Erebus
Active member
Great points made in this thread. As it stands right now, I expect both teams to miss the playoffs this year. As has already been discussed, Arizona has a brutal schedule coming up (and Palmer might not play at SF tomorrow) and then they finish with games @SEA and @LA. I see a maximum of 8 wins from them.
Carolina's pass defense is awful, and it doesn't look fixable during the season. Their CBs suck and they don't have quality edge rushers. On the other side of the ball, their offensive tackles suck (yes, I'm a pot calling the kettle black). Although we've shown you can overcome lack of quality tackles, the Panthers aren't showing that right now as Newton has been getting mauled. They had an opportunity to address either the edge rush weakness or their offensive tackle weakness in the draft, but instead chose to fortify an already great DT group. I think that decision might come back to haunt them.
The only thing that might save Carolina this year is their weak division, but I think Atlanta can hold onto this 2 game lead. I'd be surprised if the NFC South produced a wild card team. Beyond this year, Carolina is in much better shape than Arizona.
Carolina's pass defense is awful, and it doesn't look fixable during the season. Their CBs suck and they don't have quality edge rushers. On the other side of the ball, their offensive tackles suck (yes, I'm a pot calling the kettle black). Although we've shown you can overcome lack of quality tackles, the Panthers aren't showing that right now as Newton has been getting mauled. They had an opportunity to address either the edge rush weakness or their offensive tackle weakness in the draft, but instead chose to fortify an already great DT group. I think that decision might come back to haunt them.
The only thing that might save Carolina this year is their weak division, but I think Atlanta can hold onto this 2 game lead. I'd be surprised if the NFC South produced a wild card team. Beyond this year, Carolina is in much better shape than Arizona.