Preview of the game from nola.com..

[adallastiger]

pretty weak preview if you ask me...guys in Charlotte do a much better job...not even a prediction here....

http://blog.nola.com/saintsbeat/2008/12/saints_vs_panthers_preview_vid.html

[bubbadawg]

Former Saints quarterback Jake Delhomme (14 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions) has had the kind of season that might get him benched if not for the NFL's fourth-ranked ground game

They lost all credibility with that nonsense

[Fireball77]

lol

Thanks Bubba...now I don't even have to click that link.

[twylyght]

pretty weak preview if you ask me...guys in Charlotte do a much better job...not even a prediction here....

http://blog.nola.com/saintsbeat/2008/12/saints_vs_panthers_preview_vid.html

Trying to figure out if they are doing the weakass video because their staff can't write or because their clientele can't read.

[DawgzLife]

Former Saints quarterback Jake Delhomme (14 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions) has had the kind of season that might get him benched if not for the NFL's fourth-ranked ground game

They lost all credibility with that nonsense

To be honest, Jake is not having the best year, look at this from the NFL.com stats:

58.9% Completion percentage (24th in league)

14 TD to 12 INT (17th most TDs; 10th most INTs) TD/INT Ratio: 0.857

* A lower ratio is better (0.0 would be perfect)

3,038 passing yards (16th in league)

7.7 yard avg per pass play (6th in league)

Not stellar numbers, except the avg yards per play. He has made plays this year, but for those of you who crucify our defense, you'd better understand that they have saved Jake's bacon many times this season. Jake should be buying the Oline & the RBs Rolex watches for Christmas!

I love jake, but we need to draft & develop a more consistent QB. Look at Jake's stats compared to Matt Ryan (Rookie/Falcons):

61.7% Completion percentage (17th in league)

* Better than Jake

15 TD to 9 INT (16th most TDs; 23rd most INTs) TD/INT Ratio: 0.600

* Better than Jake

3,280 passing yards (11th in league)

* Better than Jake

7.9 yard avg per pass play (3rd in league)

* Better than Jake

I am in agreement that the N.O. papers are not the best sources for Panther info, but that statement, IMO, was accurate...if the team was losing.

[DawgzLife]

Regarding my post above. I did not cherry-pick information...#1 because I am a Panthers diehard & #2 I used what I feel are the most important QB stats for my analysis. (the very most important is 'Games Won'...we all know that!)

I choose not to use QB Rating, b/c I think it is flawed. (for the record: Jake=82.4/158.3 & Matt Ryan=89.7/158.3)

[MyDrunkardNC]

To be honest, Jake is not having the best year, look at this from the NFL.com stats:

58.9% Completion percentage (24th in league)

14 TD to 12 INT (17th most TDs; 10th most INTs) TD/INT Ratio: 0.857

* A lower ratio is better (0.0 would be perfect)

3,038 passing yards (16th in league)

7.7 yard avg per pass play (6th in league)

Not stellar numbers, except the avg yards per play. He has made plays this year, but for those of you who crucify our defense, you'd better understand that they have saved Jake's bacon many times this season. Jake should be buying the Oline & the RBs Rolex watches for Christmas!

I love jake, but we need to draft & develop a more consistent QB. Look at Jake's stats compared to Matt Ryan (Rookie/Falcons):

61.7% Completion percentage (17th in league)

* Better than Jake

15 TD to 9 INT (16th most TDs; 23rd most INTs) TD/INT Ratio: 0.600

* Better than Jake

3,280 passing yards (11th in league)

* Better than Jake

7.9 yard avg per pass play (3rd in league)

* Better than Jake

I am in agreement that the N.O. papers are not the best sources for Panther info, but that statement, IMO, was accurate...if the team was losing.

Stats are for losers.

[DawgzLife]

Stats are for losers.

Wow, you are brilliant. If you can't offer critical analysis, why waste anyone's time? Colloquialism is for losers.

Throwing 4 freaking INTs in a game is for losers, but our team consistently wins. Credit Fox and his coaches for getting this team ready to play. I love Jake, but he needs to step his game (he has had some good games, but also some ridicuous ones). If this team keeps Jake without developing a young QB to take over, be ready to lose for the next 3-4 years after this or next year.

Just as many of us wanted this team to use the obviously better player in D.Will over Foster, a QB is necessary for this team to continue to play at a SuperBowl level.

Argue if you want, but don't come up with crap when we are losing b/c the team cannot make up for Jake's mistakes & then watch it take 3-4 year to recover. Think forward, not with your emotions.

[SorthNarolina]

Wow, you are brilliant. If you can't offer critical analysis, why waste anyone's time? Colloquialism is for losers.

Throwing 4 freaking INTs in a game is for losers, but our team consistently wins. Credit Fox and his coaches for getting this team ready to play. I love Jake, but he needs to step his game (he has had some good games, but also some ridicuous ones). If this team keeps Jake without developing a young QB to take over, be ready to lose for the next 3-4 years after this or next year.

Just as many of us wanted this team to use the obviously better player in D.Will over Foster, a QB is necessary for this team to continue to play at a SuperBowl level.

Argue if you want, but don't come up with crap when we are losing b/c the team cannot make up for Jake's mistakes & then watch it take 3-4 year to recover. Think forward, not with your emotions.

I think he's just joking as thats a famous John Foxism, it's thrown around anytime stats are brought up, even if they are positive

[rubberpantz]

Wow, you are brilliant. If you can't offer critical analysis, why waste anyone's time? Colloquialism is for losers.

Throwing 4 freaking INTs in a game is for losers, but our team consistently wins. Credit Fox and his coaches for getting this team ready to play. I love Jake, but he needs to step his game (he has had some good games, but also some ridicuous ones). If this team keeps Jake without developing a young QB to take over, be ready to lose for the next 3-4 years after this or next year.

Just as many of us wanted this team to use the obviously better player in D.Will over Foster, a QB is necessary for this team to continue to play at a SuperBowl level.

Argue if you want, but don't come up with crap when we are losing b/c the team cannot make up for Jake's mistakes & then watch it take 3-4 year to recover. Think forward, not with your emotions.

c'mon... you're talking about jake here. you think anybody in these parts is rational when criticisms of him surface? BDJS are ten times worse than peppers apologists (i'm one of the latter).

but srsly, very lucid well thought out retort. couldn't have said it better myself.

[panthers55]

Wow, you are brilliant. If you can't offer critical analysis, why waste anyone's time? Colloquialism is for losers.

Throwing 4 freaking INTs in a game is for losers, but our team consistently wins. Credit Fox and his coaches for getting this team ready to play. I love Jake, but he needs to step his game (he has had some good games, but also some ridicuous ones). If this team keeps Jake without developing a young QB to take over, be ready to lose for the next 3-4 years after this or next year.

Just as many of us wanted this team to use the obviously better player in D.Will over Foster, a QB is necessary for this team to continue to play at a SuperBowl level.

Argue if you want, but don't come up with crap when we are losing b/c the team cannot make up for Jake's mistakes & then watch it take 3-4 year to recover. Think forward, not with your emotions.

While you present some stats to suggest that this is not one of his best years, the rest of your argument holds little water.

For example Jake is recovering from major surgery and missing almost a whole year, so the obvious rust was going to be there. Plus his throwing motion needed to be recreated after he had to modify over the past few years to compensate for injuries, poorer arm strength, etc. You look at his interceptions but forget ignore that nine of those interceptions were in 3 games and of those games we won 2 of the 3 so his interceptions didn't hurt the team. Also note that his TD to int ratio is going to be low since he has thrown less touchdowns because we have scored most of our touchdowns running the ball. Even Jake has run in 2 this year. It doesn't mean he is doing worse as much as he has other weapons and doesn't need to throw TDs in the redzone this year.

And to say we need to develop a quarterback ignores we have Moore and have been developing him. Plus if you had made this argument in 2002 when we had Rodney Peete it would have ignored the fact that Delhomme was picked up as a free agent andcame in immediately and lit it up. We could just as easily pick up a backup who could be the next Delhomme for us.

So overall your logic is weak and your conclusions are speculative at best. The stats you use don't correlate to your conclusions nor do they accurately depict our season or current 11-4 record. Jake can ply a few more years and he surely has the skills to take us all the way. If and when we find his replacement we can see what they can do. But I have found that these things have a tendency to unfold in unpredictable fashion so speculation tends to be a waste of time usually.