On Saturday night the Carolina Panthers had a preseason game against the Miami Dolphins in which either team did not disappoint their fans; Before kick off certain players did not dress, because either they were dealing with an injury that they had sustained or either the coaches for their respective teams wanted to get more film on other potential players. The players that did not dress for the Carolina side were WR Kelvin Benjamin, WR Devin Fynchess, CB Lou Young, CB Charles Tillman, G Amini Silatolu, T Davonte Wallace, DE Charles Johnson, DT Star Lotulelei, and DT Kawann Short.
Some of the Dolphins’ players did not dress as well such as, WR DeVante Parker, CB Brent Grimes, S Louis Delmas, RB Jay Ajayi, S Don Jones, DE Oliver Vernon, LB Koa Misi, LB Jordan Tripp, T Branden Albert, and WR Greg Jennings.
During the first half the Carolina Panthers could not move the ball down the field and struggled with making consistent catches. On one particular play in the first quarter Panthers’ QB Cam Newton had took a leg and it had looked like he had a slightly limp. The Panthers were 2-8 on third downs and had some mistakes that resulted in turnovers; “We didn’t start out the game really well, and the coaches and players were bummed out about that,” running back Brandon Wegher said, “We need to improve because when it comes the regular season, you’ve got to start fast, but it’s also a testament to this team’s will to come back and fight like that.”
When the first half came to close, the Panthers were down 9-14. The second half the team looked a little bit alive wit Joe Webb under center. He had made some great throws in a tight window, had great poise when he was getting pressured, and gave his receivers some crisp throws that that could catch, but was optimistic about being a team. “It’s our job as teammates to pick everybody up,” Webb said. “We might have a first team, second team and third team, but at the end of the day we’re all Carolina Panthers.”
Brandon Wegher has done it again with putting the team in a position to win; in week one against the Bills, Wegher had made some impressive runs to put the Panthers in a scoring position to win that game, this week he had went “Beast Mode” to insure that the Panthers’ wee put in another position to win. Brandon had made one heck of a cut that made the tackler look like he was tacking “Casper” the ghost for a 9- yard scamper.
That 9 yard run had put the Panthers in the driver seat to get the ball with a little over 4 minutes left in regulation and Webb made the best out of it. He had gotten the crowd, as well as his team back into the game. Joe had made accurate throws in a crucial moment to cap off a 65 yard drive that won the game.
Even though the Panthers had won the game, not everybody was too happy about the win; “You can’t beat good teams like that,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “The nine penalties that we had that prolonged their drives. We had three big negative plays wiped out by (penalties). The other thing is we’ve got to take the ball away. We had the ball on the ground twice and didn’t recover, and we had our hands on the ball twice and didn’t intercept it. Also third downs on both sides of the ball disappoints me. We had opportunities to get off the field, and we didn’t.”
Even Cam Newton had this to say as well about the game, “We’ve just got to find ways to execute better, whether it’s myself, whether it’s the offensive line or whoever,” said Newton, who did direct one encouraging drive before departing. “There’s no need to point fingers. We know what we’ve got to do.”There’s no need to sulk over a win. We’ve just got to have more efficient play from the first group.”