Yesterday was a great testament that defense wins and turnovers lose championships. Both the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots defenses led these teams into the Super Bowl. The Carolina Panthers won their franchise first NFC championship and this is the second year in a row that a representative of the NFC South division is in the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots will make their second appearance in the big dance in three years. The Panthers will go into this game underdogs again, but with playoff wins against the upstart Cowboys, second seed Rams and the first seed Eagles don’t you think it is about time to give these guys some respect? The Patriots will be the team to beat in this Super Bowl but these defenses will keep this game a close one.

The difference between the Packers-Eagles game last week and the Panthers-Eagles game this week was the talent and execution on the defensive side of the ball. Unlike the Packers, the Panthers executed against the pass holding McNabb to 10 of 22 for 100 yards with 3 interceptions and 0 touchdowns. Against the run, the Panthers held the Eagles running backs to sub 100 yard games and limited the Eagles to 137 net yards rushing. The defensive line and linebackers sacked the Eagles quarterbacks 5 times. One of these sacks led to McNabb’s replacement by Koy Detmer due his separated rib cartilage injury. Any thoughts of a fourth quarter “4 and 26” comeback were squashed when Carolina linebacker Dan Morgan intercepted a Detmer pass late in the final period to seal the win for the Panthers. It was the other Manning, Ricky Manning Jr. that was the star yesterday with 3 interceptions. The Eagles receivers could not shake the coverage of the sometimes un-respected Carolina secondary. Like the team itself, they earned some respect yesterday. The Eagles will have to do something about the talent and execution of their receiving corps next year if they want to repeat this appearance in the championship game.

Since our beloved Packers are sitting at home this year watching the playoffs and Super Bowl, I was glad to see this Panthers team earn a shot at the NFL championship. Living in North Carolina now for the better part of the 22 years, it feels good for this state to have a representative in the game. Who would have thought a team 1-15 two years ago would be playing in the big game?

Last week on January 12, 2004, Philadelphia writer Will Bunch wrote a disrespectful article called “In our mind there's nothing in Carolina” about Charlotte and North Carolina in general on Phillynews.com. In response, Raleigh News and Observer reporter, Dennis Rogers straightened out a few of the Bunch’s falsehoods in his article “Bunch of nonsense from Philly.” It amazes me that some one like Bunch would ever write such an article. This goes to show that there are idiots everywhere, and we found another one in Philly. Hey Will, I wonder what you are going to be thinking and writing about now when you and McNabb are sitting at home watching the Super Bowl.