November 6, 2009

After all we’ve been through, starting out 0-3, then winning 3 of 4, the crazy thing is the season is still young. If we beat New Orleans we’re 2-1 in the division and they’re 2-1 in the division. That’s what it all boils down to.

The difference for the Saints is that they’re running the ball, too. Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell, who we all know from Denver, can run it and they have a quarterback in Drew Brees who has been pinpoint accurate. They’ve also gotten faster at the wide receiver position over the last couple years. But the difference between the team that had the quarterback passing on every down and going for Dan Marino’s record last year and this team, which is 7-0, is the running game.

Also look at Brees’ passer rating on third down. It’s insane. Games are won and lost on third down and in the red zone and no one does it better there than Drew Brees.

The first thing we have to do is stop the run, make them one-dimensional. When they run the ball, it opens up the passing game because you have to respect the run and put an extra body in the box.

Once you stop the run you have to get pressure on Brees. All the teams that have had any success at all against the Saints this year have done that.

Really, this is a game of want to. You gotta line up and beat their guys, 1 on 1. I think that’s the beauty of this game. It’s an important game, a division game, and the fact that they’re undefeated is the cherry on top.

We can go from everyone saying the Panthers are out of it, they’re not going to win anything, to being the most talked about 4-4 team in the NFL. I like the sound of that.

This is an opportunity for us. They can hype it all they want, what it comes down to is that playing a meaningful game in November instead of December, that’s just great. We’re excited and ready to go.

Carolina Panthers All-Pro middle linebacker Jon Beason writes a blog for www.playerpress.com at www.jonbeason.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jonbeason.