The Carolina Panthers were never taken seriously by people who know the NFL. They had a winning record (notice the past tense on that) and there were some delusional people that were thinking they were playoff bound even though they haven't really done anything meaningful other than beat teams that everyone is beating. Hell, they even lost to the Saints who only had one other victory on the entire year up to that point.
I felt that any time the Panthers were playing anyone of note, they were going to get thrashed and one of their big challenges was going to be the San Fran 49'ers, a team that they traded one of their only good players, Christian McCaffrey, to a few years back.
Even though I am a Panthers supporter I am also realistic and know that they are not a good team and have just gotten lucky 3 times and their other 3 wins were against what might be some of the worst teams the NFL has seen in 5 years.
I really enjoyed McCaffrey charging through what was his old teammates to get 142 yards and a TD because it was kind of an exclamation point on the "what the hell were you thinking?" that was the Panthers trading him in the first place. Carolina management makes some truly bizarre choices, but trading away who is likely the best Running Backs not just now, but perhaps ever, is something that just defies all reason. But Carolina, I think they have given up on being good and are kind of pulling at situation like the Clippers did in the 80's where the team isn't actually meant to win, it is meant to exist while spending as little money as possible. Let's be honest, these games are going to sell out anyway.
San Francisgo was a 7 point favorite going into this game and I didn't think that was enough points so I bet with San Fran. They ended up winning by 11 in a 20-9 very one-sided affair and really, I think they could have won by more but when you are up 20-9 in the 4th, you tend to pump the brakes a bit and spare your team potential injury especially if you are playing against a team like Carolina that has almost zero offensive weapons.
It didn't help that San Francisco's QB had an off night throwing 3 interceptions. For a good team, this would have resulted in a swing of the tide of war but well, this is Carolina we are talking about so when Bryce Young threw 2 of his own that kind of evened things out.
The irony about trading McCaffrey is a big one because one of the reasons why Bryce Young fails as a QB is because he is so predictable. The Panthers don't have any reliably good runners, so it is just assumed that he is always setting up a passing play. This makes the defense's job so much easier. They know that he is going to pass and set up accordingly.
It wasn't a surprise that Carolina lost, everyone knew that was the case except for the less than 6% of people that bet on a Carolina money-line (straight bet) victory.
I would love to know the rationale of the people who bet on the Panthers to win this. To me that just seems nuts and the +280 isn't enough sweetener for the pot.
On Sunday things are going to get probably much much worse for Carolina as they are playing what is probably the best team they have faced this season in the LA Rams, who at the moment are 9-2.
They have only lost to Philly and San Fran, and both of those teams are definitely going to the playoffs.
LA is favored by 10.5 and I am going to be with the spread on that one. I think that if LA wants to, they can easily win this by 15-20 points or even more. The question is whether or not they are going to play conservatively against both the Panthers and the Cardinals in order to rest up their players for the big games against Detroit and then Seattle in the middle of December.
I think one of the only weeks that Carolina is not going to lose for the rest of the season, perhaps the only week they are not going to lose is going to be after they get completely worked over by LA. The only reason why they will not lose that game is because it is their BYE week. Seriously, they are that bad.