The Carolina Panthers have won three straight games after an 0-2 start, and our FanPulse users are starting to believe in them again. This week’s poll shows a 77 percent confidence rating, which is slightly better than last week’s 68 percent mark. The 77 percent confidence rating is the highest it’s been for the Panthers since the first week of the preseason when it was 93 percent. Hopefully a win on Sunday will see that 77 percent number climb even higher heading into next week’s bye.
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The Panthers have won three straight games without their franchise quarterback, so fans should be pretty confident right now. I tend to believe the first two games don’t really tell us what kind of team the Panthers are going to be this year because Cam Newton was clearly hurt (and shouldn’t have played, especially in Week 2), and the Panthers would probably be 4-1 right now if Newton wouldn’t have played in that Week 2 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
When I look at the big picture I see a good football team that had some bad luck in Week 1, a clearly injured quarterback in Week 2, and a defense that gelled at just the right time in Weeks 3-5 to carry the load while the offense adjusted to losing one of their star players. If Newton can come back healthy (especially after Week 7’s bye) this team has the potential to be very dangerous down the stretch. That’s something to be confident in, if you ask me.
This week’s National question was ‘Who is the leader in the NFL MVP race as of today?’, and a familiar face to Panthers fans was selected as the winner.
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Yes, that’s right — Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey was the fans’ clear choice for NFL MVP, beating out star quarterbacks Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers in the fan vote. One could argue that ‘he’s just a running back so he shouldn’t be the league MVP’, but on the other hand the Panthers would likely be 1-4 (and possibly 0-5) without McCaffrey on the field. If that’s not MVP material, then I don’t know what is. McCaffrey makes the team better (Seriously, how bad do you think they would be without him?) and is one of the main reasons they have a winning record right now despite losing their starting quarterback to a foot injury a few weeks ago.
What do you think, Panthers fans? Is Run CMC the league MVP right now? If not, who is? Share your thoughts with us!
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