Thursday, December 11, 2008

A Thank You and Panthers

As I kickoff this blog entry, I wanted to take a moment to say a heart-felt thank you to all the high school football coaches, players, and fans that helped make the Discount Tire Friday night Final such a rousing success this season. Coaches and players were fantastic to work with throughout the season, fans were great mugging for cameras, and more importantly, calling in those final scores--even if it was your team on the wrong end of the score.

The most thanks, however, goes to our tremendous photographers. Our camera folks were out in the trenches week in and week out, bringing some top shelf video back for the viewers to see, and sometimes doing it against rather tight deadlines. My deepest gratitude to each one of you. It is an honor to work alongside you.

I pass out these thank yous in the hopes that you, the viewer, will check out the culmination of this long high school football season, this Sunday when Jack Britt meets Richmond Sr. at 3pm--a game you can see live on News 14 Carolina. I will be calling the action with Adam Gold providing analysis, and Jim Connors working the field level during the broadcast. All 8 title games will be available on Carolina On Demand (channel 1234) in the early portion of next week, so keep an eye out if your team plays for the ring this weekend. Good luck to all!

Now that the mushy stuff is behind us--the Carolina Panthers will try to wrap up a perfect home schedule Sunday when they host the Denver Broncos. Carolina still has everything to play for, and that should worry the Broncos. Sure, Denver is in first place in the AFC West, but I have to tell you, that is the same as being valedictorian of summer school, or the all-time home run leader in minor league baseball. Denver has a tremendous offense. Jay Cutler has some wonderful receivers to throw to. They have played 5 of their 6 divisional games this season. Why is that significant? The highest ranked defense from the AFC West comes from the San Diego Chargers--and they rank 25th overall. That's the BEST AFC West defense. Basically, Cutler has picked on JV kids in the division.

Here is the REAL reason the Panthers need to be wary of Denver. The Broncos are 3-0 against the NFC South. Yep-they have wins over Atlanta, New Orleans and Tampa Bay. Truth be told, only one of those games was a road game for Denver (that was in Atlanta). Still, the NFC South has NO TEAMS at 500 or worse. 3-0 against ATL, NO, and TB is an accomplishment, no matter how you slice it.

Why the Panthers will win:

"Razzle & Dazzle." Yep, the new moniker given the Panthers running back tandem of DeAngelo Williams (Razzle) and Jonathan Stewart (Dazzle), should have a big day against the Broncos. Denver is horrific defensively, and again, they haven't played any real competition save for the NFC South and the New York Jets. The Panthers rushing attack is a well-oiled machine these days, and I look for that to continue Sunday.

By the way, "Razzle & Dazzle" was passed to the RB's by receiver Steve Smith. Apparently, Tennessee runners LenDale White and Chris Johnson had already claimed (and trademarked) "Smash and Dash," something that had been used on the Panther duo. Smith delivered the "breaking news" to the media on Wednesday, in a very light-hearted interview session. Call Stewart and Williams what you will--the two are friends on and off the field, and a situation that had the potential to be a negative, has been turned into a huge positive for these two. The Panthers are the ones that benefit.

Defensively, the Panthers have got to tighten things up, notably in the secondary. Earlier in the season, Head Coach John Fox made a comment when his DB's were dropping interception chances, that he would "rather been known as ricochet than toast." Well, "toast" is beginning to be more than something served at breakfast. The Panthers are giving up way too many yards through the air, something that doesn't bode well for them against the pass-happy Broncs. Ken Lucas has been taking a beating over the past few days on message boards and the like, but it's the collective unit of the secondary. Corners and safeties combined. The front 7 has been quite good, recording sacks, and bottling up the run (the rush numbers have been better over the past few games). Still, the Panther defense has been better, and they need to find that stride entering their final 3 games--all 3 are huge for them if they want to road to the Super Bowl to roll through Charlotte.

-A quick note on the Bobcats deal of Jared Dudley and Jason Richardson to Phoenix for Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Sean Singletary. It's hard for me to question the strength of this deal--basically because a guy like Larry Brown has forgotten more about basketball than I will ever know, but as an outsider, this deal looks bad. Giving up Richardson, the teams only bonafide scorer, and a high motor player like Dudley for a pair of lower scoring, but better defensive players, and a rookie just doesn't make sense. I wish Richardson and Dudley well in the desert. They were always 2 class guys in the locker room, never shied away from interviews, and were generally fun guys to talk to. How this trade helps them--well, they go to a team that can be a factor in the West. I'm still trying to see the benefit of this one to the Bobcats, but time will tell, I suppose.

Mike Solarte

6 comments:

raidermagic said...

A GREAT BIG CONGRATS GOES OUT TO THE RICHMOND RAIDERS FOR THEIR WIN OVER JACK BRITT IN THE NCHSAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SUNDAY. ALSO THANKS TO TWC AND NEWS 14 FOR SHOWING THE GAME. TWO THUMBS DOWN TO SOLARTE AND GOLD FOR THEIR BIASED COVERAGE FOR BRITT. MAYBE NEXT YEAR YOU CAN GET UNBIASED COMMENTATORS.

Anonymous said...

Fox will choke again. Will lose first playoff game.

Mike Solarte said...

raidermagic,

You're kidding, right?

Seriously.

I would love to openly debate you on this, because that accusation is beyond ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Fox's locker room is falling apart, stand by for breking news.

raidermagic said...

watch the replay of the game solarte

Mike Solarte said...

I don't have to. Perhaps you should.