SF 49ers at the Carolina Panthers (UPDATE: PANTHERS WIN 23-20!)

The 0-5 Panthers look to score their first victory of the season against the league’s other “worst team” – my co-blogger’s SF 49ers. The 9ers are coming off their first win of the season last week (17-9 over Oakland) and will look to capitalize on that with another win this week.

The big news of the week for the Panthers is that Panthers QB Jimmy Clausen has been benched and Matt Moore will start today. Not sure if that will make any difference as Moore wasn’t exactly stellar at QB for the games he started this year, but I guess Coach Fox is desperate at this point and is willing to try Moore again to see if the spark he had last year has finally come back this year. WR Steve Smith will be back in action today after a few weeks of nursing a high ankle sprain.

It’s a gorgeous fall day here in Charlotte. 75 degrees and sunny.

Game time is 1 pm ET and will be broadcast on Fox.

My NFL pool picks for today: ATL, CHI, PHI, KC, PIT, NO, TB, CAR, BAL, SEA, SD, DEN, GB, DAL.

UPDATE [from Phineas] 12:27 PST: Niners take the lead, 20-13, early in the 4th. The battle for the cellar continues….

UPDATE 2 from ST – 4:26 PM: Panthers win 23-20! Matt Moore had a pretty good day and the offense looked better. Hopefully they can build on this next week when they visit St. Louis.

UPDATE 3 from Phineas – 13:52 PST:  #@$#^&*(^!!!