How the hell did we manage to go 11-5 in 2005?

[E CaT PanTHer]

And all the way to the NFC Championship game with Jake Delhomme, Deshaun Foster, Steve Smith, Keary Colbert, and Kris Mangum as our starters ?????

[NJPanthers12]

peppers, rucker, witherspoon, a healthy morgan, gamble, lucas all pro year, minter

[Dpantherman]

Ready to give John Fox some due credit??

[MVP23]

..those guys were beast in 05..plus the NFC sucked..and still kind of does. Think about it, we started 0-3, and we're still only 1 game back..

[Pantherman]

Because Jake at the time was a little younger More mobile and had better field Vision at the time. But since Jake elbow surgry and his time offin 2007. Jake got worse since then. Jake is a lot older now. He doesn't play well in the pocket no longer. His Vision down field has gotten alot worse then it use to be. His throwing has been affected by the surgry he had back in 07. And upon all that his age has caught up with him now. Age is one of the main factors why his performance has gone way down.

[CarPanthers21]

..those guys were beast in 05..plus the NFC sucked..and still kind of does. Think about it, we started 0-3, and we're still only 1 game back..

Or maybe the NFC teams are equally awesomee, yee-yeah.

[d-dave]

Age is moot. There are many quarterbacks, older, who've had success.

Our defense in 2005 was crazy good. We had one of our best defensive lines EVER, and Lucas and Gamble were playing absolutely lights out. On offense we were "feeding the stud" to Steve Smith, who benefited from Hennings single minded determination to give his best player the ball. Also the 2005 Steve Smith was more explosive and nastier than the 2009 version.

Finally, the reason we were that "good" was because we ended up +16 in the turn over margin. Anyone can play the blame game, but it comes down to this, the 2009 have turned the ball over FAR too much early on. If we hadn't turned the ball over so much, who knows what could be happening, but I can say with certainty that we'd have won a few more games.

[Sam Mills Fan]

89 had one of the top 5 greatest receiving seasons in NFL history that season. That's why.

[WhiteBoysCanRun22]

And all the way to the NFC Championship game with Jake Delhomme, Deshaun Foster, Steve Smith, Keary Colbert, and Kris Mangum as our starters ?????

The main reason why is b/c of Jake's passing skills (he actually went pro bowl that year), Steve Smith & our dominant defense. Desean Foster actually wasn't that bad; he managed to run 800+ yards that year. Our defense was spectacular! We were able to maintain most of the opponent RBs including Tiki Barber & Shaun Alexander (back when they were good) that year

[E CaT PanTHer]

peppers, rucker, witherspoon, a healthy morgan, gamble, lucas all pro year, minter

I agree, our defense was great that year, but we still managed to put up 25 points per game, good for 8th in the NFL. Our running game was average, but was that the year Steven Davis had like 12TD's. Not sure. We only had 1 legit receiver, and not many playmakers besides Smitty on offense. Was it Dan Henning?

I think the difference was that year they just let Jake Delhomme sling it. He had 16int's that year which is pretty high, but he just fed the ball to Smitty at will, which is why Smitty had one of the best season ever for a receiver.

[tchadb21]

Nick Goings......Have to give some credit to him. Filled in at the end of the year.

[WhiteBoysCanRun22]

Nick Goings......Have to give some credit to him. Filled in at the end of the year.

You're thinking of the 2004 season but yeah, he was great filling in that year

[E CaT PanTHer]

You're thinking of the 2004 season but yeah, he was great filling in that year

Yeah, Nick Goings took over the NFC Divisional Playoff game against Chicago when Foster went down with a broken leg. He then played in the NFCCG and sucked it up.

[WhiteBoysCanRun22]

Yeah, Nick Goings took over the NFC Divisional Playoff game against Chicago when Foster went down with a broken leg. He then played in the NFCCG and sucked it up.

Man, do you remember that hit he took in the NFC Championship game? It was f*cking nasty! It had me scared to death