Close wins cause for concern?
http://blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/2008/11/close-wins-caus.html
A few 9 a.m. Monday thoughts following Carolina's 31-22 win over Detroit:
The easy part of the Panthers' schedule is over and they got past the back-to-back Oakland-Detroit matchups with two wins to improve to 8-2. But is there reason to be concerned that they didn't dominate either game?
Not really.
They got the two wins they needed to to pad their record and they managed to do it without their optimum performance. That's actually the sign of a good team.
The NFL's 16-game season is long. The Panthers will need lots of focus and energy to make it through their final six games. Every game will be against a playoff contender.
There's lots of work ahead, but the Panthers have put themselves in position to have a special season. One way to think about it is even if they split their final six games, they'd finish 11-5. That would be the second-best record in franchise history.
One of the most important things about how the season has gone so far is that they Panthers are healthy. As long as that remains constant, they'll have a chance to make a deep run into the playoffs.
-- Charles Chandler
Calendar
