Game 1 - The Carolina Panthers
 

Blah! Enough of these reports that go back and forth. "The Saints will play their home games at LSU...the Saints will play their home games in San Antonio." No official decision has been made yet.

"Shuttup with the broccoli!"

:arrow: The fact is, the season starts this Sunday. The Saints are traveling to Carolina to take on Jake Delhomme, Julius Peppers, and the rest of the Carolina Panthers. Discuss!

RE: Game 1 - The Carolina Panthers
 

Good call Oldies. As if there wasn't enough riding on this game. I think that the Saints can have a really sucessful season if they can come out of Carolina with a win. If they lose they may fall into a tailspin. The defense looked pretty good against the run when they played the Raiders, lets hope it continues to improve.

RE: Game 1 - The Carolina Panthers
 

I'm thinking a highly emotional and fired up Saints team comes on the field for the first quarter. They start goofing up and the next thing you know, they're playing flat as hell. Haslett gets on them at half time and they come out with a bit of spring in their step. Third quarter they play consistent with hardly any penalties. Fourth quarter, expect to see them start an emotional comeback.

This is going to be a very interesting game. Its way too close for me to pick a winner in this one.

RE: Game 1 - The Carolina Panthers
 

Saints 21
Panthers 20...
"You can take that to the bank"......

RE: Game 1 - The Carolina Panthers
 

Wow this will be a game, lets see if our "Great QB" Aaron Brooks can get a win from the "Good QB" Jake Delhomme......

I'm really looking forward to this game. The series is tied 10-10, and it looks like a rivalry is brewing. I'm hoping the Panthers win this game, but I think it will be very close. Whoever has the ball last may need to score to win. Too close to call.

I'll be pulling for you all season except for this Sunday and when we meet again.

I hate to see what has happened to New Orleans. I wish I had visited there before, but hopefully I will be able to in the future. I'm also hopeful that the city will keep the Saints and get a new stadium.

As for the Panthers, we have a good number of our starters returning from injury - as you may know. Steve Smith, Kris Jenkins, DeShaun Foster, and Steven Davis to name a few. We have another rookie starting on defense at saftey - Thomas Davis. They say he may be able to play linebacker as well. We have Chris Gamble at corner (rookie from last year) and signed Ken Lucas to fill the other corner. Both were tied for the league lead in intercetptions last year, so Brooks needs to keep an eye peeled. Ricky Manning comes in during nickel packages. We have some real depth at linebacker - Will Witherspoon and Dan Morgan lead the charge.

We rely on our defense to win games, but our offense has been opening it up quite a bit. Delhomme has really become the leader and he has no problem feeding the ball downfield to Smith and Keary Colbert. We signed Rod Gardner from the Redskins and we hope he turns things around. He has the talent, he just needs the right situation. We also have Ricky Prohl and Drew Carter and Karl Hankton as receivers. Our line has improved dramatically. We signed Wahle and moved Gross back to right tackle where he exceled in our Super Bowl year. We have a stable of running backs, and our special teams is very agressive. John Kasay is still booting field goals, but we have a new punter who can handle kickoffs, too.

All in all - a very talented group, but they need to show they know how to put it all together. The Saints will be a good test.

It looks like it will be a battle of our D versus your O. If we can put up 24 points, I think we'll win it.

Good luck, and I hope there are no injuries.

Thanks for the rundown of the panthers Fever, very detailed. I'm of the opinion that our Linebacking crew determines whether or not we win the game. I have major concern for this unit, I see no improvement from last year and even the good preseason game aside, the ability to stop the run. We shall see, preseason is totally different than the regular season. We all know this.

Jammal Brown vs Julius Peppers Lets see wat you got Jammal ....

Saints in a blow-out!
AB to Horn all day. Very few mistakes by AB, accually plays like he is proud to be a Saint!
22 runs away with the "OL" making huge holes
Defense totally dominates!

Here's to the dream fellas! :drink:

22????
Freddy runs the rock now? :roll: