Back in August I ran a post asking my readers to come up with a nickname for the RB duo of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. After all, we could tell these guys were going to make a mark on the NFL scene. This past Sunday they justified our early excitement with twin 100 yard games, 3 TD's and a club record 264 yards rushing.

We had quite a few interesting nickname submissions which you can check out here. I then ran a poll on some of the choices with the winner being "Two-Headed Monster".

Unfortunately none of the monikers stuck and no one else seemed interested in establishing one, until now. Williams himself thinks they need one and he has one...or maybe two.

"'Smash and dash,'" Williams said. "Or ‘Slash and dash.'  Either way."

Me personally I like Smash-N-Dash but let me explain. Its not that I think one of them is the "Smash" and the other "Dash" though you could make that argument. Rather it's that both words describe both backs. Andrew Mason with Panthers.com seems to agree.

It would be obvious to call Stewart the "smash" and Williams the "dash," given the fact that Stewart's physique is endemic of a power runner, Williams' physique is more prototypical of back who relies upon his speed.  Yet both are capable of providing the "smash," which was evidenced by Williams' determined slog through defenders for the game-clinching score and Stewart's sprint to the outside and into the open field for his second-quarter touchdown.

So did anyone in my August post correctly guess the moniker? No, but we did have a few close ones. The Bomb dot com came up with Flash and Dash and JStew28 came up with Flash and Smash. Close but no cigar fellas.

So look out NFL because Smash-n-Dash is going to wreak havoc on your preseason Super Bowl predictions!

Is this Smash or Dash?

Jaxon here with Cat Scratch Reader welcoming your questions as we get ready to rumble in the A-T-L. Though we may have a 2-game lead on the Falcons this is still a huge divisional game because we have to keep pace with the Bucs. There's still plenty of football left and nothing is decided except that the Panthers will finish at least 8-8 (thats the John Fox in me coming out).

A few questions have been answered since our first meeting in the Queen City:

• DE Julius Peppers is definitely back to his old form. He added two more sacks to his total and is now 6th in the NFL. He added another forced fumble and now leads the NFL with 5. He should once again be the center of your pass protection planning.
• The Smash-n-Dash RB combo of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart has developed into everything we had hoped leading up to the season. Williams in particular has developed into a complete back who is actually a good #2 RB in fantasy. The Falcons had trouble with the Panthers running game in the first one so expect more of the same.
  
• The Panthers special teams have turned things around and are no longer a liability. They are getting good kick coverage, no blocked punts and return man Mark Jones has broke some nice run backs (though no TD's yet)
  

The Panthers are not without their concerns:

• QB Jake Delhomme has struggled with his accuracy against lesser secondaries the last two weeks. It has made the running game that more important
• The rushing defense has also slipped the past two weeks, allowing the Raiders and the Lions RB's (Fargas & K. Smith) 4.0+ yards per carry. 

Thought I'd throw in a little reminder from the 1st game:

via assets.sbnation.com

Any questions or it a no-brainer?

If you listen to John Fox interviews long enough you get the feeling he just reading from some kind of self-help team building manual. He never gets too high or low and is devoid of details beyond your typical sports cliché. Yet when describing his reasons for not being concerned about close victories over lesser teams we should listen.

"You see it every week. It's not a shock. Turn on the scores every Monday, and you see it. The difference between the teams with winning records and losing records is they've lost some close games. ... Always has been, always will be."

I'm a firm believer in their being only a few degrees of separation between the bottom teams and the playoff teams. When our linemen line up for their plays, even against an 0-9 team, they are still lining up against an NFL-quality athlete whom they must pound on for 40-50 plays. If QB Dante Culpepper had instead thrown a TD pass instead of an INT at the end of the game it's a different outcome. To me, that fact doesn't portend the Panthers to be playoff pretenders. Instead it shows the Panthers have the tenacity to defeat a team playing over its head. The saying "Any given Sunday" does have a ring of truth in it even when it comes to an 0-10.

If you still think the Panthers should have beat the Raiders and Lions by a bigger margin lets try an experiment. The Titans play the Lions next week in a potential epic battle of winless vs. undefeated (provided the Titans beat the Jets and Lions lose to the Bucs). If your logic stands to reason then the Titans should win by a score of 40+ to nothing. If the Lions should score then we have to question the Titans defense just as we have the Panthers. If the Titans should somehow only score say 27 points or less then we should question whether their offense is really good enough. Okay, maybe the Titans are a bad example since Kerry Collins is the QB; there's already reason to question their offense.

Darin Gantt with the Rock Hill Herald seems to be one of those people who think the Panthers aren't good enough. The ones who expect more than a win, they want a win margin that matches the opponent.

That means the Panthers are going to have to be far better than they've been.

They did win the games when they could have instead folded.

If the Panthers continue sleepwalking the way they have the last two, they're going to be 8-3 in a few days.

I don't think the guys felt like they were sleepwalking.

The reality is good teams have to play well to go along with their talent, and the Panthers haven't been lately. They were fortunate to find an offense more inept than their own in Oakland, and a defense here against Detroit that was already bad, then hurt. If the slop is out of their system now, they should be fine.

Duh, but Gantt does come back to reason at the end of his post. I still think that you can find things the Panthers need to improve in every win they have had. It doesn't mean they are ‘sleeping walking' when you have room for improvement.

John Fox may not give interesting interviews but he can throw out some gems of wisdom from time to time if you listen. When he says we should just be happy with a win, even an ugly win then why does every pundit from Hilton Head to Wilmington have this attitude of pending doom? The Panthers do have some quality wins in that 8-2 record, like the Chargers, Bears, Saints and Cardinals. They even have a win against their next opponent the Falcons who have now earned everyone's respect with a 6-4 record. I have to admit I've let the Falcons wins over the Bears and Packers impress me. But lets not forget who won the first game and for good reason. There's no amount of ugly wins that can change that, or at least that's what John Fox is telling you.

Though the Panthers took care of business the past two weeks and raised their record to 8-2 they didn't exactly do it in convincing fashion. In both games they started slow but finished strong, this week featuring a franchise record rushing performance to the tune of 264 yards. The Lions weakness was supposed to be their secondary but on this day the Panthers ran all over them. Both Panther RB's DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart rushed for well over 100 yards each and three TD's combined, at times making it look easy.

What didn't look so easy was the Panthers passing attack. QB Jake Delhomme again struggled to get into a rhythm completing only 10 passes for 98 yards. It wasn't all bad as he did connect with TE Jeff King for a TD. The Panthers didn't really need Jake's arm on this day. The Panthers instead used some well placed stiff arms from their Smash-n-Dash (per D-Will himself) running duo. It was nice to see Stewart get it going after a few lackluster games as he nursed a sore toe. He showed no signs of an injury against the Lions as he instead was the one roaring. Stewart ran with authority as he regained the form we saw earlier in the season.

On the other side of the ball DE Julius Peppers had another big day. He capped his big day off with a sack and his NFL leading 5^th forced fumble. The Panthers pass rush may have not put up impressive statistics but they harassed Lions QB Dante Culpepper into several mistakes and bad passes. The biggest mistake was his last pass of the night, an INT by FS Charles Godfrey that sealed the win. We can thank DE Tyler Brayton, who stayed home on the misdirection roll-out and blocked Culpeppers view.   

Another concern for the Panthers was the rushing defense that gave up 120 yards rookie RB Kevin Smith. This is two weeks in a row where the Panthers defense was exposed for decent rushing yardage. It appears team are finding ways to get through holes in the first line and getting a blocker on the LB's. I can't say teams are having more success in any certain direction or wide versus between the tackles. I can't single out any one person either. I can only hope its more of a lack of focus against lesser teams. The team that held LT, AP and LJ to less than 100 yards has now given up 100 yards to an old timer (Warrick Dunn) and a rookie (Smith). They better get it turned around this week before heading to ATL to face the talents of Michael Turner.

I have to give some props to the Lions as they played some inspired ball. I really think they will win at least one game and prevent the 0-16 collar. It has to be tough losing your GM, your top 2 QB's and your top receiver (Roy Williams) in one season.

So now comes the 5 game stretch where the Panthers prove their mettle. Lets hope the run defense gets back to filling those holes and Jake gets the passing game back in gear. We do know one thing, its going to be fun to watch.

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Game Day Threads

If you find yourself watching the Panthers game at home, maybe by yourself and you have an internet connection join other connected Panther fans via CSR's open thread. It's a good way to interact with other fans, share some incite and enjoy what is shaping up to be a charmed Panther 2008 season.

Welcome to the CRS game day open thread. The Detroit Lions come to town in what should hopefully be a fairly easy victory. For the Cardiac Cats though thats never a sure thing. Look for lots of running by the Panthers and maybe some big plays in the passing game.

I'm especially excited to see my man WR Calvin Johnson come to town. He's quite the weapon so the Panther secondary better keep him marked closely.

Feel free to chime in anytime. If you can't watch the game live just let us know and those on the thread watching the game will give you some incite on the big plays.

Go Panthers!!

In this weeks addition of Blogger Q&A we have Sean Yuille with Pride of Detroit to answer five questions I posed to him about the Panthers match-up with the Lions.

Question 1: I'm a GT alum and therefore huge Calvin Johnson fan. Seems I remember the fan base was not happy about drafting another receiver with the overall #2 pick. Has Calvin made believers of yourself and the fan base yet?

POD: Calvin is the real deal.  There's no doubt about that.  He can make some amazing plays and has turned games around with only a couple catches.  What's even better is that he catches throws regardless of how bad they are.  That is a great trait to have as a Lions receiver, and it especially came in handy last week in the Jaguars game.  Daunte Culpepper simply threw a ball downfield, and Calvin did the rest to make the big play happen.

Since Calvin had Reggie Ball throwing to him in college he had to make great plays (no offense Reggie, just stating the obvious). We always said if this guy ever gets an accurate QB look out.

Question 2: I was surprised to see Detroit sign QB Dante Culpepper rather than start 2^nd year man Drew Stanton. Was this a good move or should they just throw Stanton in there and let him sink or swim?

POD: The coaches sadly think of Culpepper as the future quarterback of this team from everything I have heard.  They feel like he can get used to the offense for the remainder of the season and become the full-time starter next year.  Obviously I don't agree with that one bit and think the coaches are living in a fantasy world if they're planning beyond 2008 anyways since they probably won't have a job.  Either way, I do think Stanton should have become the starter.  Yes, he doesn't have any experience and has a lot of work to do to become better, but starting him would either accomplish that or show that he is not a viable option in the future.  Although there is a very good chance he would get injured as a starter based on the number of sacks he took in the short amount of time he played last week and based on the fact that he is injury prone, the Lions don't have anything else to lose at this point.  Well, except for 7 more games.

I would have to agree with throwing Stanton in there to see if he is the answer or not. They need to know if they need to spend next years #1 pick on a QB or not.

Question 3: I see RB Kevin Smith is now the starter over the vet Rudi Johnson. Did Smith earn the job or get it by default? Is Smith the answer at RB for the Lions going forward?

POD: Smith definitely earned the starting job.  He and Rudi battled it out and went back and forth for much of the season.  Recently, though, Smith has shown great promise and appears to be a legit NFL running back.  He doesn't exactly have much to work with since the offensive line is so terrible, but he has played well despite that.  What I like about Smith the most is that he can make something out of nothing quite a bit, which is always a plus when your blocking is non-existent for most of the game.

Smith is a guy I thought the Panthers might target in the draft. He's going to take some hits this Sunday as the Panther defense looks to rebound from a less-than stellar run defense performance against the Raiders.

Question 4: The defense seems to be struggling in all areas. Are there any bright spots on the defensive side of the ball for the Lions? Who's been playing well and who needs to get the DeAngelo Hall treatment?

POD: The only bright spots on the Lions' defense are linebacker Ernie Sims and defensive end Dewayne White, who is actually going to miss Sunday's game due to an injury.  I honestly would like to give the DeAngelo Hall treatment to the defensive coaches first and then move on to the entire secondary.  After that I would likely only pick a few players to keep and would clean house everywhere else.  The defense is pathetic and will always be pathetic as long as the current group of players and coaches are around.

I'm sure Jake is looking to rebound from his horrible performance against the Raiders. The Lions secondary should be just the cure.

Question 5: How is the recent rookie class panning out? Any future Pro Bowlers in the class?

POD: A couple of the second-day picks of the rookie class are doing pretty well.  The two first-day selections, on the other hand, have been an enormous disappointment.  First-round pick Gosder Cherilus was getting benched what seemed like every other week during the first half of the season, and now he is a starter on the worst o-line in football.  Second-rounder Jordon Dizon has seen a very small amount of playing time and has been injured for a good part of the season.  I didn't like the pick when it was made and I hate it even more right now.  Dizon was seen by the coaches as someone that could be starting at one of the linebacker positions, and right now he is nowhere near that level.

Moving on to the second-day picks, Kevin Smith and fullback Jerome Felton are already starting.  Cliff Avril is showing some promise and will get a chance to play quite a bit on Sunday with both of Detroit's defensive ends out due to injuries.  Defensive tackle Landon Cohen hasn't done much, and the other two second-day picks aren't even on the team anymore.  Caleb Campbell, as you may have heard, was forced to stop playing in the NFL due to an Army ruling, and Kenneth Moore is actually on the Panthers now.

I think most people thought Cherilus and Dizon were reaches at spots they were taken. Cherilus will have his hands full this weekend as he gets his first look at Peppers.

I watched the Raiders game again last night and took some notes on things that don't show up in the box score on the key plays of the game. Before I get into the details of my review though I have to first say that Jake Delhomme's passing performance was even worse than I remember. He wasn't just missing his targets; on many of his throws he wasn't even close. I'm surprised he completed 7 passes. I'm a big fan of Jake's and I'm not too concerned at this point. I just hope that whatever Jake did before this game to prepare that he never does it again. It was that bad.

So here's what I noticed on my second look at this ugly victory.

• Julius Peppers first sack came on a 3^rd down and ended the Raiders first drive. Peppers was lined up at DT and blew through Raiders RG Cooper Carlyle on an inside rip move. I'm sure Carlyle was surprised to see Peppers lined up across from him and certainly wasn't ready for his combination of strength and speed.
• On Jake's first INT the pass was short and inside when it should have been long and to the outside shoulder of WR Steve Smith. It didn't seem that Jake was early or rushed on the throw, which was a fly pattern down the left sideline. It was a nice play by the CB Asomughe.
  

Continue reading this post »

One of my biggest concerns coming into the season was whether the Panthers had upgraded their pass rush. After the first 6 games the jury was still out as honestly the Panther pass rush was anemic at best. Though the Panthers sported an impressive pass defense it was more attributable to the defensive back field then it was to the front four.

More recently though the Panthers have done a better job of getting pressure on the QB. Most recently the Panthers logged 5 sacks against the Raiders in easily their best pass rush performance of the season. The reason for the improvement can be attributed to the Panthers increased creativity in bringing pressure. The Panthers have experimented with a number of different line-ups that feature Julius Peppers lining up in various positions.

Consider this 3^rd down and long front four the Panthers put out there at one point in the Raiders game:

LDE: Charles Johnson

DT: Peppers

DT: Damione Lewis

RDE: Hilee Taylor

Continue reading this post »

I contacted the blogger over at Pride of Detroit to see about cross-blogging but he would prefer to do the 5 question format since his readers rarely care about their opponent anymore. I can't blame them when your team is 0-9.

So I still wanted to give you guys a chance to ask any questions you may have but you will need to respond quickly. I like to get the answers up by Friday so I need to send the Q's over later today.

Here's the topics I'm planning on asking him about. Let me know if there is another topic of interest:

• You guys know how I love Calvin Johnson so I'll be asking him about whether they now agree he was worth the #2 overall pick last year.
• The QB situation is obviously a big issue with the newly signed Dante Culpepper getting the call
• The defense is horrible so I'm curious as to who he thinks should stay and who should go
• The Rb situation has changed as Kevin Smith is now the starter over Rudi Johnson. I'm curious what he thinks about that.

Any other topics you would like to see discussed? It seems pointless to discuss match-ups since the Lions are just hoping to not get blown out. I thought they had a legitimate chance to beat the Jags since the Jags had been playing poorly but...it was what? 38-7 or something like that.

A win is a win right? It doesn't matter that your offense totally sucked for most of the afternoon. Just ask QB Jake Delhomme who completed nearly as many passes to the Raiders (4) as he did Panthers (7).

"I'm so glad we won, because you want to talk about a long plane ride home? We just didn't get this team going," Delhomme said. "It wasn't a good day offensively, but you know you're going to have those days, and the great thing about it is we won."

The Panthers are ecstatic to be leaving Oakland with a win and you can thank the defense for that.

• Julius Peppers had another dominant performance with 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles. If he wasn't being double teamed he was causing the Raiders problems
• LB Jon Beason finished with 15 combined tackles and a pass defensed
• The Panthers picked off 2 passes, one by Richard Marshall and Chris Gamble, with Marshall's in the end zone foiling the Raiders best scoring opportunity
• PR Mark Jones easily had his best day as a Panther with a 55 yard punt return to go with a 59 yard kick return
• Dante Wesley got the Panthers going with a jarring hit on the Raiders KR Higgins on the opening kick off forcing a fumble and helping the Panthers to an early 7-0 lead
• DeAngelo Williams looked pretty average up until he ripped off the 69 yard TD

So is every one else feeling lucky to have won this one?

DE Tyler Brayton Gets Sweet Revenge