I have to say that it's rather amusing how frequently the Carolina Panthers have gotten on national television in spite of being a fairly awful team. The Panthers were at Dallas week 3 on Monday Night, home against Miami week 11 on Thursday night, and now find themselves hosting the Minnesota Vikings on NBC's Sunday Night Football. Speaking of which, if you don't have access to a tv this evening, you can watch Sunday Night Football online at MSNBC.com.
In spite of their awful nature, this excess of tv coverage has provided 49ers fans a chance to watch their second first round draft pick continue it's assent up the draft board. The Panthers are 0-2 on national television, and we're hoping they'll luck out and drop to 0-3. The draft board remains rather interesting in terms of the the top 11 picks. All of the 5-8 teams lost today, while the Raiders won to improve to 5-9. If the Panthers win tonight they move into a tie with our beloved 49ers. The 49ers have the tiebreaker due to strength of schedule, but if they're tied it doesn't really matter for our purposes. If the Panthers were to lose tonight, that Raiders win makes things all the more interesting as we'd have five teams tied at 5-9, with the potential of a 6th team if the Redskins can upset the Giants at home tomorrow night.
It absolutely kills me to have to root for the QB who shall not be named, but we need a Vikings win tonight. A loss by the Vikings and our rooting would be for naught. The Vikings need a win to climb to only 1 game back of the Saints in the race for home field throughout the playoffs. So the Vikings have a whole ton to play for. The Panthers sit as a 9 point underdog, so let's hope they don't decide to shock folks tonight.