It is a period of divisional war.
Tell me if you've heard this before:
Since its inception in 2002, no team in the NFC South has repeated as division champ in consecutive seasons.
Even among national pundits, it is no secret that the NFC South is the most hotly contested division in the NFL from season to season. The problem with the factoid isn't that it is untrue, but that it has become something of a self-perpetuating prophecy each offseason over the last few years. No matter which team wins the division, the experts will cite this mantra all throughout the offseason and preseason as a reason why it will be nearly impossible for them to repeat the feat.
Over the last several months, as our beloved Panthers have been enduring one of the most tumultuous offseasons in franchise history, the old prophecy has reared its ugly head yet again. It is the opening stanza to nearly every argument as to why the Panthers will take a step back this year. It is quickly followed, of course, by references to how we've lost our top 4 WRs, our best OT, and 3 quarters of our secondary from 2013's division-winning campaign.
As I read dire report after woeful prediction until my head was spinning, I took a break from football a few weeks back and marathoned the Star Wars trilogy - yes, THE trilogy; there is only one - with my 9-year old son, just to preserve my sanity. Interestingly, as I watched the groundbreaking series of movies for what was probably the millionth time a pattern began to emerge, and my mind drifted back to football. Little did we all know, George Lucas may have been prescient and the Carolina Panthers might just be a team of destiny in 2014, because surely the parallels between the movies and the last few years of Panthers history have to mean something, right? RIGHT??? What do you mean you don't see any parallels???
Oh alright, I guess I can explain for those of you who obviously lack training in the force!
Help me, Marty-Wan Hurnobi, you're my only hope...
Just as A New Hope began with moviegoers learning of the Rebel Alliance's recent attack on the Galactic Empire via the Star Wars series' iconic crawling-text intro, so did the 2012 Panthers' tale begin with a recent upswing for our heroes. The 2011 Panthers had finished the season on a 4-2 run after an abysmal start, and during the offseason the San Diego Chargers jettisoned a certain barrel-bodied, Swiss Army knife of an R2 droid named Mike Tolbert, whom the Panthers quickly snatched up. The droid brought with it a cryptic message:
Marty,
This is your last shot, don't screw it up.
- J.R.
Knowing with a fierce certainty that he was being given one last chance to right all the mistakes of his past, Hurney quickly turned his attention to the NFL Draft, where he identified a young man with enormous potential. Against all logic, he took on the padawan, Luke "Skywalker" Kuechly, defying the predictions of the so-called experts and pundits. He realized that if this team was going to have any hope, it would be built around the young linebacker with otherworldly instincts and an unmatched zeal for the game.
Hurney knew that young Luke couldn't do anything, however, without a ride off of Tatooine. Luckily, there just so happened to be a free-wheeling, gun-slinging young brigand already nearby. Hailing from Atlanta, AKA Mos Eisley, AKA "a wretched hive of scum and villainy", Cam "Solo" Newton was looking for fame and fortune, as well as a chance for glory after an ignominious win-loss record in his rookie season.
In the movies, Han Solo's ship the Millenium Falcon sported an oft-failing hyperdrive and looked like a battered old bucket of bolts, much like Carolina's RB tandem of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. However, this was also the ship that had "made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs", for crying out loud! Sure, Double Trouble's historic 2009 campaign in which they were the only RB duo to ever rush for 1,100 yards in the same season seemed like a distant memory, but Luke and Hurney didn't really have much of a choice but to pin their hopes on the pair recapturing the magic just one more time.
Unfortunately, real life once again imitated art, and just as the movie heroes' quest got off to a rocky start at the debris field once known as Alderaan with the Millenium Falcon's hyperdrive failing at the worst possible time, so did the 2012 Panthers stumble out of the gate. After being named the starter leading into the season, Jonathan Stewart was once again hobbled by injuries and the running game was ineffectual at best. Add to this the fact that Luke was not yet fully trained in the force, and the team was sure to go through growing pains. After the Panthers got off to a 1-5 start, Marty Hurney was the one to fall on the lightsaber, taking one for the team so the others could escape and live on to fight another day, much like Obi-Wan Kenobi's diversionary battle with Darth Vader.
It's not impossible. I used to bullseye womp-rats in my T-16 back home.
The Panthers rattled off 4 straight victories to finish out the 2012 season, then rejoined the Rebel fleet to gear up for war. In the movie, the heroes provided the plans stored within R2-D2's memory to the Rebel commanders, and a visionary general named Jan Dodonna came up with an audacious plan to destroy the Death Star. If you think about it, though he has never been considered "visionary" by any means, new offensive coordinator Mike Shula's gameplan for 2013 was nothing if not audacious. To completely scrap the high-octane offense used under his predecessor Rob Chudzinski, and replace it with a ball control offense predicated on eating clock and letting the defense win the same close games that they had been notoriously bad at winning previously seemed insane at the time. Believe me, I remember my own trepidation...
At first, just like in the climactic scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, every Panther fan's fears were almost realized. Facing up against a superior opponent in week 1, the Panthers faltered in a close fought battle against the Seahawks. In Buffalo the trend continued against the Bills, and hope began to crumble. It was widely believed that if the Panthers couldn't pull out a win against the Giants in week 3, all would be lost...
And then the tides turned.
The Panthers came into the game against New York firing on all cylinders and went on a run, winning 5 out of their next 6 games behind a strong running game and crushing defense, before finally drawing within striking distance of the Death Star itself. For our purposes, the Empire's greatest weapon takes the form of the Panthers 8-day stretch just after midseason in which they faced the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots in back-to-back contests.
By that point, we Panthers fans had heard it all.
"The Cats are pretenders."
"They haven't beaten anyone good."
"They can't win a big game."
But then they did, and more fittingly, they did so with Luke leading the way.
With 11 tackles and a sack against the 49ers, Luke led his defense to a stunning 10-9 win over the 49ers on their own turf. The unthinkable had happened, and the chronic underdogs had beaten a real team that had come very close to winning the previous Super Bowl.
Just 8 days later the New England Patriots - another team that had ventured deep into the playoffs in 2012 - came to town on Monday Night Football. Once again the Panthers were widely predicted to lose, and once again they sought to disappoint. Aboard the Millenium Falcon, Cam Solo returned just in time to help Rogue Squadron - the Panthers' ill-fated WR corps - keep wave after wave of TIE fighters off Luke's back long enough for him to enter the Death Star's reactor and drop his proton torpedoes on Rob Gronkowski in the game's final seconds. Was it a cheap trick? Maybe. But in war, the victors are those who are willing to do what must be done to win.
After Luke dropped his payload, all that was left was to make a daring escape while the Rebels mopped up. Things looked a little dicey as Luke barely made it out of the Death Star before it exploded, just as the NFCS divisional race was technically still in question until the Panthers finally put New Orleans out of their misery in week 16. But as we all know, that final escape scene in A New Hope was just dramatic license, leading up to the final scene where Luke and Han were awarded for their bravery by the Rebel Alliance, much like our own Luke and Cam were showered with awards at the end of the regular season, including Pro Bowl appearances, NFC Defensive Player of the Year Awards, and 5th-year contract options being exercised.
In the end, the credits rolled and the Emperor - yeah, try to convince me Roger Goodell doesn't look like Senator Palpatine after years of dark-side induced decay - was left wringing his hands and wondering how to respond to this new threat...
Stay tuned for part 2 of this series, Gridiron Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, where we will follow our heroes through the hellish 2013 postseason and 2014 offseason, and as always...