Posies, Pansies, & Panthers**

It is always hard being a fan of an NFL team in another NFL team market; it is even harder to be a fan of another team, when the home team is described as a dynasty of the most recent decade. However, through thick and thin, I will remain a Carolina Panthers fan and this Sunday, I was not only shouting from the mountain tops that I was a Panthers fan, I relished in it.

You may say it was only one win! But if you look at all the progress we made in two weeks, it is hard to believe that this is the same team that started off the season 0-5. We drove down the field with a passing game, which was obsolete before. This in turn opened up our running game. We didn’t turn the ball over nearly as much (although we did have some trouble with fumbles). And we didn’t repeatedly commit penalties that offset the progress that was made. We performed so well in fact that we have our QB nominated for the FedEx Air Player of the week. (Vote for him here) And we have our rookie WR David Gettis nominated for Rookie Player of the week. (Vote for him here)

Now my previous post was in regards to how Matt Moore should not have been made the starter, and although I had strong arguments for my opinion, I am glad that he was the leader to our first victory. I am not saying Jimmy Clausen would have let us down, but I believe John Fox and the staff made the correct call. I just wish he would have performed this well from the beginning.

I wanted to call out a few stats of the game:

MATT MOORE:
- 28/41 for 308 yards 2 TD/1 INT

DAVID GETTIS:
- 8 rec. 125 yards 2 TD

BRANDON LAFELL:
- 6 rec. 91 yards

JOHN KASAY:
- 3/3 with a 55 yard FG

OFFENSE:
- Over 300 yards passing
- almost 50% on third down conversions
- 22 First Downs

DEFENSE:
- moved from 5th ranked pass D to 4th allowing only 183 yards
- allowed only 15 first downs and only 30% on 3rd down conversions


As you can see we had a lot of good things to talk about, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we are entering week 8 and we just got the first W. So let’s take a slice of "humble pie" (as that home team of mine is always talking about) and get ready for the visit to St. Louis, they are not the same Rams that they used to be.

**You may be wondering why I labeled my blog this week "Posies, Pansies, & Panthers". It is a tribute to an inspiring co-worker who will be leaving the company that I work for this Friday. She will finish her 7 year career here and be moving to Miami to take on bigger and better things. Although my company will miss her in many ways, as she will miss Boston in return, I know that the one thing she will miss the most is the weekly Panthers update that I bring to the office. I only wish I had more time, because after three years of being here, I truly believe I was very close to turning her into a Carolina Panthers faithful. I wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors; and just because you’re moving 1,505 miles away (according to Google maps) does not mean you have heard the last from me or of the Carolina Panthers.

Posies, Pansies, and Panthers, all names that could have described this team prior to week 7, but rolling into St. Louis, we are simply the Panthers. GO PANTHERS!!!