2005 NFC Divisional Game: Carolina @ Chicago

[RelaxImaPro]

Whenever games get posted here it seems like this one is always the most requested... yet no one ever seems to be able to find it.  Well, I just happened to stumble across it on YouTube and here it is in all its glory for your nostalgic viewing pleasure.  Enjoy:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrDRQrfnTnE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAovEt5ggi0

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNV9g27wdiE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cyrS4QXEj4

 

props to raj32566, the uploader.  Here is his channel where he has quite the collection of sports games in full: https://www.youtube.com/user/raj32566/videos

[hepcat]

Tillman got LIT UP this game.  Even by freaking Drew Carter.  Damn I hope he's better on Carolina than he was in this game lol

[KSpan]

Dante Wesley, Nick Goings, Vinny Ciurciu... Dem special teams.

[MadHatter]

One of my favorite games as I was there...face painted and completely decked out in Panther gear.

That stadium was unbelievably loud to start the game....then went deathly silent when Smitty torched them out of the gate.

[rayzor]

i loved that game, but i had a really bad feeling about where we were going to go from there. we were beat up pretty badly and i think despite the win we were exposed, esp. after losing foster.

 

we had no offense except for smith and they were triple covering him the whole game. dan henning's offense had a problem in that it focused on one guy anyway, and that was smitty. when we had foster, we at least had some threat out of the backfield for defenses to have to worry about, but aside from that we were a one man show.

 

seattle was too strong and i knew that our defense wasn't going to be able to stop shaun alexander, but more than that, i knew that our offense was going to be the thing that kept us from going to the superbowl. we were on our what, 5th string RB by the end of the NFCCG? and aside from smitty all our other receivers (esp. including TEs) were a joke.

 

i loved beating up chicago, esp. with the number of bear trolls that had found their way in here at that point in time (not talking about dimbee, btw), but my confidence in our ability to progress further was near zero. halfway through that season i knew that seattle was the one team i didn't want to meet in the playoffs and that was while we were relatively healthy. imo, it was a worst case scenario heading into that game.

 

i think it was at that point i started losing faith in henning and fox. i just didn't like the direction the team was takingin the long term.

[PFChangz]

There are so many aspects of that Bears team that are overlooked by analysts and spectators. 

First of all, this defense was on par if not better than the current Seahawks defense. They were nasty, hard hitting beasts that would destroy you mentally and physically. The first time the Panthers played them that season they scored like 3 points. And then Steve Smith went off on them like they were in High School. It's my belief that if the panthers don't win that game, the Bears go on to be Super Bowl champions. It's also my belief that if SS in his prime went up against Richard Sherman and the rest of that defense he would obliterate them as well. The Seahawks share the same problem that the Bears defense had back then which is rarely exploited today, they are very stubborn in their game plan. Lovie Smith even came out saying that they weren't going to change the way the run their defense just because of one player and that's why Steve Smith killed them. It was in the NFCCG the next week that the Seahawks decided to triple team SS and take him out of the game. 

 

Secondly, I don't believe that Lovie Smith is the defensive guru that everyone makes him out to be. What people don't understand is that Ron Rivera made that Chicago defense what it was for those two years where the Bears were the best in the league. As soon as the fired him and he went to San Diego, Chicago's defense was never the same and Ron ended up building a #1 defense out west. Next thing you know, Rivera is now in Carolina building an elite defense while Smith hasn't fielded an elite defense in almost a decade. This is why I don't believe the Buccaneers will ever be a threat in the South with Lovie Smith at the helm

[philw5289]

Can't wait to watch again, didn't Julius peppers dive out and force a touchback?

[juliosantos]

Always enjoy watching old games but I wish people would post more recent games

[Servant of Cthululelei]

i loved that game, but i had a really bad feeling about where we were going to go from there. we were beat up pretty badly and i think despite the win we were exposed, esp. after losing foster.

 

we had no offense except for smith and they were triple covering him the whole game. dan henning's offense had a problem in that it focused on one guy anyway, and that was smitty. when we had foster, we at least had some threat out of the backfield for defenses to have to worry about, but aside from that we were a one man show.

 

seattle was too strong and i knew that our defense wasn't going to be able to stop shaun alexander, but more than that, i knew that our offense was going to be the thing that kept us from going to the superbowl. we were on our what, 5th string RB by the end of the NFCCG? and aside from smitty all our other receivers (esp. including TEs) were a joke.

 

i loved beating up chicago, esp. with the number of bear trolls that had found their way in here at that point in time (not talking about dimbee, btw), but my confidence in our ability to progress further was near zero. halfway through that season i knew that seattle was the one team i didn't want to meet in the playoffs and that was while we were relatively healthy. imo, it was a worst case scenario heading into that game.

 

i think it was at that point i started losing faith in henning and fox. i just didn't like the direction the team was takingin the long term.

 

 

I'd agree with that being about when I started doubting Henning.  Though I was willing to cut him plenty of slack because of all the RB injuries.  But next season confirmed my fears.  I was far from willing to doubt Fox though at that point.

[All about the Benjamin]

The Steve Smith Show

[Mr. Scot]

In the week following that game, I had a Chicago sports radio station coming in really well in my car during my nightly drives home from work.

 

I laughed all week

[Plewis]

I wanna see the 2003 home playoff game against the Cowboys. I havent been able to find that anywhere

[rico6]

Dat Prime Lucas & Gamble combo.

Holy Cow.

[YoungPanthers89]

Smitty tha gawd