Archives for August 2006

A flying start (Charlotte Observer)

Early returns promising for Carolina defenders (Charlotte Observer)

Offense was pretty, but defense still gritty (Charlotte Observer)

Checking out the Panthers (Charlotte Observer)

Photo Gallery (Charlotte Observer)

Super Start (Gaston Gazette)

Quick and effective (Rock Hill Herald)

Williams looked good once he warmed up (Rock Hill Herald)

Cats shut down Bills (Winston Salem Journal)

Entrenched (Winston Salem Journal)

Panthers notebook (Winston Salem Journal)

Williams learns valuable lessons in NFL debut (Fayetteville Observer)

Cats corner Bills (Fayetteville Observer)

Panthers Sights and Sounds (Fayetteville Observer)

Panthers write a good start to ’06 season (Columbia State)

Looking like a rookie (Charleston Post and Courier)

History is overrated in the NFL (Charleston Post and Courier)

Panthers hold off Bills (CarolinaPanthers.com)

Photo Gallery (CarolinaPanthers.com)

‘Kelly Holcomb and JP Losman struggled in the Buffalo Bills 14-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Saturday night.’

‘Buffalo’s quarterback troubles appeared no closer to a resolution. Kelly Holcomb and J.P. Losman both struggled in Dick Jauron’s first game as coach.’

‘Buffalo scored its lone points of the half in the second quarter on a 50-yard field goal by Rian Lindell as time expired. The Bills followed with a three-yard touchdown run by Gates with 10:26 left in the third quarter and Lindell added a 45-yarder for the final margin, as both teams failed to put up any points in the final period.’

‘Disappointed with your performance tonight? "Yeah obviously. It’s not the way you want it to start out. When you give those guys seven points. In a preseason game you don’t want to let your teammates down. I read the coverage wrong and thought I had something that I didn’t have and the guys stepped in front of it. I’m disappointed. I wanted to play better, but I couldn’t seem to get into a rhythm. We got a first down and then we had a holding penalty. It was tough going to start the game."’

‘Despite slow start do you feel as game went on you got more comfortable? "I’ve always said that the more I play and the more I’m in there then the more comfortable I get. The more comfortable I get the better it is for our team. That’s how it went as the game went on I got more comfortable making the throws. But being in this offense for the first time it takes time. It takes trust and that’s what our coaches always stress. Trust, trust, trust. We just have to trust the system. Everything was open. There were a couple of good throws and a couple of bad throws, but I’m excited."’

‘"Tim Anderson had an AC sprain (shoulder). Our medical staff doesn’t think it’s overly serious. Matt Bowen had a leg-nerve contusion. It’s the same kind of thing, they don’t think it’s a long term injury. Jon Goldsberry had a high-ankle sprain and that can run on for a while. Roscoe Parrish had a minor groin strain so we decided to keep him out in the second half."’

‘Holcomb had a tough outing. He threw a nice swing pass to McGahee in the flat on the opening possession. He was sacked on the first third down play which appeared to be a protection error and not his fault.’

‘(on watching Losman from the sidelines) I think he looked a lot more mature, more poised in the pocket than he has in the past, so that’s a good sign, I think he did a lot with his progression through his reads and looking at different things. It was a good thing to see from him knowing where he is coming from; it shows he’s getting a little more comfortable.’

‘(On staying away from mistakes…) When you’re playing a team that’s this caliber, you can’t make a mistake like that. The turnover was huge; it put seven points up on the board and put us down by two scores. We need to just come out in the second half and play disciplined. We’ll still look at a lot of players and as you said it was encouraging at the end of the half to execute, get it down the half and get a field goal.’

‘We started playing better. They made some plays on us in the passing game.’

‘They moved the ball on us with a lot of quick one-steps which is typical early in the game. I feel we came back and played respectable as a defense’

‘On why the offense struggled: We couldn’t get into a rhythm. They fooled me a couple of times. Obviously on the interception they fooled me. Hopefully, we’ll get better in the second half and get a rhythm going.’

‘Marv Levy and Dick Jauron have inherited the problem. To me, the only way to fix it is to go with J.P. Find the answer to the question that has lingered into a third season: Is he the Bills quarterback of the future? The sooner you play him, the sooner you find out.’

‘”We’re a downhill team right now,” Bills linebacker Angelo Crowell said after Thursday morning’s closed practice at St. John Fisher College. “The scheme is made for linebackers and speed. So we’re a downhill team. We’ll just run fast downhill.”‘