Did that just happen? Did the Cardinals, who were abysmal all year long on the road, just blow out the Panthers, who have been nothing short of dominant at home? Did Jake Delhomme seriously just turn the ball over 6 times? Did the Cardinals out rush the Panthers 40 something attempts to 15? This can't be real. I must have been playing Madden 09 with the Rewind feature turned off and mistook it for real life. It's still sinking in that it's over. It feels like only yesterday Jake Delhomme hit Rosario in the back of the end zone and this crazy, up and down season officially begun. I can't believe it's already over.
I could spend my time on this post harping on the 33-13 beat down that occurred tonight, but what would be the point? The Panthers were beaten up and punked all night long and there's really nothing that I could say here that the scoreboard doesn't reflect.
Instead, I want to talk about Jake Delhomme. No, I'm not going to defend him after tonight, as that would be impossible. No, I'm not going to throw him under the bus, either. I'm going to lobby for Delhomme to have another shot next year. He's earned it. He deserves it, no matter how ugly and down right awful he was tonight, he's one of the main reasons that the Panthers were even in a position to stink it up in the Playoffs. Say what you want about our running game. Say what you want about Delhomme's 84 rating this year. Without Delhomme, this is a mediocre football team that at the very, very best finishes 8-8.
Just look at how the defense gave up double digit leads down the stretch (@ GB, @ NY, vs. NO) yet the Panthers still managed not to fall apart and win 12 games. Let us not forget, fans, that Jake Delhomme engineered at least 5 comebacks throughout the year(@ SD, vs. CHI, vs. AZ, @ GB, vs. NO). Those area all loses with McCown under center. I guarantee you that. There were also times early in the season when the Panthers found themselves down big (17-3 a couple of times) and Delhomme stepped it up, took leadership of the team, and willed them to victory.
Sure, Jake only threw 15 touchdown passes this year, but when your running backs score 28, you don't need to throw for a whole bunch. What gets lost is that Delhomme threw a career low 12 picks this year (with 7 of the 12 coming in 2 games). If anything, Jake Delhomme picked the absolute worst game to have his worst game, and will have to live with it for the entire, and overly long, offseason.
Jake Delhomme is one of my all time favorite Panthers. He's right up there with Steve Smith. All of the folks on the "bench Delhomme Bandwagon" over the past 3 seasons are feeling vindicated tonight, because they get to say I told you so (which is sh!tty on their parts) for the next several months and get to run their mouths about how awful he was in this 1 game.
But, let me say this about Jake Delhomme. He'll agree with you and he will shoulder the blame for this loss. He won't call out a defense that had one guy to cover, Fitzgerald, and couldn't. He won't call out the coaches for abandoning what got them to where they were (balanced rushing and passing attack). No. Jake Delhomme will shoulder all of the blame because that is the type of guy he is. He's the first to take the blame and the last to take any of the credit.
If by chance this game cost him his job in Carolina, it's going to be a shame. After all he's done for this franchise (helped lead them to 2 NFC Championship Games, 2 NFC South titles, damn near winning SB 38, and a 5-3 Playoff record), if my last memory of Jake Delhomme as Carolina's starting QB is a 6 turnover performance and a 33-13 loss, it's going to be a shame. A damn shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment