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The New #3 In Charlotte

Seltzer

By Seltzer,
in Carolina Panthers

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Seltzer Mentor

Seltzer

Posted
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I'm not a big NASCAR guy but this article makes some good points about the Panthers and one very ironic connection about Matt Moore I had not heard before...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/323934-its-time-for-change-in-carolina

The NFL has become the National Passing League. The teams that run more than they pass, with the exception of the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens, are doing what the rest of us are doing in the months of January and February: watching the playoffs. With the Cincinnati Bengals being another team who was eliminated on Wild-Card weekend.

If you’re a running team, you have to be great at it, and great in other areas. Fox has coached great running teams, and mediocre teams elsewhere on the field.

A quick look at the teams remaining in the playoffs is quite telling. You have Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Tony Romo, Mark Sanchez, and Joe Flacco taking snaps in the divisional round of the playoffs. Six of those eight quarterbacks have lit up the stat sheets and scoreboards this season. One was the NFL MVP, two more were in the running for that award. The teams that can mix the run in with the pass have the best chance of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy on Feb. 7.

The Carolina Panthers possess two of the better backs in the league, and arguably the top running back combinations in the league, with both DeAngelo Williams and Jonathon Stewart rushing for 1,100 yards each.

In the last month of the season, barring the 10-point setback to the New England Patriots, the Carolina Panthers looked utterly unstoppable. Had they been able to avoid losses to the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and/or the heartbreaker against the Falcons in week two, the Panthers would have been in playoff contention and a team to look out for.

That, however, wasn’t the case. As it never has been in the season following a playoff run in the John Fox era.

During those final games, the Panthers were running the ball almost at will, but they were passing the ball better than they had all year, and arguably better than they did in their 12-4 campaign in 2008.

The reason was pretty simple: un-drafted 3rd year player Matt Moore.

During the Jake Delhomme controversy throughout the year, the players stood by Jake. However, it became more and more evident as the year progressed that the man destined to lead Carolina beyond 2009 wasn’t wearing the number 17 on his jersey. He wore something a lot more familiar to the Carolina and Charlotte area. He wore the number 3 on his jersey—Matt Moore.

The locker room at Bank of America stadium had a new life to it, as did the sidelines the Panthers stood on when No. 3 was taking snaps. In Moore's first two starts of 2009, as has been habit in Carolina, he “managed the game.”

From then on, he won games. He dominated games, and took games into his hands. He didn’t have gaudy stats, and doesn’t need gaudy stats going forward to improve his 6-2 mark as an NFL starting quarterback.

He did, however, rank in the top five of NFL quarterbacks in statistics for the month of December. He doesn’t need to be a game manager either. He can manage the game by means of handing the ball to his two headed monster in the backfield, letting them rack up yards, but he can also take the 10 other men in that 11 man huddle, put them on his shoulders, and move the ball up and down the field.

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Seltzer Mentor

Seltzer

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On the national level, Dale Earnhardt is still the most transcedent "athlete" to come from the Charlotte area.

Yes, maybe some amount of hyperbole but ironic in the sense that as a Panthers fan, I am hopeful Matt Moore could possibly be as famous and successful a #3 as Earnhardt.

Come on, you know you have to make some sort of an exaggeration or overreaction to get much of a response from this board... :)

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OneBadassCat Newbie

OneBadassCat

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Oh jesus. Not this redneck crap. The #3 has nothing to do with so help me god. I had a feeling some one would stir sh1t like this all the way back to 07. Matt Moore is a good QB because he's a good QB not because he is some transcendent or reincarnation of Dale Earnhardt's #3 .

Oh my GOd It'S a 3 In tHA SKy!

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