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(SportsNetwork.com) - Life isnt always fair. At 3-7-1 on the season the Carolina Panthers are just one-half game out of first place in the dreadful NFC South. Conversely the Minnesota Vikings are a tick better at 4-7 and all but dead and buried in the tough NFC North. The Panthers will arrive in the Twin Cities well rested and coming off an always advantageous late bye week, something made even more sweet when the rest of the NFC South -- New Orleans, Atlanta and Tampa Bay -- lost in Week 12 while Cam Newton and Co. were watching. Currently the Saints and Falcons are tied atop the division at 4-7 with the Bucs bringing up the rear behind the Panthers at 2-9. Carolina is a step behind Atlanta because of a 19-17 Week 11 home loss to the Falcons in which Matt Bryant connected on four field goals, including a 44- yarder late in the fourth quarter to lift Atlanta. Newton struggled for much of the game, but did have two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and finished the game 23-for-37 for 292 yards with two interceptions for the Panthers, who have lost five straight overall after tying a game against Cincinnati in Week 6. Weve just got to play better, as a team, as a group and take that challenge personally, said Newton. I know Im better than how Im playing. We just have to get things going. Newtons second touchdown pass of the fourth quarter had given the Panthers a 17-16 lead with 6:20 to play. The Falcons Matt Ryan, though, was able to get his team into scoring position, thanks in part to three receptions by Harry Douglas for 29 yards. Bryant booted the 44-yarder in with 2:08 to play for a 19-17 lead. The Panthers were able to get into field goal range on their ensuing touch, thanks in part to catches of 15 yards and 17 yards from Greg Olsen and Kelvin Benjamin, respectively. Graham Gano, though, missed a 46-yarder just to the left with 1:22 to play. This was a tough one to swallow, said Carolina head coach Ron Rivera. I talked to the players about this and told them were still in the middle of it, believe it or not, but weve got to start taking care of our own end first. In Minnesota, things havent gone as expected this season under first-year coach Mike Zimmer. The Vikings were planning to lean on MVP candidate Adrian Peterson running behind veteran Matt Cassel at quarterback with second-year stud Cordarrelle Patterson serving as an over the top threat outside the numbers. Instead Petersons personal issues have taken him out of the equation, Cassel broke his foot early in the season and Patterson has not developed, leaving Zimmer relying on rookies Teddy Bridgewater and Jerick McKinnon at quarterback and running back respectively, as well as first-year receiver Charles Johnson. Despite that Minnesota has remained very competitive and gave Green Bay, perhaps the NFCs best team, all it could handle in Week 12 before eventually succumbing 24-21. Bridgewater went 21-for-37 for 210 yards, two touchdowns and an interception against the Packers. McKinnon ran it 15 times for 54 yards and Johnson had three catches for 52 yards and a score, along with a two-point conversion. Im proud of the way the guys fought today, said Bridgewater. We fell short and didnt make enough plays to win this game, but the effort was there. We just have to continue to get better each week and be a consistent football team. The Vikings lead their all-time series with Carolina 6-5 but the Panthers have won two of the past three, including a 35-10 blowout last season when Newton threw for 242 yards and accounted for four TDs (three passing, one rushing). WHAT TO WATCH FOR Besides the obvious issue of not having Peterson, many of the Vikings offensive issues stem from the poor play of the offensive line, particularly the left side where left tackle Matt Kalil is having a disastrous year and left guard Charlie Johnson has only been a bit better. Kalil, the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft who was a Pro Bowl player as a rookie, refused to comment after he was called for three penalties in the Vikings loss to the Packers. Honestly, it was hard for me to see, Zimmer said. The times when I watched him, (Kalil) seemed to be doing okay, but my eyes are looking at their coverage and the blitzes that theyre doing and Teddy (Bridgewater). After the contest, however, Kalil was videotaped knocking a hat off a fan who had criticized his play. I usually shrug off that stuff, Kalil said. Fans like to talk and say some things, but thats just something that I could have been a bigger man and walked away from. But it really wasnt that big of a deal. (The fan) just caught me when I had a short fuse that day. Meanwhile the strength of the group, the right side, is now entirely gone after right tackle Phil Loadholt tore his pec against Green Bay last weekend. The big Oklahoma product joins right guard Brandon Fusco, who also tore a pec earlier this season, on the sidelines. The incident (Sunday) with the media thing and the fan, obviously a lot of frustration, losing a game like that, losing Phil in the game to injury and stuff like that, Kalil said. So obviously I was a little upset, but I hope you guys didnt take anything personally. It was just one of those days, so I apologize for that. All of that means Minnesota offensive coordinator Norv Turner will be scaling back things even further with significant playing time for all three tight ends -- Kyle Rudolph, Rhett Ellison and Chase Ford -- with the intent on getting extra help for both Kalil and Mike Harris, a waiver pickup before the season who will replace Loadholt. The Carolina defense isnt what it was in 2013 when the team finished 12-4 and won the NFC South, allowing 374.0 yards per game, good for 25th in football. The group, however, is well set up to handle a Vikings attack which rarely stretches the field and, when it does, isnt all that effective because Bridgewater lacks accuracy down the football field. Panthers middle linebacker Luke Kuechly, who leads the NFL with 436 tackles since entering the league in 2012, should be able to handle Minnesotas run game and when the Vikings offense gets one-dimensional, things can get ugly. Minnesota comes in ranked 30th overall on offense with only the NFLs two one- win teams, Jacksonville and Oakland worse. On the offensive side, the Panthers will certainly be helped by the extra rest because Newton clearly wasnt right physically before the bye. Carolina has had its own issues with the offensive line, however, with yet another change looming for Sunday with Mike Remmers, a former deep reserve with the Vikings, in line to replace the injured Nate Chandler at right tackle. It will be the sixth different group the Panthers have used up front in six games. The Vikings are much improved defensively from the group that was torched by Cam in 2013 (12th overall) but the unit still struggles at times with situational football and bigger receivers, something that could signal a big day for 6-foot-5 rookie wideout Benjamin, who has 52 catches for 768 yards and leads all freshman with eight TD catches. Its not about accepting anything. Its just realizing you have to be better, Newton said. You cant get down on yourself because youre not getting the results. If anything you just got to keep going back to the lab and working on your craft and your product, and make that art shinier. OVERALL ANALYSIS The Panthers were likely sitting at home last week amazed that they are still in the NFC South race and the fact that this game actually means something for them, along with the Vikings dismal offensive line, should be the difference here. We control our own destiny, but this destiny is no easy catch, Newton said. We have to be men about this. We have to be professionals about this and weve got to set the standard for ourselves to play at. And anything less than that is unacceptable. Sports Network predicted outcome: Panthers 21, Vikings 17 How to Buy Cheap Jerseys . -- Kevin Harvick pulled away on a restart with 47 laps to go and ended Chase Elliotts two-race winning streak in NASCARs Nationwide Series with a dominating victory early Saturday at Richmond International Raceway. What is a good website to buy sports jerseys .C. -- Duke sophomore Rodney Hood is entering the NBA draft. https://www.wheretobuycheapjerseys.com/ . The Blue Jackets play Thursday night at New Jersey in their first game after the NHLs Olympic hiatus. A native of Trencin, Slovakia, Gaborik has represented his country at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics but was unable to play in Sochi because of his injury. What is the best Chinese web site for cheap Jerseys . Hes just beginning to get similar results. The right-hander struggled after winning the honour in 2008 and 2009, but a retooling of his game has begun to pay off and has the San Francisco Giants thinking about the Lincecum of old. 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Freddie Roach said if the Rios fight "does not go well, we will seriously talk about his retirement," but that Pacquiao was training as well as ever for the Nov.DETROIT - A change in the shootout lineup worked perfectly for the Florida Panthers.Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri had the only goals in the shootout to lift the Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.Roberto Luongo made 29 saves through overtime and stopped Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist in the tiebreaker to give the Panthers their second victory in two meetings against the Red Wings this season.Trocheck and Pirri havent normally been sent out for shootouts but coach Gerard Gallant acted on a hunch.We wanted to change it up because weve been struggling in the shootout, he said after his team broke an 0-4 drought in tiebreakers.Tomas Fleischmann and Jonathan Huberdeau scored in the first period for the Panthers.Riley Sheahan and Nyquist also scored in the first for Detroit and Jimmy Howard finished with 24 saves. The Red Wings dropped their second straight in a shootout and fell to 1-5 in tiebreakers this season.Its frustrating, it really is, Howard said after falling to 0-5 in tiebreakers, including a loss to Toronto two nights earlier. We keep having meeting after meeting about it. We work on it in practice. Just gonna have to stick with it.Backup Petr Mrazek, who has Detroits lone shootout win, will start Saturday night at Toronto.Sheahan got the Red Wings on the scoreboard first, flipping a rebound of Datsyuks shot past Luongo for a power-play goal at 5:03.Fleischmann tied it at 7:10 with his third goal of the season. Huberdeau wristed a shot past Howard with 6:05 left in the opening period to put the Panthers ahead.However, Nyquist backhanded his 14th goal on the power play with 39 secondds left remaining in the period.ddddddddddddJakub Kindl drew a double-minor for interference and cross-checking early in the third period but the Red Wings allowed just two shots and kept the game tied. Detroit outshot Florida 4-1 in overtime but none of them were good scoring chances.We played the game we wanted to play and we took it to the shootout, Luongo said after his 10th victory. And in the shootout anything can happen.Florida, which topped sluggish Detroit 4-3 here 10 days earlier, outshot Detroit 15-12 in the opening period and had better chances Friday, but managed just 10 more shots in the next 40 minutes.The Red Wings have scored just three goals in shootouts this season but coach Mike Babcock said hes not losing sleep.Right now, when we get to the shootout were not a confident group so weve just got to keep working on it, he said. No sense hanging our heads or getting disappointed.Stephen Weiss, a longtime Panthers player before joining the Red Wings last season as a free agent, did not return for the third period due to a shoulder injury. Babcock did not say how serious the injury was.NOTES: Detroit D Danny DeKeyser missed the game with an upper-body injury. The club recalled Xavier Ouellet from Grand Rapids of the AHL to replace him. ... Florida F Scottie Upshall (lower body) and F Aleksander Barkov (upper body) missed their seventh and fourth games, respectively. ... Red Wings F Justin Abdelkader (shoulder) was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 30, the night he left a win over Vancouver. ... Panthers D Shane OBrien, recalled from AHL San Antonio a day earlier, was a healthy scratch. ' ' '