The Panthers, Jaguars and Dr. Phil

Have you ever had one of those days where you swear your life would make a good episode of Dr. Phil? Or Cops? Or Both? No? Ok, maybe its me and my brood but I just had one of those weekends. The Panthers didn’t fare much better than me. In between the insanity that can be my life sometimes (teenagers) I watched the Panthers get smacked down by the Jaguars. I knew it was coming. I had a loss penciled in on this one at the beginning of the season as I knew the Jacksonville D would be tough. I just never expected it to be so painful to watch. Any hope I may have harbored of Vinny Testaverde rescuing the Panthers season was dashed by a LB (C. Ingram) I have never heard of. Here’s the obvious stuff that still resonates painfully:

• QB Vinny Testaverde put up a real stinker; he was 0-5 on 3rd down in the first half; he missed TE Jeff King on a sure TD early; he threw an easy INT for a TD in the 4th quarter; 13-28 overall for a paltry 86 yards
• The Panthers were 2-12 on 3rd down and were just pitiful throwing the ball
• RB DeShaun Foster all but put a dagger in the Panthers playoff hopes with a fumble deep in Panther territory to open the 3rd quarter. The Jags never looked back.
• Jaguars RB Fred Taylor torched the defense for an 80 yard TD run on a stretch play cutback
• WR Steve Smith was held to 46 yards total and a long catch of 15 yards against one of the statistically worst pass defenses in the NFL
• The defense put up zero sacks

Even though the Panthers were close at the half you just knew Vinny was having too bad of a day to turn it around. After the Foster fumble the defense fell part knowing the offense would never put up 12 more points. Stick a fork in these Panthers as this season is over.

Some other numbers that stand out:

• Back-up QB Matt Moore (3-10, 21 yards) came off the bench again and did no better than Vinny. This kid has not given me any reason to have hope he can get it done, ever. At least he didn’t throw a pick this time out
• The punt coverage sucked again (3-60 yards)
• What happened to the misdirection plays that worked so well last week?

There were a few positives worth mentioning:

• S Chris Harris had 10 tackles,  2 forced fumbles and 1 pass defended
• MLB Jon Beason had another great game with 10 tackles
• KR Ryne Robinson has steadily improved his KO returns (3-68; 22.7 avg.)

So what does this have to do with Dr. Phil?

I’ve watched a good many Dr. Phil episodes over the past couple years (for various reasons I won’t get into). If the Panthers collective consciousness could be put in the chair for a Dr. Phil diagnosis I think these might be his top five recommendations:

• John Fox must first ‘admit he has a problem before he can fix it’; this "we just need to execute" crap is just sheer denial of a talent gap that has painfully emerged on both sides of the ball
• It’s time to stop pampering the kids and ‘make them feel consequences’: waive Colbert & Carter and go after another free agent
• ‘It ain’t what you are doing, its what you’re not doing’: rush the passer on defense and converting 3rd downs on offense
• "Once a cheater, always a cheater’, the same can be said of RB’s that fumble the ball
• It’s time to divorce yourself from David Carr; ‘that dog just won’t hunt’

Unfortunately the truth is even Dr. Phil has no easy answer for these Panthers, nor my wayward teenage...but that’s another story. Ok, this is a really bad analogy and attempt at humor. Maybe once this season is over I will lighten up a little.