Similarities between 2015 Panthers and 1972 Dolphins?

[Bryan]

If ever a team has quietly started a season 13-0, then its the 2015 Panthers. Not a whole lot of media discussion of this, despite the rarity of potentially going undefeated in the regular season. I've always been a big fan of Cam Newton, and he's had a great year, but the 2015 Panthers aren't really all that different than the good-not-great Panther teams of recent vintage. I remember the talk at the start of this year was how the Panthers might be even worse than their 7-8-1 record in 2014 because of Kelvin Benjamin being on IR and Luke Kuechly being out for the first part of the season.

A couple similarities I see with the Panthers and the 72 Dolphins are the strength-of-schedule and the contemporary lack of respect. The Panthers play in the terrible NFC South, and their other scheduled divisions are the even worse NFC East and AFC South. The 11 teams comprising those divisions (excluding the Panthers themselves) all have losing records. Shades of the 1972 Dolphins schedule! Also, I would guess that even if the Panthers made it to the Super Bowl and were undefeated, they would still be underdogs to the Pats or Broncos if they make the Super Bowl as well. Otherwise, it seems like their is a huge talent gap between the 1972 Dolphins and the 2015 Panthers, but perhaps my perspective is skewed.

[BD Sullivan]

One major difference was in the previous year's teams:

The '71 Dolphins (10-3-1) started 1-1-1 in their first three games and finished 1-2 in their last three; in between, they won all eight games. They made SB 6
The '14 Panthers (7-8-1) won their first two and last four; in between, they were 1-8-1. They won a WC game.

[74_75_78_79_]

Of course you all know who Carolina has this week; and of course you all know what happened to a certain past 13-0 team upon stepping foot in the Meadowlands vs the G-men.

[Rupert Patrick]

Going into the 1972 season, you look at the Dolphins, and you had a coach in Shula who had been to (and lost) three League Championship games in the past eight seasons, and you had a team who lost the Super Bowl the year before, and the Dolphins had been quickly coming together and were reaching a critical mass. I'm sure a few of the preseason publications in 1972 predicted the Dolphins to win the Super Bowl, and from day one the franchise had started putting the pieces of a quality team together one piece at a time - a Bob Griese here, a trade for Paul Warfield or Nick Buoniconti there, and by 1972 it must have been clear with the Colts fading away due to attrition, they were going to dominate the AFC East.

The Panthers are a totally different story, as they remind me an awful lot of the Oilers of the Earl Campbell era. Living 100 miles away from Charlottte, I'm not a huge Panther fan but because they are my local TV market team I have watched virtually all their games, and I don't understand how they do it every week. Can Newton to this point is having a MVP season, and the Panthers are leading the league in points scored although they are 11th in offensive yards. Their key is their defense which is leading the NFL in turnovers with 33, and Carolina plays a ball control offense with Newton lulling the defense into making a big pass to Ginn or Olson. Newton is a great athlete who can do it all on the field and can improvise, and is literally carrying the team on his back in a way I have not seen since Earl Campbell in Houston and the team is responding. Without Newton, I think this house of cards falls apart, as the backup (Derek Anderson) will try to do what Newton does and will fail, and the defense will try to step up to make up for the loss of Newton and will stop doing what made them successful. I do think there is a very good chance they will go 16-0 or 15-1, but they are going to have trouble in the playoffs against a more veteran QB and or Coach like Carson Palmer or Brady who will avoid the turnovers. I just don't see them going all the way this year.

[mwald]

Going into the 1972 season, you look at the Dolphins, and you had a coach in Shula who had been to (and lost) three League Championship games in the past eight seasons, and you had a team who lost the Super Bowl the year before, and the Dolphins had been quickly coming together and were reaching a critical mass. I'm sure a few of the preseason publications in 1972 predicted the Dolphins to win the Super Bowl, and from day one the franchise had started putting the pieces of a quality team together one piece at a time - a Bob Griese here, a trade for Paul Warfield or Nick Buoniconti there, and by 1972 it must have been clear with the Colts fading away due to attrition, they were going to dominate the AFC East.

The Panthers are a totally different story, as they remind me an awful lot of the Oilers of the Earl Campbell era. Living 100 miles away from Charlottte, I'm not a huge Panther fan but because they are my local TV market team I have watched virtually all their games, and I don't understand how they do it every week. Can Newton to this point is having a MVP season, and the Panthers are leading the league in points scored although they are 11th in offensive yards. Their key is their defense which is leading the NFL in turnovers with 33, and Carolina plays a ball control offense with Newton lulling the defense into making a big pass to Ginn or Olson. Newton is a great athlete who can do it all on the field and can improvise, and is literally carrying the team on his back in a way I have not seen since Earl Campbell in Houston and the team is responding. Without Newton, I think this house of cards falls apart, as the backup (Derek Anderson) will try to do what Newton does and will fail, and the defense will try to step up to make up for the loss of Newton and will stop doing what made them successful. I do think there is a very good chance they will go 16-0 or 15-1, but they are going to have trouble in the playoffs against a more veteran QB and or Coach like Carson Palmer or Brady who will avoid the turnovers. I just don't see them going all the way this year.

Love your take on the Panthers, Rupert. People don't understand how the Panthers are doing it but they just wear teams down and eventually the dam breaks. And when teams have kept it close Newton steps up. Haven't seen a more confident athlete in a long time, the dude is literally willing his team to victory and it sure doesn't seem like there will be a game that is too big for him.

Beg to differ on the Brady/Palmer observation though. If a team can beat Carolina in the playoffs, it might be Seattle (who Carolina beat earlier this year). If they end up playing Arizona in Carolina I think the Panthers take it easily. Since Bowles left Arizona can be pushed around on defense. As for Brady, no he doesn't turn the ball over, but wouldn't be surprised to see the Panthers' linebackers pick him off two or three times. This team is the closest thing we've seen to the 85 Bears since, well, the 85 Bears.

[Rupert Patrick]

Beg to differ on the Brady/Palmer observation though. If a team can beat Carolina in the playoffs, it might be Seattle (who Carolina beat earlier this year). If they end up playing Arizona in Carolina I think the Panthers take it easily. Since Bowles left Arizona can be pushed around on defense. As for Brady, no he doesn't turn the ball over, but wouldn't be surprised to see the Panthers' linebackers pick him off two or three times. This team is the closest thing we've seen to the 85 Bears since, well, the 85 Bears.

One of the marks of a truly, truly great defense, like the 85 Bears, or the 2000 Titans, is that a large percentage of the offense actually defense in that the defense is creating great field position in the way of takeovers deep in enemy territory, along with a high number of fumbles returned for TD's and pick sixes. Teams of this kind often finish near the top in points scored although they are closer to the middle in yards gained on offense, and are ball control teams with strong rushing games and poor passing games. (The Ravens actually finished near the middle in points scored because their offense was so pitiful, but they had a strong rushing game and a poor passing game, but without their defense were in reality one of the 3-4 worst offenses in the league in 2000. And they were able to draw the other team into punting battles and force the other team to make a mistake, which they would immediately capitalize on.)

For purposes of this comparison we'll look at the 1985 Bears and 2015 Panthers, since the Ravens aren't a true comparison. The Bears were second in the league in points scored, seventh in yards; the Panthers are first in points, 11th in yards. Offensively, Chicago was 20th in passing yards, first in rushing yards, Carolina is 26 and 2. Defensively the Bears were third and first respectively passing and rushing, the Panthers are fourth and fourth. The 85 Bears led the NFL in takeaway ratio with +33, and the Panthers are leading the NFL in 2015 with +18. The Bears got four pick sixes during the regular season in 1985, and the Panthers have had four so far in 2015. I guess because this team just doesn't (except for Newton) have the swagger of the 1985 Bears, I never realized the parallels between these two teams.

That being said, I still don't think Newton will be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy on February 7th.

[Rupert Patrick]

Of course you all know who Carolina has this week; and of course you all know what happened to a certain past 13-0 team upon stepping foot in the Meadowlands vs the G-men.

CBS pointed out in the pregame show that in 1934 the Bears were 13-0 when they came into New York and lost the Sneakers Game.

[74_75_78_79_]

The thing ABOUT this '15 Panther squad...down the stretch/still undefeated, they're not PLAYING LIKE a team that's still undefeated! You remember those (much more-respected) '07 Pats. They started out gang-busters, blowing out opponents left and right, then seemed to play down to the competition the rest of the way (entire post-season included) perhaps because they didn't..."get that first-loss ("back to drawing board") out of the way."

But these Panthers are playing like they already have lost that first game! The Giants this week looked to be the "perfect" team to hand them their first loss and not only is Carolina going to win this, but blow them out! Just like they did last week vs another such candidate - Atlanta - 38 - 0! Yes, Falcs not what they seemed to be earlier this season, but to beat them like that while still undefeated? This 'bubble' shows no signs of bursting. It's like a beautiful woman who doesn't know she's beautiful, Cam & Co don't seem to know they're undefeated in December!

As he willed Auburn to a National Championship, Cam seems to be doing likewise in the NFL as of now. Hints of this were apparent as far back as his rookie year and now we truly see! Even if they don't go 16-0 after all, or go 16-0 and not win-it-all, this squad should still be looked back in history with quite some respect (kind of like early-'90s Bills despite never finishing the deal)! Give Cam the MVP right now! Yes, there's Brady, but still! And even if Big Ben were healthy all year...still give it to Cam - now!

I'm impressed with these 2015 Panthers (entire coaching staff, players alike). Real impressed!

[John Grasso]

The Giants this week looked to be the "perfect" team to hand them their first loss and not only is Carolina going to win this, but blow them out!

Not quite.

[Rupert Patrick]

The brouhaha with Beckham overshadowed the fact that the Giants Panthers game was one of the three or four best games of the year, with Manning coming back from 28 points down in the fourth quarter to tie the game, only to lose on the final play of regulation. It was a great performance by Newton, but if I were a betting man I would bet against the Panther next week as I expect a letdown after that fourth quarter collapse. It is hoped in the future that when players regardless of their stature are engaged in the type of play Beckham was exhibiting on Sunday, they should be ejected. Now Beckham has been suspended for a game, which will really hurt his team's slim postseason hopes, and perhaps he will learn a very important lesson.