Unbelievably, for the second straight week every game whose outcome affected the Carolina Panthers ended in Carolina's favor (except of course for the one they directly participated in).
Update: Of course, Atlanta won't be doing the Panthers any favors against New Orleans, but if Carolina beats them it doesn't matter.
First, a recap of yesterday's game now that I have had 23 hours to calm down. I just really don't know what to say. It's as if the Falcon's made a deal years ago when the Charlotte franchise was born that we could have an NFL team in exchange for some Southern-Fried hex over it. This goes back to the team's very first game when the Panthers had a holding penalty that convinced them not to go for the two point conversion and the win with no time left on the clock in a game they eventually lost in overtime. Fast forward to last year, where in Vick's grand return he sets the QB rushing record and the Panthers lose due to a bad interception by Delhomme in overtime. What happens this year? A not-quite-as-bad interception by Delhomme in OT leads to another defeat. This game really stung me since it is the first close game of any consequence that the Panthers have lost where I got to watch it comfortably (I watched the Super Bowl last year in FL in a not-so-comfortable situation). None of the games this year which the Panthers have loss have been of any great consequence at the time and they have only been close in terms of “if they hadn't turned the ball over twice they would have won” variety.
There are plenty of excuses to explain this loss. The Panthers have yet to beat Vick and especially in this game that was due in large part to the “Vick Rules” (football's answer to the Jordan Rules). The NFL's advertised superstar seriously gets every call imaginable. Blatant holding not called, insane hit out-of-bound penalties, and a date for me to punch Jim Mora Jr. in the mouth if I ever see him over lies he told at half-time about imaginary face mask infractions against Vick. My only solace is that one day Julius Peppers will end Vick's career – and believe me I truly do hate wishing another athlete harm, but I have seen it in my crystal ball. Though I do give Vick some credit, despite being the worst passing quarterback in the league, he did win the game due almost entirely to the ability to take a licking. After some of the hits he took near the end of the game where he wobbled to the sideline, I think everyone thought he couldn't walk 11 yards, yet alone dive into the end zone to win the game by an inch. I would love to know if the Panthers had declined the penalty on 3rd down and goal to let them have 4th and inches instead of pushing them back to the 11 what they would have done. They couldn't have ran it up the gut and they couldn't have passed it in, so would a sprint by Vick to the corner have worked? Plus, even if they did score, would the Panthers had put up a better last gasp drive for a field goal with some more time on the clock?
Announcers are idiots. Before the games today, they were all saying that the Panthers had ruined their season by losing this game, yet at the end of the day the Panthers are still in the same position they where when the weekend started, the last wild card team in. With the way things are going the Panthers may only have to win one more game to make it. They still don't control their own fate because of the dreaded St. Louis – Seattle tied with them scenario, but St. Louis doesn't look like it will win another game and the chances of them winning one are probably as good as Seattle beating Arizona or Atlanta. Though I hate to think of the Panthers losing either one of their remaining games (much like how I wouldn't consider the possiblity of them losing to the Falcons), I'll probably explicitly list all the scenarios later in the week. Nevertheless, things are not looking too bad for the Panthers.
Google Suggest has to be one of the coolest things I've seen in quite a while. It works perfectly in Safari, IE6, and FireFox, which is a pretty good feat considering that it's implemented in just plain old javascript and HTML.
About a month ago, the odds were pretty good that no team from the Queen City would be making the playoffs, but the times they are a changin' in Charlotte.
First, while it is the ultimate pipe-dream, the Bobcat's playoff hopes after a 1/5 of the season have not yet circled the bowl. Yes, they have yet to win a game on the road. Yes, though they tend to get double digit leads in most games, teams are quite disrespectful after making their harried comebacks to victory (I'm looking at you, Clippers and Cavs). However, at the moment they are only 2 1/2 games out of the playoff race because the teams in the East are really, really horrible. If the 8th seed was playing .500 ball, the Cats would be 4 games out, but at 4 - 12 they are within striking distance of the 7-10 Celtics. It's truly unfortunate that 8 teams from the East will be making the playoffs.
Second, it might be unfortunate that the "experts" are picking them now, but after being 1-7 (and there was a point in the second half of the 49ers game when I was actually contemplating rooting for them to lose to get better draft picks), the Panthers are somewhat primed for a playoff spot. This has allowed me to continue my tradition of examining all playoff scenarios for the Panthers since their inception (yes, in their 1-15 year I was calculating how many of their agonizing losses had to be reversed for them to have made the playoffs). This actually is the reason behind me writing this article at this point because I was under the impression that they "controlled their destiny" (aka, if they won out they would make the playoffs). However, this actually is not the case due to one of the several losses that will probably haunt them at the end of the year. The loss that could prove most costly is the one to the Seahawks. Even if the Panthers were to beat the Rams and everybody else, the Rams and Seahawks could wind up tied with the Panthers at the end of the year. The Rams would win the division and the Seahawks would get the wild card in that case. Unfortunately, the Panthers don't even have any decent 3 or more way ties to hope for since the only teams they played in the NFC outside of the West should win their divisions (Packers, Eagles) and not tie for a wild card. Thus it is hard to determine what a Panther fan should root for, at least in terms of realism, the Seahawks winning out or losing two more games than the Panthers (remaining schedule: @Vikings, @Jets, Arizona, Atlanta ). The latter seems more realistic since they should easily lose 3 of these games, but judgment will be reserved for Monday. Unfortunately, it will be at least 2 more weeks before the Panthers can truly control their destiny, so all a fan can root for at this point is to "just win, baby".
I guess with Xmas coming up this is the time of year for gadgets and other electronic novelties.
First, I've been horribly unimpressed with the Uniden TRU8885-2 - everyone complains about the sound on the other end and for the price it just seems to lack features and customizability I am accustomed to from cellphones. Well, it looks like they have at least come out with a more cellphone-ish system, they even threw bluetooth in!
Speaking about bluetooth, until they come out with bluetooth headphones that work with more than an iPaq, I'm looking for a new set of (inexpensive) headphones like these, but with a longer cord (1 meter? My current beat-up set has to be at least 6 feet) and hopefully with a better coiling mechanism than the cheap windups I always see.
The above headphones were mentioned in the ars technica gift guide, which was well written but didn't have too many things I was really interested in, except, of course, for the minibosses' album of classic video game jingle remakes (ok, not so much I'm interested in it as my generation).
If there is one thing Howard Stern can do, it's cause controversy without trying. As discussed on PTI and written throughout the Internet, Anna Benson made some comments about her mode of retaliation if her husband Kris ever cheated on her (I wish I could find the whole transcript) (btw, this is Anna's site, not to be confused with this one). (Here is another story/article regarding her.) If only something about her face didn't seem really off....
Update: Might as well link to Howard Stern's summary of the show. I wonder if it'll play on E!.
Update Update: Apparently, everything can be found in torrent form. The Red Skunk Tracker has all things Howard, including high and low quality versions of the show in question.
Downdate: To finish off this non-story, I forced myself to listen to the interview (went the way of a typical Stern interview with his mix of intelligent and titillating questions and her volunteering too much information). For the finale, she is the mother of 3 and with her husband runs the charity Benson's Batallion. Please, give generously.
Last Update, Please! : For those of you who need a video representation of this episode, the afore mentioned site has provided.
damn, that show is well-done. I hope they make a behind-the-scenes director's DVD.
(As I discovered today, I can find out from TV Shows on DVD . com about when it comes out)