Carolina Panthers Vs Minnesota Vikings

Awright, awright, awright.  I’m out of town enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday with friends.  This post was queued up before I left.

Today, the 3-7-1 Angry Kitties play the 4-7 Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis at 1:00 PM ET.  Fox is carrying the game.

Since the only consistent thing about the Vikings has been their inconsistency and the Panthers handed the Atlanta Falcons the NFC South Division in their 19-17 loss to them.  This has been a season to forget for Cam Newton and the Panthers.

“I have to play better,” Newton said. (No shit, Sherlock.)

David Newton writing for ESPN’s NFC South Blog thinks, “The most obvious fall guy for this season would be offensive coordinator Mike Shula. The offense ranks 24th in the NFL and quarterback Cam Newton statistically is having his worst season, ranking near the bottom of the league in passer rating at 80.3.”

I disagree with his premise.  He contends that Coach Ron Rivera will not be fired a year after winning the NFL Coach of the Year award.  Rivera is a weak coach as evidenced by the fact that he “sent a message to Kelvin Benjamin” earlier in the season by benching him for a portion of a game but has resisted doing the same to QB Newton for playing afraid.  Shula works for Rivera.  He is the offensive coordinator.  He can’t will Newton to play like a man.

Newton’s Twitter account was hacked and someone with a sense of humor tweeted, “I want to get released.”  Another tweet said, “I want to get signed to a good team.”  Oddly, there may be some truth to that. 

Clearly Newton’s focus is not on his lousy abilities but rather on his inflated ego, his line of clothing and his new cologne called Drakkar Essence.

Prediction:  This will be another craptastic game ending in a win for the Vikings.

And because no football post would be complete without pom-poms, please enjoy this photo of Top Cat Shannon.