Panthers Smith Accused of Cheap Shot

Smith is going to be Smith. He hates losing, he hates not performing up to his expectations he sets for himself. We have seen this the last two years with the low production from Smith and the Panthers. I take the good with the bad. I agree with Rivera completely. Be a professional. Unfortunately the competitive nature of Smith leads to these kind of displays when things with the team and him are going badly. You take the good with the bad. He is still my favorite Panther.

I don’t like going off the word of the guy that got hit, when he says he doesn’t even know what happened.

Let the players that have a problem on the field settle it in the octagon…..

The Titans were clearly jawing after their win. Our team was clearly frustrated. Both showed a lack of class as a result.

He’s also right with the Ditka reference: if you are frustrated, don’t just punch the guy, beat him legally. I do love Smith’s passion, but what he did at the end of the game was pathetic. At least Gross was defending a teammate.

True story.

then let’s not forget that Newton refused the help of his own teamates more than once to get off the ground. You’re the field general, like it or not and the big “C” on your jersey or not as you go so does your team.

I love these guys but we have two of the games best that need to suck it up and stop pouting like a couple of five year olds when stuff doesn’t go their way.

As far as the Titans, Cortland Finnegan is the defensive captain. That alone tells me how they want their D to operate. The Titans, including their coach, go walking off the field at halftime before the flag that was thrown was assessed. As someone in the stands it came across to me as “Screw it, we’ve got you beat, we don’t care about that flag or if it’s assessed on this field goal”. They’re a disrespectful team from the top down and whatever Smith dished the guy probably had it coming.

Maybe the “You gotta give me a number” bit from Assholebeck regarding Big Money really was contemptuous.

He is interviewing a guy who just got his tail handed to him. Steve Smith didn’t berate Scott Fowler or insult him. Smith showed his frustration….big deal. If I had just been humiliated on national television I wouldn’t feel too good about myself either, and I probably wouldn’t be very chipper if someone stuck a microphone in my face and asked me to elaborate on how much my performance stunk today. Fowler has every right to do that, its his job, but to report that Smith was upset and then to make himself out like some kind of victim is pretty pathetic, in my opinion. It is like when my daughter or one of her friends come to tattle on someone. I ask is anyone hurt, is anyone bleeding, and if not they need to work it out themselves. Don’t be a tattle-tale, Scott Fowler. Be a big boy. If someone doesn’t answer your questions the way you want them to, either find another way to ask it, find another question, or move on. You don’t need to tell us all how mean Steve Smith was to you.

Its just too bad we waited almost 3 hours before we started investing some emotion into the ballgame.

Our team lacks a leader than can keep our guys heads up and playing when things don’t go their way, can pull them through to a victory when the score is tight and the game is on the line, and can step on a teams neck and break it when the time has come to put the game away.

Let me present an interesting point: Can anyone honestly say that someone here filled the void that Jake Delhomme left behind? That special leadership where, if you knew he was leading the team, we had a chance to win the game? I’m not saying we need a new QB. I’m just using that as an example and Delhomme happens to be a QB. We need some leaders on this team.

It wasn’t just Jake Delhomme. We lost Chris Harris and a host of other players during the veteran purge. Jordan Gross has started to stink at just the right time in his career to where his leadership is less than it was before. Young field generals in Thomas Davis and Jon Beason? Both gone, one of them for good. Ron Edwards, the man we hire to be the beating heart of our D-Line unit, gone at the beginning of a season before he even has a chance to get on the field. I’ll admit, I didn’t see this coming. But with the benefit of hind-sight it has become all too clear. I thought there would be a problem with the veteran purge, but I didn’t think the problem would be this huge. And the problem has only been exasperated with injuries against key players/leaders and not sucky players that we could replace with a drop of a hat.

With the benefit of hindsight, doesn’t it benefit us all to look at the past and remember Jake Delhomme, the man who could throw the faults of the entire team on his back and lead us through sickness and in health, through good times and peril?

In the end we all didn’t expect to be awesome. But we at least expected us to be decent and not have a fall apart game like we did against the Titans. That’s why Steve Smith is pissed off. This is his entire career falling apart at the seems. He’ll go down as a talented receiver with gaudy statistics, but one always hampered by an inept supporting cast that kept him from getting HOF statistics, bad luck, and worst of all….he’ll finish his career without a Super Bowl trophy.

That’s why Steve Smith is pissed. He had a chance to evade it all. He could have gotten with Pittsburg or the Colts and really have a chance to win the championship. But he acted with his heart and decided to stay with the Panthers, thinking that they could have a chance in 2-4 years and wanting more than anything in the world to accomplish his ultimate goal for the team he cared for and the owner he loved.

He is in the process of figuring out whether or not he made the right decision. Above all else, we need some leadership on this team. That’s the greatest problem. We lack a Jake Delhomme grand mashall to lead this team. All of our lieutenants: Jon Beason, Thomas Davis, Ron Edwards and others all went down to injury or got cut.

I know I’ve gotten so frustrated before that I just wanted to punch somebody, I’m just glad he did it to someone on the other team. As for Scott Fowler, never liked him much. Only he would ask a dumb question about the ST coach yesterday, I’m just glad BAMF put him in his place. Did anyone else catch that?

I don’t see much difference in asking why a certain player is still playing, and asking why a coach is still coaching. Our special teams have been horrendous every game in all phases of it. That is 1 of the major problems stopping our wins.

Rivera is starting to irritate me with his ST responses. I want him to say, “We sucked, we need to get better, we made personel mistakes which will be fixed in the off season and I am going to make them work harder until they learn to tackle and block.” Not, “dont ask because I am satisfied, ok.” Really, bottom of the league is satisfactory for him? He blames injuries… 2 of 11 of the players out for the year played on ST. We sucked before anybody got hurt. We suck now because they dropped our ST stars before the season began because they were to old and experienced. And don’t even get me started on Murphy. The real question is should Murphy get a Mulligan?

Until Rivera takes responsibility for the Panthers mistakes or starts to win some games, he is going to get many more “unfair” questions. It was unfair that the game was out of reach after the first 60 seconds.

Carolina won 2 games last year, they matched that this year, we knew of the youth movement and the exile of the vets. Why is anyone suprised that they laid this stinker? The team is still young, the QB as good as he is, is still a rookie, who hasn’t seen a complete NFL season yet. Titans had a returning defense that can make changes and players to play QB spy because they have seen Vick, Young, Big Ben we have a makeshift defense with 2nd tier players, some vets but not good vets. Hasselbeck is still a vet, Newton not so much. The guys that we are starting on defense should be on special teams, we have been hurt bad by the injury bug on defese, but keep in mind we are still young, and there will be a better and brighter future