The Panthers’ game with the Bills was an ugly mess. At the end of the first half, the Panthers had them beat in first downs, 13-2, ahead of them in possession time, 24.5 minutes to 7.5 minutes, yet the score was 7-2 Buffalo.
The main reasons: a bad pick by Jake that led to a touchdown, two missed field goals by Kasay(hooked one, pushed the other), going for first down on a fourth and one instead of taking the field goal, only to be stopped cold by the worst run defense in the league.
Jake had moments of the old Jake, a couple of deep pretty passes, but also two more picks at awkward times. He threw for 325 yards. All for naught. I don’t know what’s up with Jake. It looks like he might be near the end of his career. Or at least with the Panthers. The coach John Fox, who’s probably under some pressure himself, made noises to the local press Sunday about reassessing Jake as a starter.
update: Now Fox says he hasn’t thought about replacing Jake. You know what that means? He’s likely on his way out.
A good drive for a TD had cut the margin to eight with seven minutes, the defense held, and the Panthers were set to get the ball back with six minutes to go. Then the punt was fumbled and the Bills recovered deep and wound up with a touchdown.
Final score 20-9 Bills.
The Bucs lost over in London to the Patriots, 35-7, the Falcons went down, 37-21, to the Cowboys, and the Saints got way down to the Dolphins before making a fierce comeback to win, 46-34. those guys are good.
But I bet, Charles, they had you sweating bullets for a while there. LOL!
The Jets, on the other hand, swamped the Raiders 38-0, to stay just one game behind the Patriots.
And talk about messes. The ‘Skins play the Eagles tonight. They are likely to get stomped on as the Eagles lost to the Raiders last week. I’ll watch(I am a ‘Skins fan after all), but I’m also a realist. If they win another game this year, I’ll be surprised.
Well, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d imagined. The ‘Skins lost 27-17, but they had their moments. The defense was pretty decent. They gave up a sixty-five yard TD run early in the game. Other than that, though, they played well.
It was the offense and special teams that kept leaving them in messes. After a good drive late in the first half, cutting the lead to ten, the defense holding the Eagles without a first down, the special team player muffed the punt and let the opposition get the ball in the red zone. Jason Campbell threw a pick earlier that let the Eagles run for a NINE yard TD.
Three turnovers in the game, six sacks of Campbell, sixty-two yards rushing, 3-12 on third down conversions. They never really had a chance, but it could have been a lot worse.
That’s depressing for a long time fan, talking about could have been worse, than talking about winning.