The Carolina Panthers have their first weekend off since the start of training camp in late July.
It's a welcome break, and as far as Coach John Fox is concerned, it comes at the perfect time.
The Panthers have had their open date as early as the fourth week of the season in years past, but this season it comes in the middle of the schedule.
"If I was voting on it, that's when it would be all the time, but that's not how it works,"
Fox said this week. "I think it's an ideal time. Sometimes it might not be ideal, you might be real healthy and on a roll. But I think if you had to put it in the middle, that's what halfway means, so it works out pretty good."
The Panthers are 6-2, leading the NFC South by one game over Tampa Bay. They share the third-best record in the NFL, behind only Tennessee (7-0) and the New York Giants (6-1).
They rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second half to beat Arizona 27-23 on Sunday.
Quarterback Jake Delhomme also likes the break at this time of the season.
"You can look at this as the midpoint of the season, but let's be honest -- it's not the midpoint,"
Delhomme said. "It's past the midpoint. We had six weeks of camp, so that's 14 weeks. We have put ourselves in a decent spot, and when we come back these (next) eight weeks will fly by. We've all seen how fast the first eight weeks have gone by, so we need to relax and get away from it mentally more than anything else. And then get ready to go."
The Panthers will regroup Monday but won't have their next practice until Wednesday. Their next game will be Nov. 9, at Oakland.
By then, the Panthers should be healthy again, particularly on the offensive line, which has been forced to mix and match most of the season. Tackle Jeff Otah has missed the past four games, and center Ryan Kalil has missed the past three with ankle injuries, but both were optimistic after Wednesday after this week's final practice.
The Panthers should also get back receiver D.J. Hackett, who has missed the past three games with a knee injury, and defensive tackle Darwin Walker, who was involved in an automobile accident and couldn't play against Arizona because of aches and pains from the wreck.
Fox said he is "as relatively confident as you can be"
that Otah and Kalil will return.
That, Delhomme said, might be the biggest benefit of the open date.
"Maybe we've played two quarters all season with all of them (offensive line),"
Delhomme said. "Geoff Hangartner and Jeremy Bridges have come in and played fantastic, along with Frank Omiyale in the Kansas City game. But to get Otah back -- there's a reason we drafted him in the first round. He's a big, large man who can play some football, and he's got something to him. Ryan Kalil the same way."
"So we're excited to get everybody back healthy. You've got to be healthy in this league. If you get healthy, you never know. The ball might bounce your way."
The Panthers will have five road games and three home games the rest of the way. The schedule is favorable after the break, with a home game against struggling Detroit after the trip to Oakland. That could push them to 8-2. But road games against Atlanta, Green Bay, the Giants and New Orleans remain, with Tampa and Denver the lone home opponents in the final six games.
"We're 6-2,"
Delhomme said. "We could end up being 6-10. Honestly. And if you don't look at it any other way, you're kidding yourself. We put ourselves in position to possibly make a run. That's what you want to do in the first half, get yourself in position where you get your foot in the door in the playoffs. But we've got to finish. That's the biggest thing. So we've got to get away from it, but we've got to get ready when you come back."
"I do see room for improvement. And if anybody doesn't feel that way, then they don't need to come back the rest of the year. It's very simple."
