Team Player

In the last ten weeks, I feel as if I have let my team down. I know that I am not actually a part of the Carolina Panthers, but I feel like as a dedicated fan, that I am part of the team (as I am sure many fans feel the same way). I analyze the stats before and after a game, I look at the good calls, the bad calls, and what we did right and wrong. I act as if I am a coach, a player, hell, even a cheerleader at times. But this season, I feel like my first posts were constantly belittling the progress being made or ignoring the signs of future growth. Starting with this post I will be looking at the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dim that light may seem at times.

Sunday afternoon we (again, I am not part of the team, but lets just pretend) traveled to Tampa Bay to play another division rival. Of course they start the game by giving the amazing statistics (as in, stats that favored Carolina) of our organizations playing each other. The Bucs have not swept the Panthers in a single season since 2002 (similar to New Orleans the week prior) and Carolina had won six out of the last seven meetings between the teams.

Carolina throughout the game put together some great offensive drives. Jimmy Clausen was not amazing, but he was not horrible either. He had a solid performance, along with Brandon LaFell. Jeff King had some troubles throughout the first half, dropped passes and penalties. Steve Smith was also having some difficulties, but played well. Mike Goodson, the last of our healthy four backs, played his heart out and had an outstanding game. We had a couple costly turnovers and we had even more costly penalties, both of which tend to kill our momentum and put more pressure on our defense, which has already been holding us together. But this week was a little different; I saw something that many fans should be ecstatic about. Steve Smith was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of the game for a hit against Aqib Talib. Now I know it sounds bad that we should be happy over this penalty, but lets really look at it.

Now, we all know the passion that Steve Smith has for the game of football, we all know his abilities as a player, and we all know of his temper (i.e. reference Ken Lucas). But what expired there on the field on Sunday was another quality that Steve Smith has, respect. Steve Smith was penalized for a late hit against Talib, but what he was really doing was hitting back in response to Talib's "late" hit on Jimmy Clausen. Smith was standing up for his rookie quarterback, which shows great promise for our future on this team.

When Steve Smith was asked about his frustration and his late hit, he replied "No, actually that was not frustration. It was a quarterback sneak, Jimmy went in, the D-line obviously cut, so it made (center Ryan) Kalil and the guards raise up. Jimmy was over the top, and 25 and 26 (Talib and Bucs safety Sean Jones) went head-first into Jimmy, and I followed. So that wasn't frustration." He said, "Despite what people think, I actually am a team player. I'd do it again; I'd do it 10 out of 10 times, 100 out of 100 times. Guys going in there, he's going head-first in there, I'm going to follow. That's not frustration. That's the fight in me. I'm not going to quit, I'm not going to let whoever it is come in there and cheap-shot my guy. Call it what you want, label it whatever you want to label it, but that's football."

Many questioned the leadership abilities of Steve Smith at the beginning of the season, many questioned his connection with the rookie quarterback throughout the few weeks that Clausen started; but as we can clearly see Steve Smith has a connection to this team and will stick by it through thick and thin. Although some will question the way of showing this connection, those of us that know Steve Smith know that this is a good sign for future Carolina football.

Looking forward to another Sunday with the team, GO PANTHERS!