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My friends, there are times where that football fans or fans of any sport in the world makes a kneejerk reaction to a tough loss. There are times where we hate on players that have been loyal to franchise for a good long time, just to have them prove to us the next week that they don't deserve it.

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More photos » by Mike McCarn - AP

The real Jake Delhomme has returned. The cause of his success? He's calling his own plays on the line of scrimmage. Whoda thought? (AP Photo/Mike McCarn)

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The game against the Atlanta Falcons may mean more than any of us had ever imagined once you look down the road at the hunt for the Wild Card. The very first rule for determining the two wildcard teams when they compare teams with identical records is the head-to-head rule against opposing franchises within the same division. With the Sunday's victory the Panthers are 1-1 against their division rival, making determining the wildcards that much trickier if they were to finish with identical records at the end of the year.

With that interesting thought out of the way, let's talk about the Miami Dolphins.

Two big injuries highlight Thursday Night Football: the injuries to Miami RB Ronnie Brown and the other to Panthers LT Jordan Gross. An interesting argument here would be which of these two players are the bigger lost to their respective team? On Miami's side, they lose not only their top running back, but also the player that they designed their wildcat offense around. On Charlotte's side, they lose the crucial blindside blocker that has been starting on the O-Line since his rookie year in 2003.

Both teams will expect good production out of their backups. The Carolina Panthers  will be moving Travelle Wharton to LT and let his backup Mackenzy Bernadeau slide in at guard, while Miami RB Ricky Williams taking a bigger role in the offense than he had before after maintaining a 5.6 YPC in his change of pace role with Ronnie Brown. Backup RB Lex Hilliard will also be called upon for the first regular season carries in his NFL career. Can he step up and be a competitor? The production of the replacements will be one of the biggest keys to the game.

And here are the key matchups for the game!

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Somehow, I get the feeling that with the injury to Thomas Davis it's going to take a pretty big bite out of a potent Panther defense. When we look back on this season 10 years from now, what are we going to remember it as? For myself, I'll remember this season as a season that could have led to a deep playoff run and maybe even a Super Bowl, but instead became the biggest letdown in franchise history. Yes, that's including the 2004 8-8 season following the year the Panthers made it to the Super Bowl.

The Panthers are 3-5 right now. We have three DT's on IR, and now our star linebacker Thomas Davis who ((Thanks R3)) led the team in tackles has joined them all as well. We suffer from a one-dimensional offense which succeeds well in the running game, but can't do anything at all in the other. We're like the offense of the Arizona Cardinals last year, but backwards. We suffer from a offensive coordinator who gets away from what works in the middle of a game, an inept special teams unit, and a QB that continues to throw high in the air and out of reach of any potential receivers. We also fail at the 2 minute drill. The memories of guys flying to the offensive line is still very fresh in my mind, especially during the final drive against San Diego in the first game of 08. Now they're just waddling, so it's kind of sad.

Overall, that's a lot of problems on our team. They're also easily fixable, if the right buttons are pushed in the off-season.

But enough of rain clouds and dark thoughts, it's time for football! This week the Carolina Panthers go up against the Atlanta Falcons, and they'll be seeking revenge for the earlier 28-20 debacle that occurred before Jeff Davidson realized with a gasp that the Panthers are built to run the football.

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Jimmy Clausen of the Fighting Irish had 37-51 pass attempts completed for 452 yards, two touchdowns, 1 INT.

Navy wins the game, 23-21.

Something just seems wrong with that. Something seems terribly, unmistakably wrong.

With a few injuries in the Panthers fold, including a random destruction of the FB position and Charles Godfrey and Moose out because of injury, the Panthers go into the Saints with a lot of questions. Some of them good, and some bad.

1. Can Sherrod Martin duplicate his exceptional 2 INT performance against Drew Brees and the Saints?

This is one of the biggest questions we have to ask during this upcoming game. We're all cheering for Martin to be our new FS, and Sherrod Martin is probably going to get one more game as a starter before Charles Godfrey comes back from injury. If he can pull off another good game here against an explosive offense such as the Saints, John Fox will have no choice but to name him the starter over Charles Godfrey for the rest of the season. John Fox has always been a fan of veterans, so in order for Martin to fully secure his job he will have to completely blow Fox away during the Saints game in order to force his hand and grab himself a starting job. It will also help our team in such a way to where we could look into trading Godfrey away in the offseason, thus allowing us to regain some valuable draft picks we lost in acquiring our D-Line help.

2. Can our D-Line get pressure on Drew Brees?

The Panthers will need to play a complete game against the Saints on Sunday. The Saints have had an explosive offense for a long time now, but now that they actually have a defense for once they can do amazing things. When a team averages 39 points per game while giving up 22, it takes a true moron to not figure out why this team has gone undefeated. Julius Peppers and Everette Brown need to step up early and often and put Drew Brees to the turf. Force him to make mistakes so that you can get their offense back on the field and put us in good field position to take the ball back the other way.

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