Steve Smith among heartsick Panthers that want change
Written by Adrian Gregory Glover // October 29, 2012 // Carolina Panthers, NFL // No comments
The Carolina Panthers are on the fast track to becoming hopeless. Carolina has something of a dynamic foundation to build upon.
None of that matters when, a team loses faith in its direction and its collective will to win.
“It’s getting old, “veteran receiver Steve Smith told the Charlotte Observer. “There is a tradition growing here and I’m not sure which way this tradition is going.”
“Not heartbreaking,” Smith said. “Tiresome, monotonous, a few guys in here are perturbed and (ticked), but we’re beyond heartbreak. We’re just getting upset.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Panthers cornerback Josh Norman said. “We just get our hearts ripped out every week.”
Let’s go ahead and say that the elephant in the room of the team’s poor coaching is about to be exposed front-and-center as the players have begun to publicly take shots at the staff.
And they should. The Chicago Bears beat the Panthers on Sunday by pretty much walking down the field to kick a game-winning field goal as the Panthers appeared to go limp defensively.
“They threw the same pass play I think all the way down the field. … That was a great play for that coverage and they just ran that play all the way down the field,” safety Charles Godfrey said. “And the coverage we were in, we just stayed in that coverage.”
How did coach Ron Rivera explain that move?
“We were trying to keep the ball in front of us,” Rivera said. It’s one of those things where if you jump it and they double-move you, now all of a sudden it’s a touchdown or the ball is in field goal range. We were trying to make them systematically beat us. They got in field-goal position, and you take your chances at that point.”
Rivera’s goofs have cost that team more losses than their enigmatic quarterback Cam Newton has. Lord knows, we’ve pointed out Newton’s need to be a better leader.
But when his leaders are not putting his team in winning positions after they fight and claw to stay ahead of a 5-1 team such as the Chicago Bears, what does that say about that administration?
