2006-09-11

why I love sportswriters @ 1:38 p.m.

One Panthers player described his team's problem as one of "execution." The bigger shortcoming was that the Carolina defense was executed by an Atlanta running game that sliced, diced, folded, spindled and mutilated the Carolina front seven. The return of Jenkins, who appeared in just five games over the past two seasons because of injuries, and the addition of former Baltimore run-stuffer Maake Kemoeatu, signed as an unrestricted free agent this spring, was supposed to provide the Panthers an impenetrable front.

Based on its Sunday performance, the Carolina front four won't soon be conjuring up any comparisons to, say, the Steel Curtain, the Purple People Eaters or the Fearsome Foursome. The line specifically, and the front seven in general, played with all the consistency and staying power of, say, oatmeal.

From: Panthers' D doesn't rise to occasion by Len Pasquarelli, espn.com, 9/10/2006.