Seltzer

How is Arizona going to put up 27 points? That offense is in the words on their own head coach, "putrid." That being said, their defense is pretty good and I doubt the Panthers are going to put up 30 points either. 20-10, Good guys

I whole-heartedly agree too. This D-Line is ridiculously talented. The 2003 D-Line, as awesome as they were, benefitted by the rules back then that allowed DB's to mug receivers at the line and within 5 yards. It made the QB's have to hold on to the ball longer and gave them more time to collapse the pocket. The rules almost universally favor the offense now. Having a D-Line that can get the kind of pressure ours has with just 4 lineman is unreal. I'm not taking anything away from 2003, but this year's D-Line is better and will be better as Star & Short get more experience. How that translates as far as record goes remains to be seen. The 2003 O-Line was light years better than this years to start. So there is that glaring difference. People forget b/c of the awesome post-season when the Panthers truly played like the 2nd best team in football that year, but that year's team was not dominant throughout the regular season. Most "experts" pegged us as an 8-8 team who got a lot of lucky bounces to get to 11-5 entering the playoffs. The year has just started for this year's team, and so much can still happen. A win this Sunday is paramount if this team is going to be a playoff contender.

I finally could rewatch the Seahawks game today during lunch. The worst part is that they honestly played one of the better games they have the past 2 years. Hats off to the Seahawks. The Deangelo fumble was huge, but he had a good game outside of that and the Panthers defense, while playing a great game overall, couldn't get the ball back to close the game. I honestly think if the Panthers execute better on the field they will win Sunday. The offense was not explosive, but they were very balanced in respect to what we've seen the last 2 years. If Steve Smith is right about the Panthers being a playoff caliber team, then Sunday is a game a playoff team wins. Bottom line.