Carolina Panthers Prop Bets - Head to Head against Five

The Carolina Panthers have their regular home-and-home with the other teams in the NFC South, the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last year they were 4-2 in those division games, and it could happen again.

Outside the division, there certainly are challenges. The Panthers open the season at home against Philadelphia, and also play in Charlotte against Washington, Buffalo, Miami (in a Thursday night game) and Minnesota. They can win all four of those games, or go at least 3-2. They also have to travel to Dallas in a Monday night game at the new stadium, Arizona, the Jets and Giants, both in the same building, and Foxborough against the Patriots. They could go 1-4 in these games, but I think they'll steal another victory in there somewhere.

I can see a 9-7 or 10-6 record for this team. I say that because I like teams who are able to control the ball on the ground, because in so many ways it allows them to execute their objective. They can chew the clock, rest the defense, run out time at the end of games, wear down the defensive line, and loosen things up in the secondary. It would be nice if Jake Delhomme was a little more of a dynamic passer, but he has a dynamic receiver in Steve Smith, who could probably make plays even if the entire defense was covering him.

All in all, I look at Carolina and its tremendous rushing duo of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, I see a playoff team, even though they're going to have to win some games as an underdog to get that done.

Let's do some regular season win matchups:

PANTHERS VS RAVENS 
Carolina Panthers  -½  Wins       +190
Baltimore Ravens  +½  Wins      -250

In many ways, the Baltimore Ravens resemble the Panthers, in that they are fully intent in bruising you with their running game and getting physical on defense. I have faith that they can again challenge for the playoffs, but even though the Panthers don't have a defense that is as good, they have other advantages - a more experienced quarterback who can probably operate with a bigger playbook in hand, a big-play receiver (Smith) that far out-distances anything Baltimore has to offer, and running backs of slightly better quality (at least in my opinion). From that point, it's a matter of looking at value in the price. We've got it, in a small recommendation. PANTHERS (-1/2 win, +190)

PANTHERS VS BROWNS
Carolina Panthers  -2  Wins        -125
Cleveland Browns  +2  Wins       -115

I don't know that it won't get downright boring to put the Cleveland Browns into every one of these win matchups, because I think they're overvalued. If you put their offense together with Denver's defense, you'd probably have a winless team, which, come to think of it, is what Detroit was last year. Except Detroit may just win more games than Cleveland. If Carolina reaches six or seven wins, they may just clinch this one, and that won't be terribly hard for them, unless they have to sign Ken Dorsey as a free agent because of injuries. PANTHERS (-2 wins, -125)