MasterAwesome

And yet the Chargers, with their franchise QB and franchise LT, put up only 17 points against a subpar Cowboys defense. Not very compelling for the “if only we had drafted Slater” crowd. Horn has been a boss so far and is a big part of our defensive transformation this season.

That o-line protection…

Yeah that’s correct, 8 active. Some people don’t know our roster very well apparently.

That's literally one of the 5 columns.

I guess it's a matter of opinion on whether you think there's more pressure on you if you're basically carrying your team's offensive output (as you claim Gano has been doing on the Giants) or if you're the kicker of a Super Bowl contender whose average margin of victory was 17.25 points (like with Tucker on the Ravens last year). Personally I'd say the former but it seems you think the latter. You can argue the Giants suck and so Gano automatically gets an asterisk on all of his FGs, but yesterday the Giants were just some 0-1 team trying to win a football game against a divisional rival to get their season on the right track so I'd argue his performance yesterday (5-5 on FGs with a long of 55 yards) was pretty f'ing clutch, in spite of the loss.

I mean if you want to move the goalposts and argue instead that he's padding his numbers with "easy" FGs or something, that's fine...but the numbers still don't support your argument. So less than half of his attempts were under 39 yards? Have you compared that to other kickers in the league to see if that's even unusual? Let's look at Huddle fan-favorite Harrison Butker: 16 of his 25 attempts were <39 yards. Justin Tucker: 15 of his 29 attempts were <39 yards. So yeah maybe it is unusual Gano kicked only 14 of his 32 from <39 yards...perhaps that's relatively low. Most people (here at least) would probably consider Butker/Tucker as the top 2 kickers in the NFL. Are they really not that good cause they led inept offenses and padded their numbers with "gimme" FGs?

I don't think you understand how percentages work. The more field goals you attempt, the higher your percentage? Is that what I'm gathering?

Jaycee Horn vs. CJ Saunders...ouch, bit of a mismatch. I know iron sharpens iron, but can a turd sharpen iron? Next week, on Mythbusters...

Yeah that's more my impression as well. I think there could be some niche rivalries pertaining to specific things (like football as you mentioned, or BBQ as someone else did) but I've never felt there was this overall negative sentiment towards NC as a whole.

Yeah now there's an analogy I can empathize with. Still though, in my personal experience across the border I've never gotten the impression that anyone here gives much thought to NC in general. I mean I tell everyone I'm from Charlotte and I've never seen anyone viscerally retract in disgust lol. But hey that's just my flimsy anecdotal evidence so I'll accept what appears to be the consensus opinion here.

I admit my experience is really just limited to Charlotte vs. Greenville, so I'll acknowledge that it's ignorant of me to make any broad assertions about NC vs. SC...I didn't intend to do that. Obviously Charlotte is the epicenter of Panthers' fandom considering the stadium is located there, so it's perhaps a bit unfair to use it as the standard to compare other cities to lol. I was expecting more interest from Greenville SC though since it's one of the larger cities, not far from Charlotte, and within very close proximity to Spartanburg where training camp is held. So I guess I assumed if there's little interest in Greenville, there's probably not a whole lot of interest elsewhere in SC. But again, ignorant of me to make those kinds of assumptions.

I've spent 28 of my 33 years in NC (mostly Charlotte, + 4 years at UNC Chapel Hill) and I never really got any kind of "rivalry" vibe with SC so I guess we've had different lived experiences. I mean other than political differences which have really been exacerbated over the last ~5 years. But yeah when I told people I was moving to Greenville, I would get asked the same question but tbh I didn't even know Greenville NC was a thing until that question lol. I don't think I ever got any kind of negative reception from answering Greenville SC but now you've got me wondering... I will say, even as a NC native myself...I was completely blindsided by how different SC is. Not a fan at all, personally...but again, that stems primarily from the political divide and the implications of that.

While I agree with your assertion about the drastic differences between the two (I've lived in both), I don't think that was motivated by Tepper believing that they're basically the same. It's kinda just Business 101 to expand your reach and appeal to a broader audience. I think that was just his attempt to do that. I've been in Greenville SC for ~5 years now and I barely see any support for the Panthers. I think the simplest explanation was that he was probably just trying to stir up interest in some South Carolinians like "hey this is your team too". Also, there can certainly be some validity (and dare I say commendation) in trying to find some uniting entity to bring two very different groups together. That's more just a general sentiment though, I'm not saying I think he was motivated by some virtuous attempt at unifying the two Carolinas...definitely more plausible that it was motivated by $$$$$.

Yeah but like...Snow was the linebackers coach of the 0-16 Detroit Lions so it would logically follow that he would suck as a DC. -An actual argument I read here multiple times after the hiring.

Woahhhh....you mean the omniscient Huddle expert commentators got something wrong all this time?

That would have been just as much of a wasted pick considering zero kickers were taken after Fletcher. We could have still gone after any bum undrafted kicker.

Yeah you can evaluate individual coaching decisions. The problem is when you blanketly use a coach's judgment as an indictment on the player, i.e. Rhule didn't put Santoso in to attempt a 50-yard FG...ergo Santoso sucks, has a weak leg, etc. So many people here did the same with Rivera back when he didn't trot out Gano for any 50+ yard FGs. They assumed that meant Gano has a weak leg when clearly that isn't the case. Santoso is very much unproven one way or the other, so to use Rhule's judgment call not to let him kick the FG as evidence that Santoso sucks is blindly putting faith in Rhule's judgment.

Yeah which is why I catered my argument to our team so we could have a bit more nuanced of a discussion rather than appealing to conventional wisdom. We do have a pass rush so an elite CB is going to accomplish a lot. We don't have a good interior o-line so an elite LT is not going to accomplish as much.

You guys need to be a bit more consistent. Rhule choosing to play Elflein/Daley over Christensen/Brown = Rhule is being dumb, why isn't he playing our best two guards. Rhule choosing to forego a 50-yard FG = our kicker sucks and Rhule knows it. Do you trust Rhule's judgment or not?

If your success largely hinges on your quarterback play, then you have to acknowledge that an elite CB significantly hinders the success of the opposing QB which is equally important to winning football. Otherwise you're just hoping to win shootouts every week. I mean it really just boils down to having a well-oiled offense vs. a shutdown defense. A shutdown CB is as vital to your defense as a shutdown OT is to your offense. Also an elite LT is obviously super important but the returns are less realized when you have other major holes in your o-line, otherwise you're just getting exploited elsewhere (like up the middle for us). If an LT was the missing piece for us then yeah maybe Jalen Ramsey would be having to cover for 5+ seconds out there. That being said, same goes for CB...but I would argue Horn kinda was the missing piece for our defense to a much larger degree than Slater would be the missing piece for our o-line. Finding an LT would have gone a long way towards solidifying our o-line but I think that's something we would have benefited from more in the next couple seasons after one or two more drafts/FAs, to fill our other o-line voids. All things equal, I'd probably still take an elite LT over an elite CB just due to the conceptual risk mitigation of injury to your QB. I just don't think it's the slam-dunk obvious choice that people make it out to be.

I might care more if Horn didn’t just dominate his own matchup(s) yesterday.

You guys know who was tied for 3rd worst in XP% last season? I'll give you a hint...he's the guy everyone cries about at least 27 times a year since he was poached from our practice squad.

This dude has played like 17 positions since we signed him last season...and not from a "throw poo against the wall" place of desperation like with a Rashaan Gaulden. The kid is a baller...sucks.

Hell, even Ed Dickson catches that pass lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_no5YnIrAb4

Don't forget his coverage on that Shaq interception too...absolute blanket coverage and was in position to intercept that ball had it gotten by Shaq.