Tag: Carolina Panthers

Kassie’s NFL ReKap!!

On By kassienetteIn 49ers, Football, NFL, Panthers, SportsLeave a comment

I owe my friend Earl Crawford an apology. During a Twitter exchange yesterday, I made the statement that “the O(Carolina Panthers) looked about the same. D looked niiiice.” My exact words. Earl’s response, ” I don’t understand….yr 1 O was on fire .. running up and down the field .. yr 3 we struggling…” Now in my defense, I was late getting home from church and I had to make a run during the game for pizza and breadsticks so I did not get to watch the whole game. It was not until I took a good look at the box score that I truly understood where Earl was coming from. My bad Earl. You were absolutely right. Yesterday’s offense was dismal. Quarterback Cam Newton completed 16 of 23 passes for 125 yards and one touchdown. Huh? Wait. What? Third year QB Newton ONLY had 125 yards? I need that to be a typo. Unfortunately, it is not. Newton did do a good job of spreading the ball around to multiple receivers, completing passes to five different players. However, that is just not enough. Now in his defense, this dismal offense was crippled by some dismal, conservative play calling. It was apparent that in order to beat the Seahawks, the Panthers were going to need a balanced attack. Surprisingly, the numbers say this is exactly what happened. 23 passing plays to 26 rushing plays. Well plays that netted yardage. So something is terribly wrong here. I saw too many dropped passes. I saw too many fumbles. And while I try not to “armchair coach,” I saw too many questionable play calls.

In year three of the Cam Newton offense, there should definitely be improvement from last year. The offensive line looked better. Newton seemed to be more patient in the pocket. And Steve Smith is still the fiery, ball snatching firecracker that he has been for the past 13 years. I agree with Newton and Smith when they say ” Everybody, let’s not panic now” but hey, something has got to give or somebody is going to be giving up a job soon.

Switching gears and speaking of giving, how about we give Seahawks QB Russell Wilson a round of applause. *insert applause* What sophomore slump? Wilson finished the day 25 of 33 for 320 yards and one touchdown. Things started out a little rough for Russell as he was under constant pressure from the Panthers front seven. However, once he got settled in, he managed the game like only he can. Scrambling when he needed to. Dropping back when necessary. Making throws on the run including a beautiful pass receiver Doug Baldwin. And of course, completing a beautiful game winning drive that culminated in a 43 yard touchdown pass to receiver Jermaine Kearse in the fourth quarter. That is just Russell being Russell. The other 31 teams better get used to it.

Switch.

All summer I have been hyping myself up, it did not take much, for opening  Sunday. My San Francisco 49ers vs the Green Bay Packers. A rematch of last year’s NFC Divisional playoff game. You know the game where 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick rushed for 181 yards. Yeah, that game.  Well all summer we heard about how the Packers were making adjustments so that they receive a repeat dose of what happened in January. Well, so much for that. Apparently the Packers thought Kaepernick could only beat them with his legs. Wrong. The arm proved to be just as lethal as Kaepernick lit up the Packers defense for 412 yards on 27 of 39 passes and three touchdowns. Huh? Wait. What? Looks like the Packers may need to go back to the drawing board once again. Ok, ok. Enough trash talk. For as much as I loved the way my 9ers looked yesterday, I am still extremely frustrated with our secondary. Too many missed tackles. Too many blow coverages. Too many missed assignments. Yesterday was essentially a shootout and it came down to which defense could hold. Thankfully, my 9ers defensive unit has been together for years and knows how to step up at just the right time. If it was not for that front seven then we might have had a different outcome. Fellow football fans have been telling me to calm down because Rodgers is a great QB who is going to torch secondaries constantly. Yeah, I know. However, I need to see some improvement out of our secondary and I am not seeing it. Remember, I was watching the 9ers when no one else was so that telling me that they are doing a good job will not work over here. If we are to, indeed, get ring number six then the secondary will have to step up in a major way. Teams will be looking to exploit that weakness. Now if everyone can get on the same page and play like rookie safety Eric Reid then it is curtains for everybody else! Bang! Bang! #NinerGang

Switch. My thoughts.

Speaking of curtains, the Pittsburgh Steel curtain may be closing. My goodness. They looked awful yesterday. So did those Jacksonville Jaguars. Sheesh.

Yeah Larry Fitzgerald! Snagged two touchdowns yesterday. Still top five in the WR department.

The New York Jets, with the assistance of a late hit penalty, won their opener. Yeah, I have seen this Lifetime movie before.

Speaking of Lifetime movies, the Dallas Cowboys one began last night with a win as well. We all know how this will play out. Maybe they will fool me. Eh, doubt it.

The New England Patriots needed late game heroics to beat the Buffalo Bills. I am not sure how to even interpret that. Any Given Sunday, I guess. Well almost.

The Chicago Bears beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Barely. That is a moot point though. As long as I get to sing “Bear Down.”

Miami beat the Browns, convincingly. However, they were not very impressive. Gotta love those Fins.

There was a Reggie Bush sighting in Detroit as the Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings. Bush racked up 191 yards of total offense and one touchdown. He has not produced that much offense since USC. Ok, Maybe he has but none of you would be surprised if I was right.  Adrian Peterson was sighted too.  Ran straight to paydirt on his first carry. From 78 yards away. Really dude?

Andrew Luck’s Colts allllllmost lost to the Oakland Raiders. Heard the Raiders looked good though.

And lastly, the New Orleans Saints worked that voodoo magic on the Atlanta Falcons, who were not able to #RiseUp for the occasion. Better luck next time birds.

Number 18, Ya’ll

On By kassienetteIn 49ers, Football, NFL, Panthers, Sports3 Comments
{Source: ESPN.com}
{Source: ESPN.com}

After last night’s/this morning’s game, I bet no wonder is wondering why I chose the Denver Broncos to represent the AFC in the Superbowl. Two words: PEYTON MANNING. Unless you have been living under a rock then you know Manning is my absolute favorite player. I have been a fan of his since his days at the University of Tennessee. Other than watching my 9ers or Panthers play, there is no one I would rather watch on opening night than #18. The man is a legend and he did what legends do, they deliver.

Any questions people still had about Manning’s arm were put to rest tonight. The stats read 462 passing yards and seven, yes SEVEN, touchdowns . Talk about making a statement. The precision in which Manning carves up defenses is a thing of beauty.  I could go on and on but I will not. I will save some for the rest of the season.

P.S. This is the first year I did not get to draft Manning as my fantasy league QB. Someone had the nerve to draft him before me, IN MY LEAGUE. Do not get me started.

P.S.2. Make sure you check out my game’s of the week….49ers vs. Packers and Panthers vs Seahawks,

Until next time…TOODELLS!!!

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

On By kassienetteIn 49ers, Football, NFL, Panthers, SportsLeave a comment

YES! YES! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE IS BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!! Excuse me while my peeps and I celebrate…

 

{Source: Google}
{Source: Google}

 

{Source: Google Images}
{Source: Google}

 

[Source: Google}
[Source: Google}

 

{Source: Google}
{Source: Google}
{Source: Google}
{Source: Google}

 

As far as predictions go, I have my 9ERS and the Broncos in the Super Bowl. This year I will finally be able to call us the SAN FRANSIXCO 49ERS!!!!!!

faithful
{Source: Google Images}

 

Still loving my PANTHERS too…

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{Source: Google Images}

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost Jerry. Alllllllmost…..

On By kassienetteIn Football, NFL, Panthers, Sports, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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October 26, 1993. I still remember the breaking news from the sporting world that day. It was the day the Carolina Panthers were born and it was also the day I became a fan. In case you missed the memo, yes I am a 9ers and a Panthers fan regardless of what you say. You still can not question my fanhood!!! On this same day, I watched Jerry Richardson, owner of the Panthers, guarantee that the team would win a SuperBowl within their first 10 years of existence.

Fast forward to February 1, 2004, nine years after the Panthers first season(the Panthers started playing in 1995), SuperBowl XXXVIII(38). The Carolina Panthers vs. the New England Patriots. Could my Panthers really keep Jerry’s promise? After the way things had unfolded for my Panthers in the playoffs, anything was possible.

My Panthers easily dismissed the Dallas Cowboys in the first round to advance to a divisional playoff meeting with the St. Louis Rams. My Panthers were leading by 11 with three minutes to go when the improbable happened. The Rams tied the game!! In what will go down as one of the most exciting games I have ever watched, my Panthers managed to get the job done on the first play of the second overtime. QB Jake Delhomme hit WR Steve Smith in stride, the middle of the field for a 69 yard TD to send my Panthers to the NFC Championship. The clip of Delhomme celebrating that TD will never get old. Classic Jake :-}.

Next up was the opponent that stood between my Panthers and the SuperBowl, the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles would play without their workhorse RB, Brian Westbrook and would later lose QB Donovan McNabb during the game due to an injury. My Panthers won 14-3 to advance to the big game.

Besides the fact that my team was playing in the game, one of the main reasons that this game stands out is because I was in Charlotte to watch the game. A friend was invited down by another friend and my friend invited me to come as well. Keep in mind that I lived a little over two hours from Charlotte and I had to be at work at 8:30 the next morning but of course that was not going to stop me from going to Charlotte for the anticipated celebration. We ate. We laughed. We cheered. We covered our eyes when Janet played peek-a-boo. And with about three minutes to go and the game tied, we began to prepare for the trip to downtown Charlotte to celebrate Jerry’s promise. We had full confidence in our team. Then former Patriot Adam Vinatieri happened. With four seconds left, he shattered the dreams of Jerry and millions of Panthers fans along the East Coast with a swift kick that sent the ball through the uprights and sent the New England Patriots home with the Lombardi Trophy.

As I drove home that night, well morning, I began to laugh because I could only imagine what time I would have been leaving Charlotte if we had won. I wondered what I would have told my supervisor when he would have caught me sleeping at my desk. I decided I would have told him the truth. He knew I was a die hard and he was a great sport when he lost our bet during the NFC Championship game(he was an Eagles fan). If we had won, I surely would not have been productive that day but it would have been well worth it!!!

The Kansas City Wake-Up Call…

On By kassienetteIn Football, NFL, Panthers2 Comments

The news that came out of Kansas City Saturday morning shook me to my core.

At first the news was very vague. Kansas City player commits suicide. My stomach churned when I read it. As the hours passed, the news got worse. The player shot and killed his girlfriend that morning. Stomach churned. The player committed suicide at the team facility. Stomach churned. The player committed suicide in front of his head coach and the general manager. Stomach churned hard. The player thanked his coach and general manager for all they had done for him before he committed suicide. Stomach churned hard, again. As a result of the player’s actions, a three month old girl is now an orphan. Tears fell.

The story read like something out of Hollywood. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy and girl have baby. Boy and girl lives end tragically. Only this was happening in real life and real lives have been impacted forever, including mine. Sounds kind of crazy, right? It was hard to escape the news of the story on Saturday. It was all over the internet and tv. Family and friends were talking about it. Strangers were talking about it. While no one could seem to grasp what happened, everyone seemed to be asking the same question: why?

Why would a 25 year old NFL player commit such a heinous act? Why would he leave his child in this world with no parent to raise her? Why would he commit suicide in front of his coach? Why? Why? Why? Unfortunately, the why’s will probably never get answered. We will probably never know why the player decided on Saturday morning that life was no longer worth living. As I have skimmed the internet over the past 48 hours, I have seen plenty of comments calling the player a punk, a coward and a murderer, the latter which is true. While the situation is beyond my understanding, I have been compelled to experience sympathy for the player who had a lot of life to live. From what has been reported by the people who knew him, he was confident, happy, quiet and a true gentleman. Many have expressed that they saw no signs that the player was troubled or suicidal. The irony lies in the fact that before the player went into that place that those who knew him had not seen, he was true to his known character, thanking his coach and GM for what they had done.

If you really sit and think about it, you may be compelled to sympathize the way I have. The player had to truly be in a deep, dark hole to not even see a glimmer of hope. A hole so deep that at that point in time, his daughter, whom by all accounts was the love of his life, was not even worth living for anymore. The thought of a hole that deep leaves a lump in my throat. Can you imagine being in a hole like that? It makes my heart ache. I have wondered if this was a result of something in his past that has scarred him. I have wondered if he felt he could not talk to anyone about what he was experiencing. I have wondered if he felt that as a man he could not express how he was feeling. Often I hear men say that they are taught that they have to be strong and not show a lot of emotion. Well, I think that is silly. Showing emotion does not make you any less of a man. In my opinion, NOT being able to show emotion makes you a weaker man. There is nothing wrong with a man crying., There is nothing wrong with a man admitting he is struggling with a particular situation. There is nothing wrong with a man asking for help. NOTHING. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

We live in a world where everyone is suppose to be strong. No one is suppose to hurt. We live in a world where we are so caught up in ourselves that we do not make time for the people who are important to us. We think they will always be here. We live in a world where we are too busy to pick up the phone and have a conversation. We have time for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram though. We live in a world where if we do not understand a situation, we like to make assumptions and jump to conclusions. We rarely take the time to truly assess the situation. This is the kind of world that squeezes people and leaves them feeling like there is no hope. This is the kind of world that leaves people feeling helpless. This is the kind of world that leaves people feeling like the only way it will get better is if they are not here. That is the kind of world that we live in but there is another side of the world that shows its face. This world is a good place with good people with good intentions.

Remember when I said earlier that this situation impacted my life? I am a very strong, independent woman. Just ask my mama. Or my aunt. Or my cousins. Or my best friends. I do not like to ask for help. I do not like to talk a lot about issues or situations that are bothering me. I do not like for people to see me cry. I know there is nothing wrong with being vulnerable but I do not like it. It is human nature to be that way but that does not mean it is right. We all play a role in this world and a couple of years ago I learned my role. Upon the revelation, I vowed to become more open about things that are going on and to not be ashamed of trials I have had to endure on the way to my destiny. However, this situation made me realize that I have a lot more growing to do. I will never be an open book to the public. Wait, let me refrain from saying never. I do not know if I will ever be an open book to the public but I have renewed that vow I made to myself years ago. I owe it to myself and those who love me. So do you.

The deaths of Kasandra Perkins and Jovan Belcher should be a wake up call for us all. A call to talk. A call to reach out. A call to love. A call to share. A call to care. A call to love. A call to action. Lets all do our part to answer the ringing that we hear. Someone’s life could be on the line.

A DIFFERENT kind of concern for Cam…

On By kassienetteIn Controversy, Football, NFL, Panthers3 Comments

Late Sunday night, I was heavily involved in my typical routine, glued to SportsCenter when a presser(press conference for those of you who are not hip to the media terms) came on. It was of Cam Newton after their loss to the Cowboys. I immediately stopped what I was doing because I wanted to see how Newton would handle this presser. When it was over I was, once again, left with a feeling of concern as I watched Newton sulk while he discussed what went wrong earlier on the field. You know that PR major in me was eyes wide open thinking, “if only I could get a hold of him…”

Cam Newton does not like to lose. I am not sure I have met a person who does. I know I do not like it! Ever seen me after I lose in Connect Four? Not always a pleasant sight. Who really enjoys losing? The winner? In a reverse psychology warped kind of way, I guess a winner could take pleasure in another’s loss but that person won so….you get my point. A true competitor wants to compete at the highest level when it is showtime. A true competitor wants to win every time, so it is not a concern of mine that Cam Newton is not happy about losing. What I am concerned about is the way he handles losing, publicly. When I watch Cam Newton’s pressers I see a young man consumed with the guilt and agony of losing. I see a young man who has rarely experienced losses on the football field struggling to grasp the reality of what many of his fellow colleagues have already experienced. I see a young man who wants to win, knows how to win but has not figured out how to make that happen on a consistent basis.

Apparently what I see and what other journalists see is totally different. For weeks, I have heard journalists, commentators and the Couch QB’s bash Cam Newton for what he has and has not done. I refuse to be on one of those people. Some journalists are quick to turn on you when things are not going well.  I think they have forgotten Peyton Manning went 3-13 and 6-10 in his first two seasons. I digress. Let me get back on track.   These same journalists and commentators who were singing soprano praises for Cam Newton last year are now saying that something is wrong with him and I even heard one say he is starting to believe he may never see the Cam Newton we saw last year, again. *raises hand* Wait, are we talking about last year’s NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year? Are we talking about the NFL record holder for most passing yards EVER by a rookie? Are we talking about the NFL single season record holder for most rushing TD’s EVER by a QB in a season? Are we talking about the former Auburn QB who led the Tigers to an undefeated season, a national championship and scooped up the Heisman Trophy along the way? Are we talking about the former Blinn College QB who led them to the NJCAA Championship in 2009? That guy? That is who we are talking about? You have got to be kidding me. The same abilities and talents that propelled him to do these things are still there. Did you see him shaking and baking the Cowboys on Sunday? Did you see him threading tight spirals to Brandon LaFell in the middle of the field? If you did then there is no way you would be questioning if he still has “it.” Somebody has been sniffing too many Sharpies.

His abilities should never be in question but I can admit when something is off. What we should be concerned with is his state of mind. From the outside looking in, one has to wonder what type of mental and emotional support the Panthers are providing for their franchise QB. Remember, this is a 23 year old man we are talking about. At 23 years old, a lot of men and women struggle as thy search for their identity and purpose in this world. Add an international spotlight to the mix and you have a recipe for a potential disaster, if the right pieces are not in place.

Maybe he has someone in his life who not only tells him it is ok to be disappointed in losing but sets an example for him to follow. Maybe he has someone to tell him that his body language and non-verbal cues during pressers have a major impact on how the public views him. Maybe he has someone to tell that he needs to be mindful of his brand at all times. It is hard to build your brand back up once the foundation has been shaken. Maybe he has someone to tell him that as QB, you are expected to eventually be the leader of the team, no matter how young you are. Maybe has has someone to tell him that “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Maybe has has someone to tell him these things. Maybe he does not. Hopefully he does and if he does not, I hope someone comes along quick who is truly concerned about him as a whole. Maybe I need to take a trip down 85…..

Until next time…TOODELLS.