Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers Preview

By Hugo Guzman | Monday, October 03, 2005 | ( 0 )

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The Green Bay Packers travel to Charlotte to take on the Carolina Panthers in an intriguing Monday Night matchup. Before the beginning of the season, this sounded like a good match up between two strong NFC teams. Now, however, it's more of a battle between two teams trying to dig themselves out of holes they've fallen into early in the year. The Packers have yet to win a game this season, losing to Detroit, Cleveland, and Tampa Bay. The Panthers have one win this season against the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, but have losses to New Orleans and Miami.

Losing Javon Walker has definitely hurt the Green Bay Packers offense. Donald Driver and Robert Ferguson have stepped up in his absence though. Ferguson has two touchdowns and 119 yards for the season. Driver has one touchdown and 202 yards so far this year. Ahman Green has been struggling with the running game, scoring no touchdowns and not rushing for more then 58 yards in a game. Brett Favre had his best game of the year against Cleveland. He threw for 342 yards and 3 touchdowns but also had several key interceptions and blamed himself for the loss to the Browns. Favre may actually put up better numbers than that against Carolina. He shines bright in the Monday night spotlight.

The Carolina Panthers have come close to winning in both of their losses this year. They lost to both the Saints and Dolphins late in the 4th quarter because of last minute field goals. Despite these losses, Carolina has the talent to make it to the playoffs this year. Steve Smith had a great game against Miami last week. He caught 11 passes for 170 yards and 3 touchdowns. Steven Davis had 3 touchdowns against New England, but only ran for 36 yards against the Dolphins. With Kris Jenkins injured and not on the defensive line, teams have begun to double team Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers. Brett Favre won't let his guard down though. He knows what Peppers is capable of doing to opposing signal-callers.

Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme has been up and down all season long. He threw a late interception last week that virtually lost the game against the Miami Dolphins. His ability to protect the football could be a key to Monday night's contest.

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