SCO96

Your post made me realize a typo in my post. We lost 11 games during the 2020 season. Tampa whopped us pretty good both times we played. The Saints destroyed us in the last game of the season. The other 8 losses were all by 8 pts or less, meaning one extra TD and 2 pts conversion would have won or tied all of those games. This season we lost by our games by 8 pts (Dallas) 3 pts (Philadelphia), and 6 pts (Minnesota). Once again one extra TD and 2 pt conversion would have tied the Dallas game and won the last won games against Philly and Minnesota. In our last 10 games, the offense has scored 17 points in the 3rd quarter. That's why we're losing all of these close games. If we could simply address/fix the 3rd quarter meltdowns we could make the playoffs THIS SEASON. I know Rhule has made some mistakes, but he isn't stupid. He has to realize it. I'd be shocked if this isn't fixed before the end of the season.

We've all heard the saying "Rome wasn't built in the day". Well, neither are championship football teams in the NFL. Like some of the other guys have posted, I didn't expect us to make the playoffs this year. I just want to see us show improvement. I figured we'd challenge for a wild card this year but far short. Make the playoffs in year 3, and be a legitimate SB threat by year 4. It took Bill Walsh 3 seasons to get the 49ers to a SB after starting 2-14 in his first year. Jimmy Johnson was 1-15 in his first season with Dallas. in year 3 they were a playoff team. By year 4 the Cowboys were on the verge of Back to Back titles. Our defense isn't a finished product but we're progressing. If we can can 1 or 2 more pieces we could be a top 10 defense. We've accumulated some talented parts on offense at the skill positions. We all know the O-line is the week spot holding us back. I'm pretty sure that'll be addressed this off-season. Darnold has potential. Even if he isn't "the guy" we can afford to ride with him one more year until the O-line is fixed. I'd hate to have a rookie QB playing behind our current offensive line. I'm disappointed by the losing streak, but we're still competitive. We lost 11 games last season and 3 games this season by a a score or less. And , we've played some good teams over that stretch. We're not an easy out. Once we learn how to score in the 3rd quarter and close out games we should/could be a perennial playoff team.

Our past rush did absolutely nothing this game. Did we even manage to sack Cousins today? To be fair, our putrid offensive performance during the first 3 quarters of the game resulted in the defense being on the field too long. Still, I just don't see our DT's impacting the pass rush. If out ends don't get home we ain't getting a sack. We still need a pass rushing DT.

I bet Brian Burns is feeling like the world has been lifted off of his shoulders.

Sam hasn't played that well, but those dropped throws certainly haven't helped. He's not a quitter and he's got some spunk. Both of those 4th down throws were clutch. If we get him an offensive line and a good OC coordinator I think he can win some games for us.

Ian Thomas?

I actually agree with you. I think he's not comfortable dropping back because he knows his pass blocking won't hold up. The offensive line is just plain bad. Even if we figure out that Sam isn't the guy, we can't expect anyone to succeed at QB until we get it fixed. Building a formidable offense line has got to be the top priority this off-season.

Sam seems to have come back to Earth after the 3-0 start. Franchise QB are paid to bring teams back. I can deal with losing this game if Sam can at least make this a close game. If we keep playing like this the FO has to consider a different option heading into 2023 and beyond. I'd keep Sam for 2022 just so we can use this off-season to fix our woeful O-line. We can't start next season with the current group of guys. Whoever we have starting in 2023 and beyond won't be successful with pass blocking this bad.

I was thinking the same thing. Keith Taylor is looking good. When we get Horn back we'd have Horn, Henderson, and Taylor on multi-year deals and they're all under 25. AJ (age 31) has 1 year left on his deal. So we'd be set at that position even if we lost Gilmore and Jackson. The latter two are at the end of their contracts. Do we really think we can resign both them? Maybe Fitz is thinking about getting comp picks for 2023. The ideal situation would be for is to move one to FS to help out Chinn. I don't know if any of our CBs are capable (or willing) to do that.

Unfortunately, having a top rate secondary means nothing if the offense can't score. We scored 7 pts on a blocked punt in the 2nd half so far. The offense has done nothing. Over the last 10 games the offense has scored 17 points in 3rd quarter. You can't compete for a playoff spot year in and year out with offense that bad unless you're scoring 10 pts a quarter in 1st, ,2nd, and 4rh quarters...which we can't seem to do against good teams.

We didn't get worse by letting him go and we really wouldn't be any better if were still here. The move worked out great for both parties. He didn't suck dollars from our cap and He got a boat load of money by switching teams.

Here's the scary thing, that kid isn't even 25 yet! He's only going to get better throwing the ball.

I agree with you, but I do understand the logic. If that kick was made I think the 10 point lead would've been too much for the Ravens to overcome with less than 5:00 to play. After seeing the quality of kicking this year, I'd try to score a TD every time I had the ball if I were coaching in the NFL

A loss like that can ruin an entire season. The Colts did what we did yesterday. They snatched defeat from the hands of victory.

I told you guys he wasn't going to make that kick!

The way this game has gone I'm expecting a miss or another block.

That Personal foul may have just cost Baltimore the game. That lineman did a great job selling that "fall".

That blocked FG may end up hurting the Colts just as much as that blocked punt hurt us yesterday.

In a weird way, I'm actually kind of glad we lost this game. I think we were over hyped after coming out of the gate at 3-0. Losing to the Cowboys on the road by one score is nothing to be ashamed of this season. But, the Eagle loss seems to have brought us back to earth. I think you're gonna see them team (coaches, FO, and players) refocus. That loss was embarrasing, but I think it was what the team needed. It could light the fire we need to play better for the rest of the season. Who knows, even the O-line may play better after the terrible press they received after Sunday's performance.

I was happy with drafting Horn in the 1st round. I didn't like the trade down(s) in the 2nd round. I understand why it's good to have an abundance of picks. But, we passed on a lot of offensive lineman that probably would have significantly improved our o-Line. We picked WR Terrence Marshall @ 59. These are the the lineman we passed on before we made our 2nd round pick after trading down. The players in blue are Tackles. The next 3 are interior lineman. 6) Teven Jenkins, Oklahoma State | R2-P39 | Chicago Bears 7) Liam Eichenberg, Notre Dame | R2-P42 | Miami Dolphins Walker Little, Stanford | R2-P45 | Jacksonville Jaguars 9) Jackson Carman, Clemson | R2-P46 | Cincinnati Bengals 10) Samuel Cosmi, Texas | R2-P51 | Washington Football Team 11) Dillon Radunz, North Dakota State | R2-P53 | Tennessee Titans Landon Dickerson, Alabama | Round 2, Pick 37 | Philadelphia Eagles Jackson Carman, Clemson | Round 2, Pick 46 | Cincinnati Bengals Aaron Banks, Notre Dame | Round 2, Pick 48 | San Francisco 49ers ---- Unless Marshall starts balling out real soon, all of the above guys would've have cetainly made a bigger impact on THIS YEAR'S Carolina Panther because I believe they're better than the guys we currently have.

I'll regret not taking Justin Fields when and if he ever wins a Super Bowl in Chicago while on his rookie contract. I think we all know how likely that is to happen.

Maybe the plan is to add an under the radar interior O-lineman to the practice squad who can ultimately come in to help our pathetic interior blocking.

Gotta disagree. A 5 point lead is a one score game. A team can score a TD and miss the extra point and still win in the scenario above. We should have been up by more than 5 points at that time. Of course, for the past 9 games we have only scored 17 points in the 3rd quarter so perhaps we Panther fans are expecting too much if we think the team should be scoring more points to build bigger leads and keep the defense rested on the sidelines.

I think some have made to big a deal out of Rhule opting to punt just before halftime. There's no guarantee we would have coverted the 4th down if we had decided to go for it. If we couldn't stop the Eagles from driving for a FG just before the 2nd quarter ended, what make anyone thing we would've stopped them if they'd been close to start the drive? The problem is the offense. In the last 9 games we have scored 17 points in the 3rd quarter. If we could've have made 1 FG in the game 3rd quarter we would've gone into overtime. Two FG's in the 3rd quarter would have WON the game. Even the 18 points we scored are misleading. Two of those points resulted from the botched snap that gave us the safety. The thing that really hurt us was not recovering the bad snap in the end zone. If we had got a TD instead of a safety that 4 point swing would've put us in the win column even if we had missed the extra point.

After seeing the above data, you could make a strong argument that we need to draft the best interior lineman on the board in the first round next year...unless the next year's class of interior lineman is subpar/mediocre.