The Panthers certainly made a statement on Sunday by not just beating the 49ers, but being in control of the game.  Even though the stats don’t indicate that Carolina did a good job on offense, they did just enough to score more points than San Francisco.  This was more about the defense though as the Panthers found the 49ers in a state of disarray with Colin Kaepernick appearing lost at times and the Niners offense only converting twice on 13 third down attempts.  One can assume that the absence of Vernon Davis who left with a concussion during the game has a devastating effect on the 49ers.  The Niners defense played great as well, but clearly the Panthers defense is ready to play.  Easily the early favorite to win the NFC Defensive Player of the Year award is Panthers LB Luke Kuechly.  He was all over the place and was instrumental is slowing down Frank Gore in the second half.  This doesn’t mean a free fall for the 49ers, but they needed a wake up call again and the Panthers are contenders for a playoff spot going forward.

I would have thought that it happened before, but no team had ever converted 40 first downs in NFL history until the New Orleans Saints did so on Sunday night.  Drew Brees was his usual self throwing for almost 400 yards and four touchdown passes and to make matters worse for their opponent the Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans was able to run the ball for 242 yards.  Now if the Saints can have that kind of balance on a consistent basis then their defense will be well rested for a Super Bowl run.  This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the NFC and it shows that the Dallas Cowboys are in a sad state.  Yes, even the best defense in the NFL couldn’t have slowed down that kind of an offense, but the Cowboys couldn’t even do anything on offense the entire game.  The state of the NFC East division is getting worse every week.  If the Saints can continue that kind of balance against the 49ers next week, then there is no telling who could slow them down.

I have avoided talking about or even mentioning the Dolphins sad state of affairs when it comes to Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin for a long time now.  Most immediately said this was a case of bullying and jumped on the bandwagon of saying bullying is wrong and should never be tolerated.  Then it became more of an issue of racism with Incognito using the ‘N’ word in voice and text messages to Martin.  And to top it off most of the Dolphins players are backing Incognito over Martin and said that there wasn’t any kind of physical or verbal altercations between the two teammates. So far only Incognito has spoken publicly and Martin is getting treatment and will meet with NFL investigators in the near future. 

What do I think of all of this?  In short I don’t care.  My thought process is this; what goes on in a locker room is none of my business or anyone else’s unless it involves someone threatening the livelihood of another.  Then it should be taken care of immediately by the team and league not those in the media.  We don’t know what happened and we shouldn’t try to solve it amongst ourselves.  Second is that with a name like Incognito you would have to think something is wrong with him.  Is that a common last name?  My last name isn’t common either, but Incognito?  Anyway he was kicked off of two college football teams and the St. Louis Rams dumped him early in his pro career.  The Dolphins needed help on the offensive line and brought him in and it worked out on the field.  Everything else seems to point to a weird individual who can’t control himself.  

Again the only reason why I’m mentioning this is because we need to let things play out and take it at face value.  I didn’t watch all of Incognito’s interview with Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer.  One thing that troubled me is that Incognito was almost trying to defend himself for using the ‘N’ word.  For one that word will never be banned.  You can’t ban people from saying something unless you’re in a communist country and I would like to think that most people understand the meaning of that word and don’t think that because you say it a certain way it’s okay now.  

But the one thing I found interesting about what Incognito said is the text messages that Martin sent back to him when this all started.  Martin essentially told Richie that he didn’t blame him and that this was getting blown out of proportion.  So why is this becoming a big deal then?  I would like to hear more from Martin, but we need to let the NFL look into this and wait for their report. They said it would all be made public so lets just wait and see.