coffee

Best timed? Yes. I always hope for a late season bye and it was perfect this year. Also, likely the best bye we've had. At least I don't recall another where Panthers fans were able to have that much shockingly good fun watching the bad guys lose, nor one where it moved us atop the division. Despite the lows, this season will always hold some of our all-time favorite Panther memories: There is, of course, the (not just one, but TWO) shocking upset games, Our Black Friday best bye ever Not just sweeping, but completely shutting out the Falcons in one game and setting our passing yards record against them in the second game, Rico's insane two-game stretch, even calling his shot before Dallas. Crazy bi-polar season.

I think a W this week and the rest of the games is squarely on our shoulders and depends on it we can get on the same page answering one vital question: Do we try to convince our guys that they are 17 point underdogs for each game? OR Convince them that, despite the uniforms, the opposing team is actually the Atlanta Falcons?

Before we played the Niners, I thought our best realistic hope was to enter our first game with them at 7-7 and them at 9-5. That would've given us a shot at sweeping them and ending the year with both teams at either 9-8 or 10-7 and we'd have the H2H tie breaker. Who knew we'd shock the Rams and they'd fall to the Saints. At this moment in time, this is so much better than even what I thought was reasonable to hope for.

Probably. Unless they shock us again with another upset loss or two.

Reason I feel good about the Saints game: They found the perfect plan against us. It shouldn't have, but it seemed to catch us off guard. So... If they use that same plan, (1) we won't be caught off guard, plus (2) our receiver situation is much better than last time against them. Tet was still slowed by injury and Coker was certainly not in a rhythm yet. Those two things should at least keep us from looking as silly as we did last time. If they change plans, they're going away from the perfect plan against us. Minus the perfect plan, I think it comes down to simply who's the better team and the season says that would be us. Also, I doubt Horn will have such a horrible day again and I doubt the refs will miss the obvious offensive PI against him again. And, after that beat-down, I think our guys come out fired up. Hopefully that will all equal a much better showing this time.

https://www.nfl.com/standings/tie-breaking-procedures If I'm reading that right, they've got the tiebreaker now because of best record against common foes. If it comes down to tiebreakers with them, I think our only shot would be head-to-head. If we end up tied on that, I think it'll go to them.

Holy crap, Batman! We're tied for lead in the division!

I think this is what's great about these forums. As I said, I thought of one but was waiting to see if it was mentioned. It was not. Instead, you brought up a bunch of great answers/memories that I hadn't thought of. The one that I did think of was I believe 2009 when Jake was injured and Matt Moore had to help us face the Farve-led Vikings on Sunday Night Football.

I was watching a reel of fans singing Sweet Caroline and I started wondering if this was the most shocking surprise victory we've ever had. I thought of one other game that was in that category but I'll wait to see what you have to say on the matter. Where do you feel this one comes in a list of our most surprising upsets?

I think we kinda did.

And you thought Lady Cowboy Fan was upset about the language...

Yeah, I was wondering if Brees was having flashbacks to "The Rain Game."

This. But I was also happy that it happened in one sense because I felt we now had the momentum and this gave us a better chance of eating the clock. Still not enough of the clock as it turned out but it worked out.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1341423257593957 You've probably seen this but I hadn't until now.

I am just happy that the next "Top 10 Revenge Games" on NFL Network won't just mention us with the "Blood and Guts" game.