WaterBomb
Two kids no brane
I don't count the Bengals as a contender because Dalton just isn't that good. He's had a productive year stat-wise so far but mostly on the merits of his Offensive Line playing out of their minds and a finally dangerous tight end in Eifert to draw attention from Green. When the OL is playing more an average level you get what you saw this past Sunday. Dalton struggled a lot with accuracy and constantly tried to force balls to Green rather than going through his progressions. The only reason the Bengals even won Sunday was because Big Ben gifted them three free INTs (who knows why, call it post-injury rust?) and because Bell went down. Dalton is going to start settling back to Earth for the remainder of the season, you heard it here first. Marvin Lewis is also terrible and the only reason he's still the coach is because the GM has managed to assemble such an incredibly talented team that is masking his deficiencies.
As for the Panthers, I think Newton is a better QB than Dalton and Rivera a better coach than Lewis, but they don't have nearly the offensive talent to keep up with a Patriots team that can seemingly drop 40 points on any team it wants if Lord Belichick wills it. Their defense is definitely solid, but the aforementioned offensive talent void combined with Newton's general inconsistency in his accuracy prevent them from being any real threat to whichever team the AFC will ultimately offer (at this point probably NE or maaaaaaaybe Denver)
Pittsburgh could have challenged New England if they kept Bell healthy, but at this stage they simply limp into the playoffs, possibly win the wild card and then get annihilated by NE or DEN.
As for the Panthers, I think Newton is a better QB than Dalton and Rivera a better coach than Lewis, but they don't have nearly the offensive talent to keep up with a Patriots team that can seemingly drop 40 points on any team it wants if Lord Belichick wills it. Their defense is definitely solid, but the aforementioned offensive talent void combined with Newton's general inconsistency in his accuracy prevent them from being any real threat to whichever team the AFC will ultimately offer (at this point probably NE or maaaaaaaybe Denver)
Pittsburgh could have challenged New England if they kept Bell healthy, but at this stage they simply limp into the playoffs, possibly win the wild card and then get annihilated by NE or DEN.