Jake Delhomme looked good handing the ball off on Saturday night. He may get another shot at proving his surgically-repaired arm is better when the Panthers face the Eagles Thursday.
CHARLOTTE -- The Carolina Panthers defeated the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night, and though it was only a preseason game, News 14 Carolina’s Mike Solarte said there are a few things to learn from the victory.
•Nice work by the first team defense. Two takeaways that led to points. While it's hard to get excited about the Indy offense minus Peyton Manning, it is nice to see a starting unit that was without Damione Lewis, Jon Beason, Chris Harris and Ken Lucas (did I miss anyone?) perform the way they did. Nice work by Adam Seward as well (who has earned the unofficial nickname "Shogun" by one of the beat writers, because of his long hair and beard).
News 14's Mike Solarte writes about the Carolina Panthers' first preseason game and recent golf events on the Sports Blog.
•Nice work by the first team offense, but I temper that by saying they only had to gain 39 yards in their two series. Not their fault. Just saying we didn't get to see much of them, save for Jake Delhomme knows which way to turn to hand the ball off. DeAngelo Williams and the offensive line were quite good. I temper that by reminding all that Bob Sanders and Dwight Freeney did not play for Indy, still, that's a big chunk of the Indy starting defense. Reason to be excited there.
•Special teams are still a sore spot. Rhys Lloyd is making it hard for the Panthers to think about cutting him. Got a text message during the game asking if it was legal for the kicker to boot the ball into (or even through) the end zone. It was sarcastic, of course, because the Panthers have lagged behind the NFL in the touchback category. Lloyd could change all that, but to keep three kickers, they have to be down a player at another spot. It's a tough numbers game, and if you recall my post last week, I had 55 players in mind--the roster size is 53. The Panther coverage units seemed to struggle when Indy actually COULD run back a kick. I'm gonna dive into those numbers a little later today.