Here are some interesting quotes regarding the Panthers vs. Vikings game from various sources around the web. Let's start with our Head Coach John Fox. When asked abou the play call that resulted in the sack, fumble and TD, Fox got a little testy in his response:

Vikings players said there were two keys to the play. First, the Panthers had no idea what was coming; the Vikings hadn't run such a play on tape. Second, Delhomme was on an island, with no one there to help him account for a player attacking from the strong side.

In his postgame news conference, Panthers coach John Fox was testy when asked about the thinking behind the play.

"We mixed things up," he said. "We get criticized when we run it, and we get criticized when we pass it, so maybe we'll start punting.

"The key is whether it works or not, and obviously it didn't."

I don't think you've received much criticism this year until now Coach. I think he's being a little sensitive for someone who's obviously been down this road before. I have no problem with the play call, just the execution. Jake Delhomme seems to think the play was one second short of a big play the other way:

"The disappointing thing is I was cocking back to throw it to Steve, who was open on a corner route," Delhomme said. "[Cornerbacks Griffin and Charles Gordon] jumped down on D.J. Hackett, so we were going to have a big play. ... I don't think Steve was going to catch it and go out of bounds. So I guess you have to use your imagination as to what he was going to do when he had the ball in his hands."

Just another reminder the difference between winning and losing is only a few degrees of separation.

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Charlotte.com Releases their Position Grades

These grades are a different from the ones I will issue later this week in that it's by position versus objective. Here's the one grade I take issue with:

DEFENSIVE LINE: C plus
This group continues to play better than expected. Julius Peppers had his first sack of the season, and Tyler Brayton and Charles Johnson each had half a sack. Brayton and Damione Lewis each had five tackles, including four solos. Darwin Walker batted down a pass.

I'm sure I'll grade this one a little more severely. The three sacks were an improvement yes, but they didn't get one when they really needed it. The Vikings effectively picked on our rookie safety Charles Godfrey late in the game and won the game via the pass. The line played well against the run but the pass rush was typically a step late.

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Jamming WR Steve Smith

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Any time the Panthers lose it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I want to forget about it as much as possible. This loss to the Vikings is no exception though I find myself thinking it could be a lot worse. You really didn't think the Panthers would go 16-0 did you? Of course not. The problem is that the Vikings exposed the Panthers weaknesses for all the league, and their future opponents to see. The Panther pass rush lacks teeth when it desperately needs a sack. The offensive line has trouble picking up blitzes when forced into obvious passing situations. QB Jake Delhomme can certainly have a bad day and look more like a journeyman than a Pro Bowl QB.

If there was ever a game with a game changing it was this one. The Panther defense had just held a Viking drive to a FG and were sitting on a 10-3 lead and looking fairly in control of this game. Then Vikings CB Antoine Winfield blind-sided Jake, who fumbled...and you know the rest. From there the offense went completely limp for the rest of the game as the Vikings contained the running game and caused Jake to misfire over and over.

More thoughts on the game:

• Penalties were a killer, like the one that negated a 90 yard Jonathan Stewart kick return. Add 6 more false start penalties. How many is that on the year, 12-15? What the hell is going on with the penalties?

One week after committing five false-start infractions against Chicago, the Panthers were whistled for six in Minnesota, representing half of the 12 penalties that were assessed against Carolina.

"It's frustrating because we work on it all week; we have crowd noise and all that stuff," said left tackle Jordan Gross. "I hope that's not the identity of our offensive unit, but so far, every week, we've had that same stuff happen.  That's totally a mental thing, because that happens before the ball's even snapped. 

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