As many things as the Panthers did right in the first two games, it seems like they did just as many wrong in Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings.  Even with Steve Smith back, the Panthers weren’t able to do much against a Vikings club that was in a must win situation.

Really the best way to sum up that loss is it was just a bad day.  Though Delhomme and the offense were able to move the ball pretty well in the first half, the sack and fumble by Delhomme that resulted in a Minnesota touchdown ended up being a huge momentum changer which the Panthers weren’t able to recover from.

That touchdown by Minnesota really seemed to deflate the Panthers offense, and they really had trouble moving the ball after that, which resulted in the defense staying on the field for way too long and getting run over by Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor.

The Panthers just didn’t seem to catch any breaks outside of that initial interception by Chris Gamble either.  Minnesota put the ball on the ground twice, but both times the ball bounced right back at the ball carrier.  If either of those fumbles were recovered by the Panthers, you’re looking at a totally different ball game.  The refs didn’t appear to be on their game either, calling some weak penalties against the Panthers namely that block in the back call that eliminated a monster return by Jonathan Stewart, and missing a pass interference against Steve Smith.  Not to mention a would be blocked kick by the Panthers that was nullified by a John Fox timeout.

The one thing I am really frustrated with though is the amount of false starts the Panthers had.  John Fox has got to get that offensive line from jumping, because those false starts really proved to be drive killers.  Also John Fox kept going back to DeAgnelo Williams when it was apparent that Stewart was doing a much better job running right at that Minnesota front four.

Even though they lost, the Panthers are still in first place in the division, and should have a little easier game next week against Atlatna, though Matt Ryan and company have put up a lot of points in the past three weeks.  All in all you’ve got to be pretty pleased with going 2-1 against three very good football teams.

Tags: delhomme, panthers, vikings