The Panthers have adopted a five-letter “F” word for their current 11-0 predicament. They focus on one game at a time, one opponent at a time.
So how hard is that to do as the Panthers move closer and closer to the second 16-0 regular season in NFL history?
“Personally it’s easy for me,” Carolina safety Kurt Coleman told PFT Live on Monday. “I think in life we want to think about tomorrow and forget about today, but if you don’t enjoy every single moment you really just don’t get to enjoy the whole ride. I think this whole year, we’ve been able to just enjoy the journey that we’ve been on [and] not really thinking about the destination.
“Obviously everybody that starts off in the NFL wants to be Super Bowl champs, would love to go undefeated, et cetera. But I think if you don’t enjoy the journey that you’re on with the people that you’re on the journey with you’ll never be able to fully embrace the whole moment. And I think we’ve all embraced every single moment that we’ve had as a team collectively, and we’ve been focused each and every week. And say ‘put in everything we have today’ and then when the whole season’s done, we can look back and say, ‘that was a great season.’” But right now I really do believe this team is very focused on just beating New Orleans coming this Sunday.”
They’ll have some help on defense as they prepare for the New Orleans offense, thanks to the arrival of recently unretired cornerback Cortland Finnegan.
“I’m excited,” Coleman said about Finnegan joining the team. “I think every piece that the coaches and the G.M. have made thus far have really improved our team. I think Cortland brings a lot of veteran experience, he also brings the attitude that we’re looking for because we know if you’re going to be a corner on our team you’ve got to be able to tackle, you have to have the mindset that if a guy is running my way, I’ve got to be able to tackle him. And obviously Cortland’s resume speaks for itself. He’s going to have to get caught up with the playbook, the system and how we kind of mesh together but I’m excited. I got a text message from one of his old teammates, James Laurinaitis, and he was just telling me how Cortland was one of his favorite teammates. So I just think he’s going to be a great addition to what we’re trying to build here in Carolina.”
They’ve built a team that hasn’t lost a regular-season game in a year. They’re building a team that’s going to be very hard to beat in January, and perhaps on the first Sunday in February.
