The point of me not giving a damn about the season has fully set in. Carolina might be the worst team in the NFL and this past weekend they were up against one of the perceived best teams in the NFL.
I think the dolphins may have actually been taking it easy on Carolina because well, they likely don't have to work at 100% in order to beat a team that hasn't managed a win at all in the season and has had some rather embarrassing one-sided losses at home and away.
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If you want to see some fast big guys, being constantly chased by slow big guys, watch Carolina play against almost anyone
Much to the surprise of basically the entire NFL world, Carolina actually started the game pretty well and managed to get 2 unanswered touchdowns in the first quarter ending it at 14-0. I was watching this much of it and said to myself while it was going on "there's no reason to have hope, they will screw this up." Sure enough, just one quarter later and Carolina had allowed 3 touchdowns basically back-to-back-to-back to end the half.
Sometimes, when your team goes into the locker room at halftime, you have some sort of hope that they will come out the other end re-invigorated and with a new sense of purpose or strategy in the 2nd half but not this guy. No, I have been burned by that hope far too many times to believe that Carolina will anything other than fail and that is precisely what they did. They had 35 unanswered points scored against them and if it hadn't been for the interception and 61 yard return by ex-Ram Troy Hill late in the 4th, the game would have been scoreless for the Panthers in all quarters but the first one.
Miami didn't need another touchdown after that and could have just run out the clock but I think they just wanted to prove that they are superior to Carolina they scored another touchdown on their very next possession less than 2 minutes later.
I believe that the only reason why Carolina scored at all in this game is because the Dolphins took to the field feeling as though they didn't really need to try in order to win this game but once they went down by 14 they decided to take the game seriously. After that point, it became evident very quickly that the Panthers are nowhere near the level of the Dophins.
On the point spread bets pre-game, the Dolphins were a 14 point favorite meaning that if you wanted to make a 1:1 bet on the Dolphins, you had to also bet that they were going to win the game by at least 15 points. The straight bet went as low as -950 against the Panthers, meaning that you would have to bet $1000 to win a mere $50 on a Dolphin victory. This is how little faith the bookies have in Carolina to be able to pull off a win at all.
My lack of faith in the Panthers and knowing that they WILL screw it up is shared with everyone in the NFL world and you can tell this just by looking at this graph. Even when Carolina was winning by 14 points the bookie world still favored Miami to win the game. Such is the overwhelming belief that the Panthers are just terrible.
Thankfully, the Panthers have a bye week next week and this in my mind is the only chance they have to not lose this season. They have a game against the Chicago Bears on November 10th and the Bears are also terrible. I will be watching this game for the same reason that anyone else will: To see who the worst team in the NFL is. I will be betting on the Bears for the win.