Hungry kitties

Young Panthers have enough talent to make a move

This is the ninth in a series of postcards Peter King will e-mail from his annual NFL training camp tour.

Saturday, Aug. 16

Team: Carolina Panthers

Site: Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., a place the Panthers were lucky to find Thursday night. After landing at Newark Airport -- which is 15 minutes away from the stadium and 25 minutes from their hotel -- in the middle of the blackout late Thursday afternoon, the Panthers boarded buses bound for the Glen Pointe Marriott in Teaneck. Generators were used to power two meeting rooms and the food service area at the hotel, so the Panthers' Thursday night meetings -- and gorgings -- went fine. But it was shaping up to be a sweltering night with no air conditioning. So perhaps this is why this might be the Panthers’ year: As the players were getting ready to bed down, at 11:20 p.m., power returned to Teaneck.

1. He Hate Me’s here! Rod Smart is trying to make the club, and it looks like he has a good shot to become one of Carolina's special-teams gunners. And he made a quick, nifty dash around the corner for a 1-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter.

2. Interesting roster. Skip Hicks, Kavika Pittman, Ricky Proehl, Jermaine Wiggins, Terrence Wilkins and that old Rams linebacker Brian Allen.

3. And, of course, Vinny Ciurciu, who is the only player in NFL history to have "ciu" in his last name twice.

The Panthers do not play a non-South Division team through Nov. 15 (they start with Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Tennessee, New Orleans, Houston and Tampa Bay). After that, six of their last seven games are against non-South Division teams.

Right tackle Jordan Gross. I always think, in a draft, it’s a good idea to get a cornerstone player at an important position. With the eighth pick overall in April, the Panthers took the best offensive lineman in the draft. They’ve installed Gross, who was raised in Idaho and schooled at Utah, at right tackle. They won’t regret it.

I isolated on Gross for 10 plays in the first half. On each, he was matched one-on-one with Giants defensive end Keith Washington. Never was he given help. Quite frankly, against a pedestrian guy like like Washington, Gross shouldn’t need help, but this is the man’s second NFL game. Washington, the Giants’ third defensive end, is a nine-year journeyman and playing because of Michael Strahan’s broken toe. But Gross was terrific.

Once, when Stephen Davis ran in the right guard/tackle hole, Gross stayed with Washington and battled him, then, just as Davis was making his run through the hole, Gross pancaked Washington. The kid looks like he has what it takes.

1. I think I can’t figure out why Jake Delhomme isn’t the quarterback of this team. I hear he has looked crummy in practice, but there’s no question he gives the Panthers the best chance to win. I guess it’s the conservative nature of Dan Henning, the Carolins offensive coordinator. Interesting, too, that Chris Weinke has played well in the preseason but can’t get even a serious backslap from John Fox.

2. I think Todd Sauerbrun is the best punting weapon in the game right now. He boomed a 47-yarder to the Giants’ half-yard line in the first half.

3. I think Will Witherspooon, the third-round pick from Georgia last year, looks like an active sideline-to-sideline player.

4. I think the leads Carolina couldn’t hold in the waning minutes last year will be held this year -- as long as Davis stays healthy and productive. Fox will want to bang it late in fourth quarters, as all smart coaches do when their team holds a lead late.

5. I think I’d like to tip my cap to Marty Hurney, the former ink-stained beat man covering the Redskins who’s done a heck of a job building an anonymous (which he loves) roster of players while deflecting any sort of credit or any sort of we-have-arrived sentiment. Smart man. They haven’t arrived. But they’re on their way, thanks to Hurney and Fox, who really seem to know how to pick players.

I ate at home, 15 minutes away, and my wife would hate my reviewing our dinner. But I will say I made some absolutely delicious pork chops on the grill, including halved peaches brushed with butter/molasses sauce from a recipe found in The New York Times. Succulent, incredibly fruity. I mean, have you ever had peaches on the grill? Don’t laugh. Phenomenal. Surprisingly phenomenal. Selfishly, I am giving the King pork chops an A. I know this does not satisfy your menu jones, dear audience, but it’s the best I can do.

Let me just say this about Julius Peppers: Wow.

What a special player. On the Giants’ second offensive series, Peppers ran around Giants right tackle Ian Allen and swatted down a Kerry Collins pass. On the next series, he flew in and sacked Collins for a 7-yard loss.

I know I’m stating the obvious here, but this guy is such a great athlete and a great high-motor player that he can make a Lawrence Taylor-type play on any down. Look at his 12-game career totals: 12 sacks, four deflected passes, five forced fumbles, one pick.

The schedule-makers didn’t do Carolina any favors, matching them against prime playoff contenders (Bucs, Falcons, Saints, Colts, Titans, Saints) in Games 2 through 7. But I’m thinking seriously of picking the little Kitties for the playoffs. I love Peppers, and I like the push that defensive line gets with Brentson Buckner, Kris Jenkins and Micheal Rucker, and I really like the bookend effect of Gross and Todd Steussie at tackle.

Let me percolate on it for a week or so. But I like this team a lot.

Check back soon for more of Peter King's Postcards from Camp.