KB_fan

Thanks! I did the same tracking using game logs, but also checked total attempts by player and yardage details. See below...

Yes, I know. Seasons can turn on one injury (think 2016 injury to Oher) or one terrible game (those absolute crushing losses to Pittsburgh & 49ers seemed to steal the souls from ou 2918 & 2019 teams). But also seasons can turn on a few positive plays or unexpected wins. Think the Seattle win in 2015, or the J-No interception that sealed our win vs. the Saints in the Superdome also in 2015... those were pretty huge and did a lot to create the magic & confidence of that season. Yesterday felt just a little bit like that... beating the Saints who almost everyone expected to win in spite of all their handicaps. Huge confidence boost for a young team that could pay big dividends. Let's see how it goes.

I totally get this perspective, and largely share it. But, the surprise to me is your line "Sam has played well, but he has played against two bad teams that didn't apply any pressure to him whatsoever." From my perspective, that very fact is one of the reasons to be optimistic, not a reason to downplay the 2-0 start. For all their faults and weaknesses, both the Jets & the Saints have a pretty strong D-line and rush. And we all know our O-line is pretty questionable. The lack of pressure against Sam, or more accurately, Sam's ability to stay calm and not panic in the face of pressure (especially versus the Jets where he was getting hit a lot) is one of the things that most encourages me so far. Barring injuries, I *think* our Oline will get better throughout the season as they get more time together and the coaches figure out who fits best where. Our coaches seem to be able to do a LOT more to address weaknesses than we've been used to. Look at the huge improvement in our run defense. The big improvement in our 3rd down conversions yesterday, modest improvement in Red Zone, and also Sam's improvement on intermediate passes. It feels like under Rivera (as much as I liked him) the known weaknesses never got fully addressed or dealt with. We heard "We've got to get better against the run" "We've got to do better with gap integrity" almost every game in late 2018 & 2019. Drove me nuts. Rhule & co seem much quicker to acknowledge weaknesses and then actually do something about it - especially this season when they're more settled in and not dealing with so much of the Covid craziness. I really like Rhule's commitment to accountability and improvement. From where I sit it looks like more than just coach speak. (Yeah, continued O-line & Special Teams weaknesses may shoot a hole in what I've just said, but it is hard to fix everything at once. I think the coaches are focusing on things that are fixable. There are some weaknesses that we may just have to live with for awhile). So.... all these things give me a lot more confidence than I'd normally have at this point. I'm really pretty encouraged.

It's not that unrealistic to go there, honestly given that something like 2/3rds of teams that start 2-0 make the playoffs and 6/7 of Carolina teams that have started 2-0 have made the playoffs (all but 2002). It does seem early. But if the playoffs started today we'd be in. And heck, we have the #1 Defense in the league, passing AND rushing!! That doesn't feel like a fluke given the depth on our defense right now and the creativity of Phil Snow.

Don't think this has been posted.... https://thedraftnetwork.com/articles/dj-moore-carolina-panthers-emerging-star It's good to see DJ getting some recognition! I haven't had a chance to do it yet, but a little later this evening I hope to look at all the 3rd down conversions so far. I'm willing to bet it's DJ who has had the lion's share. He has become the new "Mr. Reliable" (along with CMC, of course) and has been clutch on a number of tough and crucial 3rd downs. I think the team (or at least the stadium crowd) would have deflated like a popped balloon yesterday had DJ not snagged that Red Zone TD. We had to get the monkey off our back of all the missed goal line plays. Sam being able to get the ball to DJ there was a huge lift for the team and the fans!

So I just was looking at Sam's NextGen Passing Charts from week 1 & 2 side by side thanks to a tweet from Steven Ruiz: Interesting and encouraging to see the HUGE improvement on intermediate passes 10-20 yards) from week 1 to week 2. And WAY FEWER passes at or behind LOS.

Yes, some are taking notice. It helped that the national picks were almost all for the Saints, so they all had to explain away how they'd been wrong and why the Panthers dominated!

This!!! I mean we're the team that started 6-2 and then lost 7 straight games in 2018... Then in 2019, started 4-2 and lost 9 of final 10... The Panthers have burned a LOT of pundits who started to buy in when we looked good. We've been very flash in the pan as of late. Got to prove we can sustain good play.

Yikes, I'll be shocked if were even in the top 16. I'm guessing they move us up to about 17 from the current 23(ish).

At the moment, we really are a "pick your poison" defense. 8 players showing up on the sack list after 2 games. One of the beat writers (forget which) termed it the "bring the house" defense. It's really true. Burns / Reddick Brown / DaQuan Shaq, Fox, YGM, Haynes, Nixon, Roy And depth guys like Luvu... So many players an offense has to account for. Pressure can come from any direction. Here are the defensive stats through 2 weeks from NFL GSIS.

And of course if we beat the Texans, the chatter will be that "it's because Panthers played a rookie QB with no time (short week) to prepare for us." (Never mind that it's a short week for us too with the added burden of travel, and having to prepare for a different QB at the last minute). But honestly, beating the Saints the way we did yesterday was a big "real" win. Sean Payton has had our number for a while. They've got an excellent O line. They'd just blown out Green Bay with largely the same players. Losing their center was probably a huge factor for them. And the coaches out with Covid... yeah. It hurt them. But Jameis still has talent. So does Kamara and their D-line. Almost all the pundits picked the Saints to win. This one felt GOOD!

How much of that though is due to pressure and Sam needing to get the ball out VERY FAST. If our O-line can gel a bit more and Sam get confident in the protection, plus teams have to try and stop CMC, I think we'll begin to see more open receivers. That's my hope at least. But thank God for DJ who is making some great catches in very tight windows!

I just read an article that DJ Moore is leading the league in terms of catches with least cushion. "On pace for 84 catches, 1,309 yards, and nine touchdowns through a couple match-ups (obviously quite a small sample size), Moore is lining up inside and out and running a plethora of different concepts—doing so at a high level. Route charts show he's doing a bit of everything, using clean releases to win on the perimeter and his underrated physicality and hand strength to win on in-breaking reps. Tasked with facing extremely tight man coverage early this year—he’s facing a condensed 2.2 yards of initial cushion per route run (via NFL Next Gen stats), which happens to be the lowest in the league—Moore has done an exceptional job beating press and grabbing hard catches in tight windows, a skill of his that has been somewhat underappreciated with his elite athleticism and YAC ability over the years. As is usual with Moore, he’s also making the spectacular look normal, as he caught a ridiculous toe-tap pass on the sideline in Week 1 that had the lowest probability (9%) of any completion so far this year (again, via NFL Next Gen stats)." (Link to full article in the tweet below. ) I do expect that Robby and TMJ will see more action fairly soon, especially with Dan Arnold also getting in the mix. Opponents take away one weapon, we've got others. The fact that 8 guys caught passes yesterday really encourages me. Getting Sam comfortable with all his weapons.

Seriously!! 8 players with sacks in 2 games!!! Whereas it took us 3 games last season to get sack #1!

I'm really impressed with the huge improvement in both these stats so far.

So many fun variations. Playing Snow Ball. The Snow Men. Snow Patrol Snow plow Building a Snow Fortress. White out / Blizzard / Avalanche I've had this mental image all day of snowmen in Panthers helmets with flames shooting from their heads. A smothering D is just so much fun to watch!

Yes.

3 defensive TDs in 2020 1 in 2019 1 in 2018 1 in 2017 3 in 2016 5 in 2015

Wait, but didn't Jeremy Chinn have 2 scores last season? They must have been scoop and scores? I'm not sure separating pick sixes from other defensive touchdowns is really meaningful.

Question is Steve Reed, AP, I believe. No idea who the guy is who walks in front of the podium.

Hard to know how badly Covid will affect him. I hope he comes back quickly and fully healthy, but hard to count on that.

And our offense couldn't stay on the field. So our D was getting gassed in the 3rd. After that 12 play FG drive, and getting a breather, they looked better.

I seem to remember Tremble had a nice return? I was watching on my phone, so I may be misremembering. But yeah, our return game has been ignored and it shows.

Agree!! I still dream about 21 ponies too. That one time we used CJ Anderson and CMC together.... Sweet.

I REALLY want to see this!