flexed" it into primetime. At stake could very well be home field advantage throughout the playoffs, which is huge for the Panthers. Carolina is (7-0) at home and (3-3) on the road. Although, under John Fox they have a nice history as road warriors in winning at St. Louis and Philadelphia in the 2003 season playoffs and winning at the NY Giants and Chicago in the 2005 post-season.
The primetime showing over Tampa Bay has made the Panthers media darlings now. ESPN called me on to talk about the Panthers on Outside the Lines with Bob Ley. Half of the conversation was about that upcoming Giants game since that's what most of the nation is interested in. At least I didn't have to chime in on Plaxico Burress.
Kudos to Marty Hurney, Mark Koncz and the entire personnel staff for the job they've done in structuring the roster, in particular through the draft. Watching first round picks Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah steamroll through the vaunted Buccaneers defense was impressive. Wait til they get some experience. Third round pick, Charles Godfrey immediately shored up the other safety position. I think last year's second round pick, Dwayne Jarrett has earned a full-time receivers spot over DJ Hackett. His Southern Cal teammate, Ryan Kalil has solidified the middle of the offensive line.
Not a fan of the BCS system for picking the national champion, but at least they got it right with Florida versus Oklahoma. Still the bottom line is that the best team does not always win, so not having a playoff format not only hurts schools like Texas, but robs us of the potential Cinderella stories of Boise State, Utah, etc that could pull off the upsets ala the NCAA basketball tournament. The rest of the world would never know who Stephan Curry is if they ran college hoops the way they do it for football.
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