Preseason Game Grades – Panthers at Eagles

Now you see why I called for cautious optimism in my last game grades. Welcome back to earth, Panthers fans. I will only be grading the starting units.

Offense:

An actual test for the first unit, who was without Steve Smith. however, with Steve Smith being out the first two games of the season, we can consider this the starting unit.

Clearly more work needs to be done on the offensive line. It seems to me that the big fellas know their assigments, but they are not yet gelling as a unit. I suspect this will not happen until well into the season.

Jake Delhomme, in his first real preseason action, looked very rusty. His throws were often not on target or late. This could have had something to do with the rain, but Delhomme showed the same rust in last years exhibition games. The good news is he came out looking like a pro bowler in the regular season.

Offense – C+

Defense

Considering the defense was playing with out 75% of their starting defensive backfield, they had a convincing performance. Aside from Marshall’s INT for 6, they were not flashy, but they allowed no points to be scored. For any defense, that is the only stat that matters.

Defensive Grade – A

Special Teams

Still impressed with the kickoffs. Even in the rain, they reached the end zone.

Special Teams Grade – A

All in all this game can be wrapped up in one sentence, provided by Coach John Fox.

“I think it was evident their backups were better than ours, basically their (third-teamers),”