Panthers Schedule Suddenly Looking a Lot Tougher

When the Cardinals beat the Cowboys the other night it made me rethink that ‘W' I had ticked next to the Cardinals game in my preseason predictions. The Panthers play those same Cardinals in two weeks. The Cardinals aren't the only over-achiever on the Panthers schedule. Throw in the rejuvenated Falcons, Saints and Broncos and the Panthers schedule suddenly (at least for me) looks harder than I had expected.

Sure the Oakland (Away) and Detroit (home) games look like gimmies (knock on wood), but consider the remaining games:

New Orleans

Arizona

@Atlanta

@Green Bay

Tampa Bay

@Denver

Giants

@New Orleans

The Panthers need to get five wins out of this group some how. So where I thought the front end of the Panthers schedule was tougher than the back end it's now looking the opposite. They won't be able to afford too many performances like this past weekend in Tampa.

I would say the Atlanta and Denver games should be fairly winnable, but Arizona, Green Bay and the Giants are all going to be tough wins. That still leaves the four division games in what is a much tougher NFC South. Is there 11 wins there? Certainly if the Panthers play like they did against the Bears or Falcons. But if the Cardiac Cats show up it's going to be a shoot out every week.

Rather than think about the possibility of things going bad, I prefer to think this is what Panther lore will be made of. This 2008 version of the Panthers are underdogs to get to the playoffs and should be. They've had two straight non-winning seasons and did not sign any big names in the off-season. Yet we've had impressive wins over the Chargers, Bears and Falcons including two wins with our biggest offensive weapon. We've added balance to both the offense and defense and filled some holes with talented players through the draft and free agency. We can even take a little heart in the two losses coming from tough (winning) teams.

Rest assured should these Panthers make the playoffs they will be very battle tested from their schedule, having defeated a number of good, playoff-quality teams. We can also be assured these Panthers will be worth watching (the Tampa game withstanding) as Jake will surely have to create some 4^th quarter magic, probably more than we would like. I plan to be there every minute of it!