Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints look for first win of season
National Football Conference (NFC) South Division rivals Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints will go head to head on Sunday, September 16, 2012 at the Bank of America Stadium looking for their first wins of the 2012-13 season.
Both teams faced disappointing starts to the new campaign and will be looking to remedy that with a strong performance in week 2.
The New Orleans Saints though will get much of the attention after they were beaten by the Washington Redskins in the first week after their new quarterback and second overall draft pick Robert Griffin III completely crushed a poor Saints defensive unit.
It seems the NFL suspensions banning head coach Sean Payton and assistant coach Joe Vitt for their part in the bounty scandal is already taking its toll on the Saints.
Aaron Kromer who is currently leading the Saints as interim head coach though said that the players are ready to turn things around and the week 1 result was a wakeup call.
"I'm sure (Payton) was disappointed that we didn't play better than we did and he should have been. We were all disappointed -- players, coaches, everyone. We had one bad game. We're going to turn it around. It's a good wake-up call for us and we're ready
to go."
Saints quarterback Drew Brees ended up with his worst completion rate since 2006 at 46.2% and threw two interceptions but also managed three touchdowns.
However, his efforts were not enough to stop Washington Redskins and Griffin who went on to beat the Saints 40-32.
Brees is confident that the team could turn it around though:
“We lost the first game of last year and finished 13-3. So there's no doubt that we can do it."
Carolina Panthers on the other hand too disappointed their fans who were expecting the team to start off with a flourish.
The Panthers were touted by many as genuine contenders for the playoffs this year but their poor week 1 display against Tampa Bay Buccaneers was highly disappointing.
Carolina lost 16-10 with Cam Newton disappointing as he threw two interceptions during the game.
Head coach Ron Rivera though believes that the mistakes in week 1 can be corrected through practice:
"There's some cause for optimism as the mistakes on the offensive side are all correctable. It wasn't a glaring thing as far as schematically. It was a player here or a player there, something that they did (wrong). We'll get better at it. There are some
things we can do against (the Saints)."
The Saints will be favourites to win the game if they bring their normal game but another performance like that against the Redskins will not help the cause of New Orleans.
For the Panthers though this is a big chance to make a statement and also end their losing streak against New Orleans which started in 2009.
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