Proudiddy

This. And as much as I don’t like it, winning also brings in more bandwagon fans so a lot more casuals claiming to be Panthers fans would be in those seats if we establish a winning tradition. TBH, yesterday it sounded like we were playing in Philly. Had we had that many Panther fans at a Philly game, half the stadium would be stretchered out, and the other half would be in their built-in jail.

Also, equally as bothersome was looking back in hindsight, it seems Brady did nothing to slow down the pass rush. His calls actually played into their strengths and the pressure. I remember playing teams with bad OLs in the past and their whole gameplan was lateral - smoke screens, end arounds, misdirection, jet sweeps, fake jet sweeps, hb screens, etc. By getting the ball out quick and to the flats, the defense is forced to slow down the rush because when they floor it everytime the ball is snapped against those plays, they've already overpursued and are out of the play by the time the ball comes out. Much like how Philly slowed ours down by running the read option more at the end... it put pressure on us laterally so we couldn't keep rushing straight upfield. We barely did any of that. Only maybe a handful of plays.

Yup, and again, the embarrassing thing is, and Rhule even said it himself, they generated all that pressure by mostly only rushing 4 and at most 5. Our OL couldn't block 1 on 1s, at all. They weren't overloaded, they were just getting beat by the man in front of them every play.

They also did it by mostly rushing 4 and playing man behind it. The blueprint is out. This OL fuging sucks cheese dick.

I agree. I'm not saying he is a finished product as a coach, but this is where we're at right now.

But his coaching and staff led to all of those things happening. If you play scared, it's going to come back to bite you, and it has for us, two weeks in a row.

This overly optimistic, "there's always next year" approach from a large portion of our fanbase is what has us hovering around .500 as a franchise after 25+ years of existence. I understand growing pains and such, but Rhule decided to stamp his brand on this franchise, and whiffed on one QB and is now not looking too hot on the other. He (and Fitterer as well) also largely neglected the OL in the offseason despite the obvious need. This defense is good enough to make a deep run in the playoffs if it had any inkling of complementary football from its offense and special teams units. Yes, building a winning franchise takes time, but it doesn't have to take three years. Sometimes it can take as little as one... but our fanbase is so used to accepting mediocrity we make excuses for it.

Yup, agreed. And thats with understanding bad throws and pressure go hand-in-hand, but some throws just shouldn't be made, and the ones he's made the last two weeks are all of that variety. In contrast, Hurts accuracy is extremely suspect, but look at how many balls he just threw away today after rolling out, despite being an elite athlete. I think back to guys like Brees and Brady, who would/still annoyingly always find a receiver to throw it down at their feet, even when in the pocket... or just flat out throw it out of bounds, even from the pocket, rather than risk a turnover. I had hope for Sam after the first few games, but he's still locking in on certain guys, ignoring others, and throwing passes that just shouldn't be thrown. Listening to him in his presser today, I'm beginning to believe it's just something he isn't going to outgrow because it's the same issue, attributed to the same reasons ("trying to do too much") that he's been explaining since his last year of college. It is certainly frustrating.

Let me know when you run into a book.

I agree, and perhaps the old-school, run-heavy philosophy Rhule is preaching now is more about limiting Sam than actual belief that it leads to wins.

I appreciate his ownership of our shortcomings, but as I've watched the last two weeks, after believing we may have had a master tactician at the them after some of the calls he made last season, I am not encouraged at all. The Belichick-like calls on 4th downs, crafty ways of time management, and the obvious halftime adjustments from last season are long gone. Instead, we have Fox and Rivera redux. No aggression, no attacking, no proactive measures... just us curled up in the corner of the squared circle, taking hook, after hook, after uppercut with no way to defend ourselves. I have been a believer in Rhule. I have kept quiet when others criticized him for his collegial leanings. Again, I was encouraged by what we saw last season - but this guy, perhaps more entrenched and comfortable as his system is further cemented in year two, is not the coach from last season. I couldn't help but be troubled by the continued flat affect our team displayed, yet again, in the 3rd quarter today, and pretty much the entire second half as well. It continues the troubling trend of us clearly getting hit with halftime adjustments from our opponent's coaching staff, while our staff flails around haplessly unprepared, leaving our players to wander aimlessly with no sense of what direction is up or forward. I was really bothered for a couple of reasons. The first being that Rhule has already acknowledged each game that we struggled in the second half it was because the other team made adjustments and implemented things we hadn't seen yet or prepared for. So he acknowledges we were both outcoached and unprepared on multiple occasions now, with no backup plan in place. Number two, the overwhelming tone of the decisions made in these second halves, particularly today, was among the most conservative approaches I've ever seen in professional coaching. The aggression and attacking style he displayed last season with numerous conversion attempts on 4th down, including fake punts are nowhere to be found. But, John Fox-like-calls, electing to punt with his place kicker for a punt netting 20 yards are here, and so is electing to punt on 4th and 2 near midfield with the league's worst punter, who also nets about 30-35 yards on his attempt. And lastly, I'm brought back to opponents summarizing our team under Rivera as one that doesn't adjust, doesn't make changes, doesn't evolve, but is going to caveman it out on the field and do exactly what you saw on tape and hope you don't stop it. For all that I thought was different about Rhule, he is illustrating it is all very much the same. Even more troubling than seeing all of this, was Rhule stating in his presser that winning football is about running the ball and controlling the line of scrimmage. I, and anyone knowledgeable of football whatsoever, would agree that controlling the line is an absolute must for winning football. But the overall tone, and the emphasis on running the ball - it just reeked of Fox and Rivera in retrospect of what took place on the tried today in the second half, as well as the games that preceded it in the same fashion. What it tells me, is yes, our staff is being outcoached and not able to counter adjustments made by the opponents; but, it also tells me that some of that is by design due to our staff's antiquated views on modern winning football. A running game helps, but getting a small lead and believing you can just old-school your way into a win for an entire half by pounding the opponent into submission with a smashmouth running game, with a porous offensive line no less, is absolutely mind-blowing. He is telling on himself both in what he says and how he is managing these games - he thinks he can win the game by bogging the game down and hanging onto a marginal lead before our grip gives way. It is troubling, because again, for all of the shiny new things we saw last season that led us to believe, we may finally have a cutting-edge, analytics-heavy, forward-thinking coach and staff... we don't. We have a guy cut from the same cloth as his predecessors who believes a punt is a good play and we can ride a defense until the wheels fall off. Sigh.

Me too, and I walked away defensive player of the week.

It's not Robby. It's time to look at Sam. It's low hanging fruit to go after Robby because of the whole "just got paid" trope, but the ball distribution from Sam has been a major issue all season, it just didn't matter until we started losing. He can't find or just doesn't trust throwing to Robby unless he beats his defender on a streak, and then he usually overthrows him. It's the same way he used him in NY, which is why Robby is frustrated. Also, go back and look, especially over the last two weeks how many times Robby was open and Sam missed him. Both Sam and Rhule just said in the presser that the last throw on 3rd down before the blocked punt was completely on Sam. Robby beat his man and Sam missed the throw. Then he throws a pick on that comeback route on the sideline to Robby, when in all honesty, it was late and should have never been thrown. I'd be pissed too... I just re-signed with a team and am being used as a decoy 90% of the game, and when I do get looks, most of the throws are absolutely horrible. And it's not just Robby... remember how incredible TMJ looked in camp and preseason? Now he can't be found.

I don't agree with most of his calls down the stretch (like dropping Burns in coverage when they need to pass), but he was the least of the problems today... I can't depend on him to keep dominating their offense when they keep getting chance after chance after chance because the offense goes on a milk carton between Darnold's picks in the second half.

CMC wasn't going to stop that poo show today. Hubbard played and ran well. Darnold played like poo, OL played like poo, and the defense fuging folded like a lawn chair bought off the top of a grocery store freezer.

Honestly, whether he could step up into it or not, that first throw was just a bad decision. DJ was bracketed. Now, he may have forced it because he's comfortable with DJ and is feeling pressure before it's there so he just tried it, but none of them should've been thrown, imo. That being said, I 100%, completely agree with you on John Miller. I dont just want him benched, I want him released. I dont give a flying poo... there is absolutely no way Jordan or Brown could be worse than this guy. Promote both of them and get Miller off of this fuging roster.

Yes, OL is shitty, but that's two weeks in a row we have lost s winnable game that we had control of, primarily because of STs and the offense trying to go into fuging cruise control, treating a marginal lead like it was 30. I know Rhule is secure because of his contract, but that may have been the absolute worst called game I have ever seen in professional football in every aspect of the game with a lead. We literally did everything for an entire half that the Eagles needed for us to do for them to win. All that being said, if Rhule wasn't on the contract he was, if I was Tepper, I would now be giving serious consideration to his dismissal as well. At the very least his seat would be heating up. Again, it is not based out of emotion or to be hyperbolic, but just based off the way these last two games have been called, I would be questioning his ability as a professional football coach. That was fuging Busch League. I thought I had seen some amateur poo when Rivera was here - like calling a timeout before the half allowing the Saints to score when they otherwise wouldn't... but, today was by far the worst coaching I have ever witnessed in managing a game. Period. Yes, we are in our 2nd year of a rebuild, but there was a 0% chance we should have lost that game. ZERO. And Rhule and his merry band of friends found a way to lose it. This team is talented enough and good enough to dominate most teams, and we did until halftime today and last week... so again, we're already through the growing pains of a rebuild. These games completely changing at halftime is wholly due to piss poor poo ass coaching. Again, yes the OL sucks, yes CMC is out, yes we have injuries on defense, but that was unbelievably gut-wrenching. We just lost to a team that couldn't run for an entire half and is fielding a QB who can't halfway throw a pass... after having a 9 point lead at half. Also, in regards to the players: Sam is by no means cemented as the franchise QB. In that single game, he has brought his own job security in jeopardy. That was a horribly managed game and he missed way too many throws, especially the ones he had time on. This offense today did not look much different from last year's with Teddy. He is still too squirrely and anxious to be relied on. All 3 picks shouldn't have been thrown. Period. And he still doesn't trust what he sees far too frequently to be dependable. John Miller better not see the fuging field, EVER AGAIN. EVER. He is not even a fuging NFL quality backup and I've seen enough. Charlton has to fuging go. Now. Yesterday. Last week. He is fuging horrible. No feel for the field... he is just fuging goofy. They could bring someone from the stands to do the poo he has done this season. There is no point in fuging punting when they aren't going to give you an advantage in field position. The fuging kicker we cut and the Jets picked up is a better fuging punter than a guy who is paid to do it professionally and does it every fuging day. Even if we play out the rest of the season relatively well, this loss may end up costing us a spot in the playoffs if it comes down to it and this staff needs to feel the heat for that. I am disgusted.

Holding on both outside zones. Defense is scared to rush upheld after getting burned on the read option the last 2 drives. No way we stop them on 1 yard.

The defense was a mirage.

Read option incoming to end the game.

Sweet hold.

He still shouldn't have thrown any of the throws he did on the picks. Hurts has been throwing balls out of bounds all day when nothing was there while under pressure. Sam has played like garbage.

Confirmed. Darnold sucks.