Pre-pre-season NFL game sees my team actually do something good
Published on HivePostify by @sports.guy55 · Sat Aug 08 2026
When it was announced that my team, the Carolina Panthers, were going to be playing in the Hall of Fame game this year two things entered my mind. First, it was that nobody gives a shit about the HOF Game and it is completely meaningless. Second, I thought "oh, let's see how absolutely awful the Panthers are going to be this year!"
The game actually went pretty well and even though I am certainly not going to get my hopes up about them having a good season, the Carolina Panthers actually managed to look not completely awful for the first time in a while.
[src](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvMZ32y4WtHIHNj3OIdpM3aVTaOvG6MQsLFO2poAyGA&s)
Before i get ahead of myself though it is important to note that there were only a handful of teams that could be considered worse than Carolina last season and one of those teams was the Arizona Cardinals who managed a pathetic 3-14 with the losses being the big number.
So yeah, Carolina winning this game really isn't anything to get excited about. There was a couple of things that were worth getting excited about. For one thing, Bryce Young, the official starting quarterback for the Carolina Panthers and who I believe to be perhaps that largest collective waste of money in NFL history, didn't play and they let the backup QB's get some time on field and they did pretty well.
I am a big believer that we need to phase out Bryce Young by any means necessary and Haynes King putting on a pretty outstanding performance with no interceptions and two passing TD's is a great start in that direction.
[src](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTQ2OrrIrqZKzsle3JEBu8csxtR4vH4ZgQWqDjVV6ez7SUIlibI6lswdvwe&s=10)
I hope that it isn't quickly forgotten how this guy made the play that won the game on the very last play of the game in the 4th quarter with 2 seconds remaining on the clock. This guy was an undrafted rookie from Georgia Tech that Carolina probably gave very little money to. I hope that they give him more field time because at 6 foot 2 and 212 pounds, this guy is more the size of what a QB needs to be unlike the teeny-tiny Bryce Young who at times looks like a child out there surrounded by men. Man I hate Bryce Young and wish that Carolina would just cut their losses and move away from the guy. I get it ok? You dropped tens of millions of dollars into this guy but it simply isn't panning out.
Even if it means wasting money I am sick and tired of Carolina making bad decision after bad decision and then making the same choices over and over and for some reason expecting things to turn out differently.
Carolina forced 2 sacks and a fumble and managed to get about as many yards forward as Arizona did despite having possession of the ball for far less time.
I'm not a fan of the fact that the Carolina defense, which has had a relative mountain of money and draft picks thrown at it in the past 4 years, allowed so many yards against them with 425 yards. This is against the team that many consider to possibly be the worst offense in the NFL as well. So I am not hopeful about how they are going to perform against an actually good team such as when they play the Buffalo Bills just over a week from now.
I'm keeping my expectations extremely low this season so as to not lose any more hair over this. I plan to bet against Carolina on the spread in every single game and make a bit of money like I did last year.
I don't bet on pre-season games because normally teams don't actually play to win these games since they have no bearing on standings at all. The regular season doesn't start until the 2nd week of September, so I'll go ahead and get my picks ready!
Tags: #americanfootball#nfl#carolina#football#arizona#halloffame#sports