What Would You Rather Be?

The Carolina Panthers lost their first football game of the season losing to the Falcons 20-14.  Would you rather go undefeated but lose in the playoffs?  Both Havelock and Eastern Alamance had great seasons going 11-0 during the regular season for Havelock a second round loss and for Eastern Alamance lost one step from the big game.

Rocky Mount lost two games during the regular season and both of their losses were to teams that went deep in the 4-A playoffs.  Today would you rather been undefeated in the regular season and lose in one of the five steps to the championship?  Does anybody any where in the state know what Rocky Mount's final record was, only that they were the the 3A state champs?

The case of the Panthers but the NFL in general the team that wins the Super Bowl is the hottest team playing when the playoffs start.  There are none hotter than Kansas City in the AFC and Arizona in the NFC.  I am afraid giving up the big lead against the Giants broke the momentum that the Panthers had going.

There is always the case of the team that matches up well against you loses to somebody else.  Part of the success of the Gryphons was getting the third playoff home game and avoided going to Havelock.    It would help the Panthers cause greatly if they beat Tampa This Sunday and if they meet make Arizona come to them.

The pressure of any streak whether it is a winning streak or a losing one can carry a heavy burden on any team.  Sometimes winning streaks teams play to keep from losing while losers keep looking for what is going to go wrong this week instead of playing the game.

There is one thing that winning hides sometimes is your faults.  One or two plays make a difference in every game.  You win you tend not to see how close you were to losing while losing you see how close you were to winning and what you have to do to win.  When you keep winning even when you don't play well you become immune to think you will never lose but one good slap back into reality to show you that you can be beaten might not be as bad as you think.  The way they play against Tampa will tell us if they learned anything.