Gather around and let me tell you about the last time the Panthers won six in a row

[frash.exe]

I kept an eye this entire time about how long we've been winning, and I thought about making this thread last week because when we got to 5 wins in a row it was our longest win streak in almost a decade anyway, but I decided to wait it out and now that the Panthers have beaten the Patriots, I feel compelled enough to write up something really long, which I haven't done in a while.

 

I'm going back 8 years to 2005. Now, I expect that since then we've had a lot of new fans, especially since Cam entered the league, so I want to cover the basics on what that team was about. It was a very different team back then, and a lot of fans had a very different perspective on what was the formula for winning. "Running QBs will never be successful like pocket passers", "drafting a QB in the first round is not worth the risk", "running the ball and stopping the run is key to winning". Quotations like these were probably the norm here. I assume so even though we're going so far back that I was lurking on thisboardrocks for insight (I've come a long way), but by the time I discovered this board, realized it was ten times better, and registered to post an MS Paint photoshop of Steve Smith wearing all black, people were still echoing these sentiments.

 

Today we have Cam Newton, but back then the franchise and its doting fanbase were almost monolithically united in support of a scrappy Cajun guy with a haircut from the 60s, Jake Delhomme.

Here he is during the summer of 2007 jogging with backup QB Bruce Jenner. When it came to physical tools, Jake was, ....pretty average. But he had a little bit of a corny swagger to him like Marty Jannetty, and he ended up overachieving and being somewhat successful, like Marty Jannetty. Jake was about 2 seasons removed from taking Rodney Peete's job in the opener and leading the team to like 70 game winning drives or something that year, so for a young franchise deprived of anything more than minimal success, Jake was an untouchable god. It was like watching Launchpad McQuack play QB. No matter how bad he'd perform, he always seemed to pull a GWD out of his ass at the last minute. Steve Smith was also here, and man was he just phenomenal that season. Imagine Calvin Johnson right now, but half a foot shorter and having a less talented QB throwing to him. That was Steve Smith in 2005.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n_Xhkx6DGU

(you can put it on mute if you want)

 

Lining up across from Steve Smith was ironically one of the most mediocre WRs of the time, Keary Colbert. Colbert would usually be seen smiling on the sideline while the Panthers were down like 30 points later on, but not that season. He barely produced and OC Dan Henning probably sent him out on the field so that the Panthers wouldn't get penalized for not having an eligible receiver on the opposite side of Smith. The Panthers' running back committee was spearheaded by short yardage/goal line specialist at this point Stephen Davis, and DeShaun Foster was the between-the-20s guy. They also had Nick Goings, but he tweezed his eyebrows so he's not as cool. Oh they also had Brad Hoover, Carolina's answer to Mike Alstott (well kinda)

 

On defense the Panthers fronted a 100 million dollar defensive line, but actually not really for 2005 since Kris Jenkins' ACL exploded almost instantly as soon as the season began. For most of the season the ends were superstar Julius Peppers and quality lunch-pail player Mike Rucker with Al Wallace rotating in and out, and the tackles were toughened vet Brentson Buckner, who had a background in Pittsburgh, and, in place of Jenkins, some farmhand named Jordan Carstens.

 

At linebacker was superbowl tackling MVP Dan Morgan, the versatile Will Witherspoon, and some guy that got punched by Jeremy Shockey a few years earlier at Giants camp. Yep, rookie hazing conflicts aren't anything new if you've been following this league for quite some time.

 

Speaking of punching, Ken Lucas was freshly signed from Seattle as our shutdown corner, with 2nd year Ohio State blue chipper Chris Gamble covering the other side. At safety, veteran Panthers mainstay Mike Minter and one year wonder Marlon McCree patrolled the deep field, but they were both better at run support. 

 

Obviously coaching the team was John Fox, and it would be very remiss of me if I didn't mention him because at the time he was well-respected here and motivated to get this team performing. The previously mentioned Dan Henning was of course, offensive coordinator, and his offense was run on the feed-the-stud mentality (the stud obviously being Steve Smith that year), but he also liked to call north/south run plays, and on defense, Mike Trgovac coordinated the squad with a playbook that was reportedly really too extensive. The postgame charlottenian OPs on Trgovac were classic.

 

So before the huge six game win streak began, the Panthers started 1-2. The lone win at that point had been off the Patriots, and the two losses were both a result of uncharacteristically botched game winning drives from Delhomme. After losing to Miami on a baseball field in week 3, the Panthers moved on to a Monday Night game with the Packers, still led by ancient relic of 90s football Brett Favre. The commentary that night was overwhelmingly centered on the Packers because of the slow start they had that season and because John Madden was still in the booth then.

 

I miss Madden

 

It was a close game. The Packers gave us hell after starting cold and the Panthers barely won by the same score they lost the Superbowl with. Thomas Davis, who was a rookie at the time, laid one of the sickest hits I'd ever seen on a Packers player on a special teams play. So yeah, the hit he gave that forced a fumble against the niners isn't anything we haven't seen from him before. The Packers almost came back but a late turnover by the defense sealed a victory. The scariest part about this is that no other team that year scored 29 points or more against the Panthers for the entire regular season. Yes, I'm saying the Panthers did not let a team score 30 points on them the entire regular season. Could happen again this year.

 

The next week, back at .500, the Panthers went to Arizona to play the Cards who were still being coached by Denny Green and still irrelevant at the time. Carolina found themselves down by 2 scores at the start of the 4th, but like I said before, Jake engineered 2 touchdown drives at the end of the game, one of them being punched through the goal line by Davis. Josh McCown, who would later be a backup here, and most recently was seen filling in for an injured Jay Cutler for a few weeks, was still cutting his teeth then, filling in for Kurt Warner. Considering the disarray the Cards were in at the time, he did a good job against the Panthers, throwing for almost 400 yards, albeit with 3 interceptions. Fitzgerald and Boldin burned our defense for well over 100 yards and a touchdown a piece, but Smitty also had a great game himself with 2 touchdown receptions, while also eclipsing the century mark in receiving yards that game.

 

In week 6, the Panthers went to Detroit and, oh my god, in what was one of the most ridiculously improbable game winning drives, it was not Jake Delhomme, but Chris Weinke, who threw the go-ahead TD pass late in the 4th. Weinke was previously known for leading the Panthers to a 1-15 record in 2001 as starter. What happened was while Jake was once again doing his 4th quarter war dance, he slid or something and got concussed, so Weinke's number was called to try to finish the drive. He threw a laser TD pass to current WRs coach Ricky Proehl, and the Panthers got out of the motor city incredibly lucky. We should've lost that game looking back on it. Delhomme threw two pick sixes and the Panther TDs were kind of fluky. Smith caught a pass in the middle of 4/5 Lions defenders playing zone and took it like 60 yards for an 80 yard reception. It was one of the most impressive Smitty TDs I've seen. Besides that, they couldn't run and Jake made sooo many mistakes but they were playing the 2000s era Lions after all so go figure.

 

The next week the Panthers are on a bye, so I'll break here as well. To be continued...

 

 

 

[TheGreatestOfAllTimeCam]

nice post

[beastson]

The memories...

[Chimera]

I sometimes forget how long Fitzgerald has been around. Dude looks like he's 14.

[TheRumGone]

for some reason this OP makes me sad...

 

the time is just flying by

[cptx]

I was actually feeling kind of corny for breaking out and watching my 2003 Cardiac Cats DVD before the game Monday. That year and 2005 were a lot of fun and good times.

 

 

[CarolinaNCSU]

2005 was so fun watching Smitty treat the league like his bitch. And then the damn Seattle game where it all went wrong happened. 

 

Wouldn't mind a little revenge this year. 

[KendrickPanther]

Deshaun Foster could take it to the house back then. Loved that team for all of it's flaws.

[Frizzy350]

NNNNOooooo why'd you bring up this season, especially when we could end up playing Seattle in the post season again.  I can't relive that game, my liver won't hold up...

 

Could you imagine if we had this version of Steve Smith currently playing for us?  We'd be undefeated and probably would be making more noise than Denver is this year.

[KillaCamNewton]

Ill take it to my grave that we wouldve beat seattle if not for all the injuries

[Montsta]

Remember how the bubble screen and smoke route were used like 5x per game and were some of the most effective offensive plays we ran? Good times. Damn Smitty used to have unnatural acceleration.

[panthersphan]

Was a fun season for sure.

Who knows maybe we'll finally get revenge of the 05 NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME in Seattle this season!!

[Swan]

Man, I miss Muhsin Muhammad. One of my favorite Panthers of all time. Just a classy, reliable guy.

[carolina-chuck]

I almost didnt read it bc it was so damn long, but thank God I did.

 

One of the best post I've read in a long time!

 

Brought up so many good ole' memories and I was literally taken back into times by reading it. I could pictured everything that happened back then.

 

-I cant believe that that picture of Jake and Carr looked that old now.

-I also remember the TD saving tackle from Ken Lucas vs. the Pats that he ran all across the field to make. That was a huge play in our victory in that game.

-Also remember how Foxy finally put Gamble on Fitzgerald in the 2nd half to slow him down. If I'm correct.

-Smitty tore up Fred Smoot (that one handed grab)

-Our dominance on defense vs. the pathetic Jets

 

So many wonderful memories.

 

#PanthersNation2013-2014