# NFC Divisional Playoff Cardinals @ Panthers 8:15 Sat 1/10



## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

It's hard to see our defense holding the cardinals down completely,so our offense needs to keep them on the sidelines.Anquan Boldin has a strained hammy and he's listed as questionable,but I have a hard time thinking that he's going to sit this one out.Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt blamed the injury on Boldin's inability to practice because of a previous shoulder injury...I don't know if that's still a factor.

It's pretty simple to me.We need to beat the Cardinals on our offensive line and get DeAngelo and Jonathan into their secondary.In the wildcard game they seemed to have picked up something on the falcons' snap count...So we don't need to be doing anything predictable and if they want to guess the snap count we need to make them guess wrong.I have little faith in either our pass rush or our secondary...So we need to keep our defense on the sideline too.As always we need big plays with the play action pass...Wow,we're really a cutting edge 21st century offensive football team.Noone has ever thought of this stuff before.


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## Basel (Mar 31, 2005)

I think Panthers will win this in blowout fashion. Might stay close for a little bit, but then I think the Panthers defense will take over and cause turnovers, and their running game will take it to the Cardinals.


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## nutmeged3 (Apr 11, 2005)

I just don't have enough confidence in our secondary to think this isn't going to be a close game. We fell behind big last time we played the Cardinals and if we let Warner sit back and pick us apart like Brees did in the last game then it;s not going to be a very good day. Best thing we can hope for is keeping our D off the field and pounding it with Deangelo and Stewart like Diable said. With the extra week were going to get Kemo and Lewis back so that will help out the pressure and our secondary.

Ima be at this one so I can't wait. It's going to be loud in BOA Stadium that's for sure so we better come ready to play


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## MicCheck12 (Aug 12, 2005)

Hopefully the line along the edge and Hightower can keep Carolinas Offense off the field, remember we won against Atlanta becouse of the 16 min drive we had we need one of those in this one...


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## nutmeged3 (Apr 11, 2005)

Michael Turner looked completely burned out during that game so that was a big part of Atlanta's offense sputtering, Deangelo and Stewart have split carries all season and had an extra week off. If Arizona get's there running game going enough to have long drives I'm going to be surprised I'm just expecting us to get torched through the air.


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

http://blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/2009/01/panthers-injury.html
Good news on the injury front...Although I'd guess these guys would have to be really injured to miss this one.There's nothing else in the link so there's no real point in clicking it.


> The Panthers' late-season injury crisis on their defensive line appears to be over.
> *Starting tackles Maake Kemoeatu (ankle) and Damione Lewis (shoulder), who both missed time at the end of the regular season, practiced Wednesday and look to be OK for Saturday's playoff game against Arizona*.
> 
> *Offensive tackle Jeff Otah, who hurt his toe in the regular-season finale at New Orleans, also pra*cticed.
> ...


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

Boldin looks doubtful at this point.They're listing him as a gametime decision,but based on the fact that he has neither practiced nor even run I don't think he's going to be much use to to them.On the other hand they've got a lot of other guys and our defense is still atrocious against the pass


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

I really am not the least surprised by this loss,only by how bad it was.We are operating on a very thin margin,when we ran the ball and limitted our mistakes we played extremely well and had the oppurtunity to beat anyone in the NFC.However we are nowhere near good enough to make these sorts of mistakes and we absolutely have to commit to the run.I have no idea what Jake was doing tonight,but he certainly bears a great deal of fault for this loss.He's going to get more than he deserves,because everyone here knows that you can't put the game in his hands.You have to give the ball to DeAngelo and Jonathan and then you have to give it to them again.We certainly can't afford to have our qb give the ball away six times.

At this point the only thing to do is to look forward and it seems obvious that you have to ask how we can improve under center.This team isn't that far away.In fact we all know that Jake is not nearly as bad as he played tonight.Truth is until tonight he's been a great performer in the playoffs.That said we also know that he simply does not throw the ball accurately enough.I'm honestly not sure if his arm hasn't quit on him late in the season,but either way he doesn't throw the long ball well any more and he puts balls into coverage.Tonight he seems to have forgotten how to read coverages...His decisionmaking was never this bad and it really hurts right now.

All of that said I am not in favor of jettisoning Jake for uncertainty or for an inferior qb.We need to upgrade.We don't need to ditch him emotionally then look around and try to figure out what to do about it.You can't replace him with nothing and we don't have a first round pick to take a great qb with right now.It's not likely that we'll go out and throw money at Matt Cassell either,even though this is exactly what I'd like to do.

In fact I don't even think replacing Delhomme is our first priority,even though I'm extremely pissed at him right now.What I think we need to do is completely rebuild our defense.I'd just as soon fire trgovich(sic) and hire someone better.I want another pass rusher,a dominant interior lineman and I'm in favor of feeding our secondary to rabid dogs without worrying about whether or not we can replace them with better players.I just don't see how we could replace them with worse players.I know Peppers has been better this year,but right now I'm not in the mood to give him a ton of money either.I want to see the guy who used to dominate the game and I've no idea who he is.We really needed Kris Jenkins this year.I know why we let him go,but right now it's just imperative that we go out and find someone who can replace him in his impact on the d line.If we can't get some other pass rushers then there's no need to keep Julius.It's obvious that he's not the same player without better players on the d line..God it's sad to reminisce about how good we used to be on the defensive line and now that's where we are really lacking.


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