Cameron Jones

DCPanthersfans.com

Just when I thought we were out, they pull me right back in.

Those were the first words out of this guy’s mouth as soon as the final buzzer sounded putting the finishing touches on one of the more unusual wins in Panther history but a win nonetheless.

All you need to know is this: Carolina defeated Atlanta with 11 passing yards. Yes, 11. We did have success on the ground finally as double De (DeShaun Foster and DeAngelo Williams) totaled 183 yards on the ground but seriously, 11 passing yards?? Chris Weinke may as well have been on the bench the entire game.

But that’s just it. He was for the most part. John Fox decided to do something that no one ever expected from a conservative play calling coach like him: he actually benched Weinke and put DeAngelo Williams in at quarterback for ten plays. It actually gets better.

That scoring drive that ended with Weinke throwing to Jeff King for a touchdown was over ten minutes long in football time and over 20 minutes in real time, trust me I checked my watch. I could’ve driven from my house in Arlington at the start of the drive to my friend’s place in Georgetown and back and probably caught the touchdown play.

Just an odd game and one that usually ends badly for us. Whenever someone tells me it was a weird game or something of that nature, I get scared because the Panthers don’t seem to do well in “weird” games.

Take this year for example, Gamble’s errant lateral that cost us the game in Minnesota, the Skins doing nothing until Chris Cooley’s longest touchdown of his career in the fourth quarter, a great game by Jake until two bad interceptions cost us in the fourth against the Eagles and so on.

But after 16 weeks, ridiculously bad play calling, an offense so inept it made the Lions look good, terrible losses, heart attack wins and everything else that could happen, we’re 7-8 and in pretty decent shape for a playoff birth. Can I believe it? Absolutely not. I treated Sunday’s game as merely a formality where we’ll give it our all but our injuries will be too much and we’ll lose to a superior Falcons team.

But like Carolina has done way too much this year, they put a shock into their fan base. Luckily, it was for a good reason this time by beating a team they’d been given no shot against.

So here is the situation this weekend: we need to beat the Saints obviously. We’ve already done that once this year which helps and we traditionally play well in the dome in New Orleans so I have high hopes.

If you get the NFL Network, tune in on Saturday night to watch the Skins and Giants. Also, make sure you watch the Bears and Packers which just got bumped to the Sunday night game if you aren't already out celebrating. Should both Washington and Chicago win while Carolina beats the Saints, that puts us in the playoffs as the six seed.

The Giants hold the tiebreaker on us following that awful loss at Bank of America while Green Bay has the edge due to a better conference record. If we win, we automatically eliminate the Falcons and Rams so that should provide extra motivation.

It is going to be a wild New Years Eve and not just because of the night activities. Panthers fans: prepare yourselves for the wildest finish to a regular season in six years and it couldn’t happen on a better day.