Delhomme Continues To Struggle In Panthers’ Loss To Bills
Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Jake Delhomme is having a season he’d like to forget, and things got even worse on Sunday at home against the Buffalo Bills. Despite dominating the Bills on the stat sheet, Delhomme threw three interceptions that allowed Buffalo to take a 20-9 victory over the struggling Panthers. Delhomme threw for 325 yards, though without any touchdowns. His three picks pushed his total for the year to 13 which leads the NFL.
Buffalo rewarded NFL pointspread players with the outright victory as +7 road underdogs. The Bills have covered four of their seven games this season, while the Panthers have an awful record against the spread-they’ve only covered once this season for a 1-5 ATS mark. The 29 combined points went UNDER the posted total of 37. Buffalo has gone UNDER in 4 of 7 games this season while Carolina evened their NFL totals mark at 3-3.
The Bills’ Terrell Owens was again a non-factor, but gave credit to the defense for earning the victory:
“You can’t really complain about a win. Defensively, those guys are keeping us in ballgames.”
Buffalo defensive end Chris Kelsay commended his team’s confidence on the road:
“Never once on the sidelines was there any doubt that we were going to win the game. Regardless if it’s an ugly win over not, it’s hard to win in this league.”
Ryan Fitzpatrick started at QB for Buffalo in place of the injured Trent Edwards and was solid, if not spectacular. Coach Dick Jauron observed:
“He made the plays when we had to make them.”
Panthers’ coach John Fox has said he’s going to’re-evaluate’ whether the struggling Delhomme should continue to start, and even the quarterback himself couldn’t make an emphatic case that he should keep his job:
“In my heart, yeah, but I mean let’s be honest, I don’t think I’m a dummy. When you’re not playing well offensively, you always have to look at the quarterback.”
The Panthers’ schedule doesn’t get easier this week as they head west for a game against the improving Arizona Cardinals. Carolina is a +9 road underdog with the total set at 43′. They’ll head south the following week to face the red hot New Orleans Saints before returning home on November 15 to take on the Atlanta Falcons. Buffalo will host the Houston Texans this weekend, with the game currently off the board due to injuries on both teams. They’ll have their bye week after that and will return to action on November 15 against the Tennessee Titans.
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