NFL Week Seven Status Meeting: Held Hostage

Mickey: We have a hostage situation, and I don’t think either Kevin Spacey or Samuel L. Jackson is walking through that door to save this team. Much has been written (in fact, full posts have been devoted to scanning the Interwebs to see everyone’s opinion) about Jake Delhomme’s utter decline and how he’s potentially bringing down John Fox with him. Jake leads the league in Interceptions, and at this pace, would be second all time in INTs for a season if he keeps up at his current rate. Seven of his interceptions have resulted in touchdowns — either through the return or scoring just a few plays later. He has so utterly and completely declined as a quarterback that it’s truly befuddling.

But Jake won’t reach those ultimate platforms of ineptitude if the Silver Fox wants to stay on as head coach past this year — if his future hasn’t already been sealed. It is very apparent to anyone that follows this team that Jake just won’t be able to return to his “glory” days — where he made enough big plays to make you forget about the awful decisions and plays he was wont to make. We glazed over them, accepting them, for you knew you were gonna get a good bit of bad from Jake — but that he also had the ability to Houdini late-game comebacks and engineer drives exactly when you needed them. Whether he never fully recovered from Tommy John surgery or if it’s all in his head, we may never know the full reason for his decline.

But a drastic decline it is. He was the leader of a 12-4 team last year, a guy who has taken his team to a Super Bowl and two NFC Championships, a guy who has been to a Pro Bowl. He had “intangibles” and an attitude I loved to embrace. He’s still a good guy, but it befuddles me how unique his decline has been in the NFL. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do actual research on this, but I can’t remember a quarterback who has gotten so much worse through no fault really beyond his own.

His supporting cast is the exact same: his heralded offensive line hasn’t been playing great, but they’re the same guys that trotted out last year, all in their prime. Smitty is still Smitty, dangerous as ever. And DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart are just as good as they were last year. I’ll give you the fact that Moose doesn’t seem to be the same anymore, and we don’t have a true #2 wide receiver option. But for the most part, the talent around Jake is on par with what he’s had with the Panthers for the past seven years. And he did pretty damn well with that talent level in the past; this year, he seems utterly lost and incapable of being even a serviceable quarterback.

Most of the times, a quarterback will decline because the team has aged around him, or he’ll be shipped off to a bad team, or he’ll be yanked for a back-up quarterback so you don’t know the true evidence of how bad he’s gotten. This has not happened with Jake and the Panthers because we’ve had seven straight games of evidence that he can’t not make mistakes, and our coach is one of the more stubborn coaches in the league.

Which leads me to one of the saddest texts I’ve gotten from Smokey this past Sunday as the Bills won a game they had no right to win — other than they played against Jake Delhomme: “It’s getting harder and harder to defend Jake and Fox.”

Because that is certainly not lost on the fans, the media, or I’m sure anyone in the Carolina organization: John Fox has tied his wagon to Jake Delhomme as his main horse, refusing to find a plausible back-up, steadfastly believing he could get enough mistake-free play out of Jake to rely on a good run game and solid defense. And as we watch Jake self-destruct over what has been far too long, you can’t help but believe the Silver Fox is going down with him.

It’s tough to declare doomsday for the 2009 season with 10 games still to play, but sitting at 2-4, and only playing two teams that don’t have a winning record (Tampa Bay and Miami), I just don’t see Fox turning things around unless something dramatic happens. And even though a huge part of me wants Jake to be that dramatic sparkplug by returning to form, the realist in me knows that’s not possible.

So we might as well give Matt Moore a shot and see what he can do. The defense deserves someone who can take advantage of their improved play, and not gift the opponent double-digit leads simply by trying to throw the ball down the field. I’m not saying Moore can be that guy, but Jake has certainly shown he can’t be.

This team is too talented to be held hostage by a quarterback whose reactions to his own terrible plays are the best thing about him.

Smokey: In the interest of full disclosure, it should be made clear that I date a Bills fan and last week we both showed remarkable restraint. To one another. The same cannot be said for the Carolina Panthers, John Fox or Jake Delhomme.

Mickey touched upon pretty much every emotion I feel towards the situation, so I’ll take the other route and discuss Life After Biscuit Defending. As I see it, the folks dominating the Next Year’s Coach conversation are the Washington Redskins, and I’m fine with this. I watched the 2nd half of last night’s game with our cousin, a diehard Skins fan. Within five minutes of watching the game we ended up just watching Matt & Kim music videos in YouTube’s warp mode to make ourselves feel better. Then we completed Uncharted 2, the first videogame I’ve bought in years, and one we beat within a weekend’s time. All in all, it was a pretty productive Monday.

But as I was saying, Next Year’s Coach. I’m fine with the Skins and the Rams to take the brunt of the conversation. And I’m fine with Gruden and Shanahan being the central characters of those discussions; just leaves the spotlight off the Panthers and Cowher. For nine days this year I was as committed to John Fox and Jake Delhomme as I had been the entire decade. Those two had engineered a remarkable season and as I settled back into my Christmas Onesie, I saw a bright and prosperous future between us. Since rekindling my passion for the Panthers in 2003, they’d been the two protagonists in this second act of my relationship with the team. I couldn’t imagine a world without them.

Then the tenth day happened.

This past August, as the preseason slumped along and I had long hours in airport bars and long miles on empty highways, the scenario started to play itself out. Week by week, it got easier to become comfortable with the idea of Life After Biscuit Defending. And now, as we sit at 2-4 and staring down the barrel of the second half of our season, I’ve reach the Acceptance stage. I hope we put up good fights against our remaining opponents, but if we lose, I’m oddly ok with that. Jerry Richardson fired his own sons for underperforming, he can handle changing some guards. The Panthers should pursue Cowher and pursue him hard; they are a team built to seduce a man like Bill Cowher.

Unfortunately, the Panthers have a history of bumbling these sort of moves. We’ve been known to have a great opportunity delivered on our doorstep, only to see another team snatch it up. For now, there are still ten games left in the 2009-2010 campaign. I’m headed to Phoenix this weekend for my 2nd trip to the Melted Hershey Kiss. Wish me, and the Panthers, luck.