Delhomme Has Earned a Vote of Confidence

As I’ve perused some of the Panthers message boards I’m amazed at the number of fans who are ready to bench Jake after one bad decision in the preseason. Granted it was bad and I can only hope it’s the only one he throws the whole season. That’s being very unrealistic as Jake quickly pointed out in his post-game interview:

"You know what, there are going to be interceptions — get ready for it, write that down," Delhomme said before Sunday’s practice. "That’s inevitable. That happens. I worry about myself and what I can and can’t control on the football field."

Sorry Jake but this is not what the faithful want to hear. Remember the old axiom that if you visualize a successful throw then you will make a successful throw? Visualize the opposite and... you get the picture. We just want to hear positive things like "I made a bad decision and I’m going to work my butt off to prevent it from ever happening again". Something like that. But all Jake has done is stoked the flames and the voices calling for his ouster.

Here’s a sampling from a popular message board:

Ok, its halfway thru the second quarter of the Philly game, and I'm gonna start the first LEGIT bench Delhomme thread. This is because Delhomme obviously can't complete anymore forward passes.

That’s a slight exaggeration. This next guy has a good point though.

HAHAHA! That's my jake...Jake has had time when he's made the STINKY throws. Face it, he locks in on Smith.

He was certainly guilty of locking in on Smitty last season and the entire league knew it. Finally, the most pessimistic of outlooks:

Sure, why not stick with Delhomme throwing interceptions returned for td's...hell we're used to it by now.

Now that’s crossing the line, we would never get used to that. Look, the fact is Jake is the best QB in Panther franchise history. He’s taken us to two NFC championships and one Super Bowl. You certainly couldn’t blame him for the SB loss. The guy can only do so much and if anything I think he is guilty of trying to do too much. He should have thrown the ball away sure but let’s not throw him away just because of one bad decision. He deserves better and besides... it’s the preseason!!!