[Ed. Note: I've put up a FanPost over at Cat Scratch Reader so we can have a place to ask each other questions, etc. I think it worked pretty well last week with Mile High Report and was a lot of fun. So head on over there and let's show them why AP is SBN's best community. -Primetime]
The Kansas City Chiefs will make their second visit to Carolina on Sunday to face a Panthers team sitting atop the NFC South with 3 wins and 1 loss. Let's take a look at their numbers to see what we're dealing with.
Jake Delhomme: 72/120, 860 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT
The offense isn't designed to go through Delhomme but he's done an outstanding job of maintaining the offense. His best game of the year came last week against the Atlanta Falcons in which he put up 294 yards on 20/29 passing and 2 TDs.
DeAngelo Williams: 55 carries, 201 yards, 0 TDs
Jonathan Stewart: 45 carries, 197 yards, 4 TDs
These are the players we hope not to see very often. The Panthers like to establish a lead and then grind the clock out with the running game and play solid defense. Sound familiar?
Muhsin Muhammad: 22 rec, 287, 1 TD
Steve Smith: 10 rec, 166 yards, 1 TD
Moose was a member of the Panthers from 1996-2004 where he had his last Pro Bowl berth. He's putting up good numbers thus far but that is partly skewed due to the fact that Smith missed the first two games of the season for punching out Ken Lucas.
How can we beat the Panthers?
The Minnesota Vikings presented a nice avenue to success when they beat the Panthers 20-10 in week 3. The Vikings had a solid day running the ball while career journeyman Gus Frerotte manned the passing game to a Damon Huard-like 204 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT.
The Panthers jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Minnesota scored 20 unanswered points. Highlights included a Jared Allen and Kevin Williams sack and an Antoine Winfield sack/forced fumble and touchdown.
Highlights of that game can be seen here.
The Panthers by down:
1st down
54 rushing plays (3.59 average), 51 passing plays, (5.25 average)
2nd down
42 rushing plays (4.0 average), 41 passing plays (10.07 average)
3rd down
16 rushing plays (2.62 average), 35 passing plays (3.34 average)
4th down
0 rushing plays (0 average), 3 passing plays (2.33 average)