Thursday, August 14, 2008

Pre-season game #2

Before I begin, check out Tim Baier's initial post to the blog from the Wyndham Championship. Good stuff in it. Go ahead, I'll wait until you're done.

OK, thanks for scrolling back up.

It's hard to put a gauge on tonight's Panthers-Eagles game considering a couple things. Carolina will be without loads of starters (Steve Smith, Ken Lucas, Chris Gamble, Chris Harris just to name a few), so judging the first teams on offense and defense will be difficult. Special teams may be a little easier, but I won't go out on that limb. Basically, the Panthers are banged up in spots, so a short week to get ready for Philly wasn't a good thing.

The Panthers will, however, get a long look at receiver Jason Carter, a guy that caught my eye on day one of camp, and has been turning heads ever since. Smith, Dwayne Jarrett, D.J. Hackett, and Ryne Robinson won't play tonight. That leaves a lot of reps for guys like Carter, and Travis Taylor to make an impression. No, I'm not forgetting Muhsin Muhammad--he has a job.

We should see Jake Delhomme have a few more throws tonight than he had Saturday against Indianapolis. The starters will play into the 2nd quarter, according to Head Coach John Fox. How deep into that 2nd quarter remains to be seen. In the past, they have played the entire first half, so we'll see.

I'm going to attempt keeping a running game blog going up until about 9:45pm, and then jump back on after Sports Night, so if you feel like chatting at me during the game, come on by!

Elsewhere, the Wyndham Championship began in Greensboro this morning. I like the field there this year. Generally, there hasn't been a great contingent on hand for this PGA Tour stop, but the Fed Ex Cup points count the same at the Wyndham as they do everywhere else, so players needing some points are in the house--Vijay Singh, Zach Johnson, defending champ Brandt Snedeker, and Davis Love III, just to name a few. Should be a great tourney on the Donald Ross reclamation (Tim and architect Kris Spence showed us each hole--you can see them all at news14.com).

Michael Phelps did not win gold on Wednesday--but he didn't race for gold either. That was about as exciting as the Olympics got for me, although watching men's water polo (the US lost to Serbia 4-2) was kinda fun. What a brutal game. Big guys, thrashing, grabbing, and basically trying to drown each other, while playing soccer with their hands. Gotta have some guts to play that one.

Hope to see you back later during the Panthers and Eagles!

Mike Solarte

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

RAIN DELAY IN FOOTBALL???? HUH?