SCO96

After last weeks debacle I decided to skip this game. Imagine my surprise when I got home and saw that we were up 20-0 just before halftime. Now we just scored a TD in the 3rd quarter. That’s a rarity for his team this season, This looks like it’s gonna be our best game of the season.

Teddy was signed for 3 seasons I believe. That contract was perfect in length because it would give you time to see if Teddy was the guy, or draft a successor if he wasn't. Imagine if we had kept Teddy this season and not traded down in the draft. We would have had our choice of 6 left tackles and/or 3 interior lineman, including Creed Humphrey (the best center in the draft). It's very possible we could have easily walked away with 2 starters on the O-line from the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Having another year in the system and a "healthier" CMC would have helped Teddy's performance. By year 3 I think we could have been a legitimate playoff threat with solid depth on both sides of the ball.

In fairness to Rhule, it's possible that the fracture wasn't picked up by the medical staff until this week. Sometimes, even doctors can overlook something. I fractured my toes years ago, but happened to have an appointment for a physical that week. My doctor pointed it out after the X-ray. I was a little surprised to see how small it appeared on the screen. Back in 2000, Bronco RB (and Hall of Famer) Terrell Davis was coming off a knee injury in 1999 that would eventually result in his premature retirement. He said that when he hit the field again that season he knew something was off even though he had been cleared to play. Five games in the year he had to shut it down. According to an internet site, this was due to a stress condition in the injured leg. But, I can remember reading at that time that he had a fracture in his leg was un-diagnosed/missed at the start of the season. I don't think the staff would send him out there with a fractured scapula on purpose.

It may explain why he didn’t do a better job pushing the ball downfield against the Pats. It may have also affected his accuracy on the pick 6 when he missed an open Ian Thomas. Unfortunately, it doesn’t excuse he end-zone pick. That was just a bad decision. As soon as that ball left his hand I knew it was going to be an incompletion or an INT. Props for suiting up. You guys know that had to hurt.

I will regret not drafting Justin Fields when/if he wins a Super Bowl in Chicago during his rookie contract.

Adding Lineman thru free agency would be ideal, but after the way things have transpired here the past two years, I’m not sure the cream of the crop in the 2022 of FA’s will want to come here.

This is why it's hard for me to fully embrace analytics. They don't tell the whole story. According to the numbers the Cowboy o-line is just a little bit better than our in terms of pass blocking. I think we all would agree that isn't the case. But, we also know that our line doesn't hold blocks very long. It's one of the reasons why Darnold seems to always be on the run. Perhaps other teams have QB's that do a better job getting the ball out of the QB's hand in a timely manner in terms of their schemes. What this does show us is that we do not have dependable blockers in our passing and rushing game.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32176833/2021-nfl-pass-rushing-run-stopping-blocking-leaderboard-win-rate-rankings There's a lot of information here It's quite interesting an worth a read if you have the time (or interest). I'm going to post the data that pertains to our beloved Panthers. I don't fully believe that analytics are the answer to everything, but I do believe some statistics are useful in evaluating how a team (or player) is performing in certain areas. Checkout the below stats on our woeful offensive line. Team Run Block Win Rate (tell us the proportion of plays in which a player "won" his block on designed running plays.) 1. Washington Football Team, 79% 2. Kansas City Chiefs, 75% 3. Baltimore Ravens, 74% 4. Philadelphia Eagles, 74% 5. Miami Dolphins, 74% 6. Dallas Cowboys, 73% 7. Cincinnati Bengals, 73% 8. Green Bay Packers, 72% 9. Cleveland Browns, 72% 10. Los Angeles Rams, 72% 11. Chicago Bears, 71% 12. Arizona Cardinals, 71% 13. Buffalo Bills, 71% 14. Minnesota Vikings, 71% 15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 70% 16. Indianapolis Colts, 70% 17. Denver Broncos, 70% 18. New York Giants, 69% 19. Jacksonville Jaguars, 69% 20. Tennessee Titans, 69% 21. Detroit Lions, 69% 22. Seattle Seahawks, 69% 23. New Orleans Saints, 68% 24. Los Angeles Chargers, 68% 25. San Francisco 49ers, 68% 26. Pittsburgh Steelers, 68% 27. Atlanta Falcons, 68% 28. New England Patriots, 67% 29. Carolina Panthers, 67% 30. Houston Texans, 66% 31. Las Vegas Raiders, 66% 32. New York Jets, 65% Team Pass Block Win Rate (Pass block win rate metric conveys the rate linemen can sustain their blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer.) 1. Cleveland Browns, 73% 2. Washington Football Team, 68% 3. Green Bay Packers, 68% 4. Los Angeles Rams, 67% 5. New Orleans Saints, 67% 6. Arizona Cardinals, 66% 7. Baltimore Ravens, 66% 8. Kansas City Chiefs, 65% 9. Philadelphia Eagles, 64% 10. San Francisco 49ers, 62% 11. New York Jets, 62% 12. Buffalo Bills, 61% 13. Tennessee Titans, 60% 14. Chicago Bears, 60% 15. Denver Broncos, 60% 16. Seattle Seahawks, 59% 17. New England Patriots, 59% 18. Jacksonville Jaguars, 58% 19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 57% 20. Indianapolis Colts, 56% 21. Minnesota Vikings, 56% 22. Los Angeles Chargers, 54% 23. Cincinnati Bengals, 53% 24. New York Giants, 53% 25. Detroit Lions, 52% 26. Atlanta Falcons, 52% 27. Las Vegas Raiders, 51% 28. Dallas Cowboys, 51% 29. Carolina Panthers, 49% 30. Pittsburgh Steelers, 47% 31. Houston Texans, 47% 32. Miami Dolphins, 46% We ranked 29th in run blocking and pass blocking heading into last week's embarassing loss to the Patriots. Joe Brady and Sam Darnold certainly have a share in our bad offensive performance in 2021. But, having an offensive line that is among the 4 worst in the NFL certainly doesn't help matters.

It's interesting that you made this comment. For years he worked in the Seattle front office. The one area that the Seahawks seemed to struggle with year in and year out after the back to back SB appearances was the O-line. Some offices just seem to think that a mobile QB like Wilson (and Cam for that matter) do not need a top flight O-line. But, when you look back at the guys with multiple rings from the past 20 years (Big Ben, Eli, Peyton, Brady) they all had good pass blocking lineman during their championship years. Any great team in NFL history that won multiple titles had great o-lines The 1960's Packers The Cowboys, Dolphins, Steelers of the 1970's The 49ers of the 1980's and the Redskins from 1982-1991 (Remember the Hogs ?) The Cowboys of the early 1990's The 1997-1998 Denver Broncos The Brady/Belichik Patriots A solid offensive line is a must.

Not upset at all on passing on Fields at 8. We shouldn't have traded down in the 2nd round. We passed on six tackles and 3 interior lineman (including the top center in the draft) before we picked up T Marshall Jr (WR) near the 60th pick in the draft and he hasn't made any significant impact this year. Any of the linemen would likely have had more impact on the offense this season. Drafting a LT that we considered a guard in the 3rd does't seem very wise in hindsight. Now that we don't have a 2nd or 3rd round pick for 2022 we literally don't have the draft capital to address the O-line in the off-season unless we luck out in free agency.

If anyone is the first to be showed the door I think it will be Joe Brady. I posted this link after the Dallas game and it contained a mind blowing statistic https://www.derp/2021/10/5/22710073/why-is-the-panthers-offense-under-joe-brady-so-bad-in-the-third-quarter Panthers third quarter performance Year Week Opponent Panthers Pts Opponent Pts 2020 14 Broncos 3 12 2020 15 Packers 7 0 2020 16 Football Team 0 3 2020 17 Saints 0 10 2021 1 Jets 0 8 2021 2 Saints 0 0 2021 3 Texans 7 0 2021 4 Cowboys 0 20 Total 17 53 Here are the 3rd quarter point totals in the 5 games since: Eagles (0), Vikings (7)...and those came on a blocked punt Giants (0) Falcons(3) Patriots (0) 20 pts in the 3rd quarter over our last 13 games...and going back to last season I might add...is not going to cut it in today's NFL. That's almost an entire season's worth of games. There is something seriously wrong with how we come out offensively after halftime. And, since Sam wasn't here last season, it can't be blamed entirely on him.

Good post. But, as the saying goes "adversity introduce a man to himself". How's he going to handle this? Is he tough enough to bounce back? Will this wretched performance make him put in the work to get better? Back in the day there was an NFL franchise that had a QB with all the physical tools a QB could ask for. He was strong, could run, and had a canon for an arm. Unfortunately he made a bunch of bad decisions and threw a lot of interceptions like Sam Darnold. He was considered a "dumb" quarterback. He was a a detriment to the team in his early years. The team had to had to rely on a formidable defense to keep them in games. He was booed by the fans. He even lost the starting job for awhile. Then, things fell into place. He fought through the tough times. He actually took the team to the playoffs....and the Super Bowl... the year he lost his starting job. He retired with 4 titles and a league MVP. Anyone who has any knowledge of NFL history knows I'm talking about Terry Bradshaw. Jim Plunkett had a similar trajectory. Things look terrible right now. But, it did for those two quarterbacks as well. The kept their head up and became NFL legends. I'm not saying Darnold will doe the same, but I still think its too early to give up on him...at least this season. I would still like to see what he could do with a competent o-line.

If PJ was a viable option I’d have no problem with him starting Thing is, he’s never looked that impressive when he’s on the field. He has a live arm. But, he misses throws, makes bad reads, and throws INTs just like Darnold. I’ll support whoever goes out behind center, including the practice squad guys. I just dont think they’d do any better. If anything I’d bet they do worse. I’ll admit that I’d love to be proven wrong. If a guy came in to replace Sam and led us on a strong playoff run I think he’d be the toast of the Carolinas.

I never even thought of him as future candidate. I wonder if he’d bring Nick Foles with him?

Not disagreeing with you because I think we need a veteran, but we can’t make an assumption that everyone is just dying to play in Carolina. Did you have someone mind this past offseason?

The kid tries hard. He has the physical tools. Can he get better with the mental aspect of the game. I actually think he can, but the team needs to change what they’re doing. I’ve never played football on a team or coached but I think the team could make things easier for Darnold. A good coach will adjust his scheme to fit the talent of his players. If the oline can’t sustain blocks for very long then you need to have more short passes. The lack of passes to our TE is a weakness for our offense. We no longer have Arnold, but Brady should be able to make Thomas and Tremble more useful in the passing game.If DJ and Robbie are receiving most of coverage why can’t we have plays where the TE (or slot receiver) are the primary options. If we could be effective with the underneath stuff it should make the opposing secondaries more vulnerable to double moves a deep throws later in the game Run a no huddle in the 3rd quarter, which is where we seem to play our worst offensive football. Helps build a rhythm and it wears out the defensive line as the game progresses. Find out which plays Darnold feels most comfortable with and put a steady dose of them in the game plans. I know he got hurt last week, but I’d sprinkle in more designed QB runs Add more trick plays into the offense (reverses, flea flickers, halfback option etc) to get or wideouts open downfield. Work on the deep throws in practice. We’ve got some good corners on our team. If Sam can perfect his deep ball against Gilmore, Jackson, Bouye, and Taylor during the week, then he should be able to hit some on Sundays. No problem with the staff trying another option in 2022, but they need to try and salvage the current season. No guarantee a veteran will want to come here next season if we keep losing and we may not be able to get a franchise QB in the draft next year.

Disappointed. I expected this to be a 3 year rebuilding project. We are in year 2. I think we can all agree that our defense is pretty good. They’d be even better if they weren’t on the field for so long. The offense is what is holding this team back. Unfortunately, the loss of our 2022 2nd and 3rd round choices hurt. I’m not a big fan of trading down if you have all of your picks and your needs are on the board. But, if we could flip our 1st round pick for a later pick in round 1 and a 3rd…and come away within 2 starters on the oline… I think that scenario would make us immediately better.

Ultimately, the buck stops with the head coach and GM. They’re responsible for the roster and the talent ( or lack of it) on the field. The oline is awful. Trying to bring in a reclamation project behind those guys was bad. We passed on good prospects in the 2nd and 3rd round last year…and now we don’t have any 2nd and 3rd round picks this year. Darold has to take a large part of the blame. The offensive line hasn’t done him any favors. The receivers have dropped a lot of passes. But, Sam makes a lot of bad decisions which results in bad plays. I don’t blame him for the 2nd INT today. Jaime Collins just made a great play by leaping into the passing lane. The first and third picks were just bad plays. On both play he was running to the left and attempted to throw across his body without setting his feet, which is difficult for any QB. To make matters worse neither guy was open. His picks seem to occur when he’s trying to make something out of nothing. He needs to learn when to give up on dead plays. If hadn’t thrown those two picks and simply kept us in fig range the score could have been 17-13 in the 4th quarter…which is still a winnable game. Brady’s play calling seem to always result in nearly no points in the 3rd quarter. In two of the past 3 games we’ve been blanked in the 2nd half. They can still turn things around, but the margin for error is much smaller now. As bad as Darnold has played, I’m still not sure he couldn’t be a viable starter with better coaching. If we could just get the ball to our wideouts more I think we could have a respectable 2nd half of the season.

Normally they would never consider it. But, if I'm not mistaken, the Rams don't have any picks in the 2022 draft until the 5th round. They may want to recoup one of the choices they've given away.

This trade makes a lot of sense. DJ can still run. He could do all kinds of damage down the field if he had A-Rod throwing to him. Just the threat of his deep speed would open up things for everyone else.

No shame in losing to the Cowboys on the road. I can even live with the loss to Minnesota at home (that game went into OT) b/c the Vikings are a talented team ...at least on paper. The losses to the Eagles and Giants are inexcusable. We're more talented than both of those teams. The loss to NY was embarrassing, but we just didn't seem ready to play two weeks ago. Every team seems to have at least one of those games each season. The Philly loss stings the most. We outplayed them the whole game and literally snatched defeat from the hands of victory in the 4th quarter. That loss was the hardest for me to stomach this season. At worst we should be 5-3 right now.

He's actually 1-3 if you count his win in the playoffs against them last year. He'd be 0-4 if Drew Brees had been able to throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field in last year's divisional playoff game. According to Drew's wife the dude played last season with a torn rotator cuff. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/drew-brees-torn-rotator-cuff-2020-brittany/d1cipj6751po1f8xrgiqefmnq Colin Dunlap @colin_dunlap Drew Brees' wife says Drew played this season with: A torn rotator cuff, a torn fascia in his foot, 11 broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

I see your point of view. But, if I knew I played for an owner or coach with that mentality I can assure you I wouldn't give my all week end and week out just to be tossed aside like a used Kleenex after 3-4 seasons.

That's a hard question to answer. I've often heard that RBs need a certain amount of carries to get into the rhythm of the game. I've never played the position, but that does seem to make sense. Look at our own Chubba Hubbard. He didn't look impressive at all spelling CMC. But, he's looks better now. I think that's due to getting a sustained workload. However, the more carries/touches you get, the more hits you absorb; and that eventually catches up with you. QB's getting sacked 40 times a year and we here pundits say "he can't keep getting hit like this or he's going to have a short career". RB's get hit that much after 2 games. The number can even be higher when you factor in receptions. All you can really do is put them on a "pitch count" like they do in MLB. Limit the touches during the regular season. Ideally, keep combined carries/receptions to 25. Even then that would equate to 400 touches over a 16 game season. The extended 17 game schedule only makes things worse. If there is a blowout put him on the bench. Coach them to avoid big hits in games; and if you make a first down go ahead and run out of bounds if you can.

Were we out of timeouts? I saw the same thing you guys did, but I was thinking we’d already used all of our timeouts.