At the half way stage of the season, it is only natural to
look back and what has happened before, and to look at what may be to
come. There are three unbeaten teams
left, and three teams who seem to be dominating the column inches, and only one
of those crossover between the two.
It is no surprise that New
England in their great Brady Revenge
Tour would be unbeaten so far, the media have been racking up the stories
about the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers, and what was wrong
with Peyton Manning and how the hell
did the Broncos hold Aaron Rodgers
to 77 yards passing. Meanwhile, Cincinnati Bengals and Carolina Panthers are sitting there
undefeated, and both seemingly still underrated.
The Bengals with AJ
Green and Jeremy Hill, and that
defence perhaps not as big a surprise, but the form of Andy Dalton certainly has been a surprise, could it all be down to
the secret hair care product he refuses to identify. But in terms of this piece I want to pay
particular focus to Carolina.
The NFC South was the worst division in football last season,
and we all know of course that Carolina won it last season with a losing
record. Think of Carolina and you think of
Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly and of
course Cam Newton. To be fair to the
Panthers they had certainly hit some form at the end of last season, but to
carry that on to this year, who was ready for that.
DeAngelo
Williams moved on to Pittsburgh
in the offseason and then star wideout Kelvin
Benjamin suffered the injury curse and was lost for the year in
preseason. When that happened most
experts basically wrote off their season.
However, that doesn`t allow for Cam to be Cam. Yes he is doing this with Tight End Greg Olsen as his premier option with
rookie Devon Fuchness and Ted Ginn jnr as other receiving
options, but Cam is not just beating you with his arm, although he has now
proven he can.
Newton has had several opportunities to bust out the Superman
pose this year and Jonathan Stewart
has remained healthy at Running Back, giving the Panthers an identity to hang
their hats on. Obviously the defence is
keeping them in games anyway and Cam has got enough to find enough points to
get the job done.
They have won these games in every way you can too, late
comebacks against the Seahawks,
front running against the Packers,
and the Panthers have suddenly found themselves unbeaten and with a 2 game lead
in the race for the number one seed in the NFC.
For a team that should be going nowhere, those experts from preseason
are now suddenly very quiet.
If the formbook plays out we are looking at a Panthers v Patriots / Bengals Super Bowl, if this was to occur
whichever AFC team makes it out that conference that would be a great matchup.
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