frankw

The defense definitely didn't have a great day. But 7 offensive points in 3 quarters speaks for itself and that isn't enough to defeat even the worst teams in the league.

But this isn't college football there are no "programs" here we aren't Alabama playing scrubs from some small school every week. Saying Rhule isn't great with X's and O's and thinking that helps your argument is pretty out there. That isn't optimism that is bordering on delusion.

Yes I agree that is a reactionary statement. But on the other end of the spectrum you have folks here still talking Sam up like he's a rookie and not a fourth year starter with 8 turnovers in three games.

Delhomme and Newton are the two lone long term starting quarterbacks for the Panthers in a quarter century through numerous coaches. People are right to question what they are seeing you can't ignore that kind of history and odds are not in Darnold's favor with how he is turning the ball over. If you're good with Sam cool. Not everybody else has to feel that way.

His mentality is why we are in this mess. We treated a reclamation project bust from another team like an already established franchise quarterback. This is on our staff as much as Sam. The film of who he has been as a starter was there it's on Rhule and Fitterer for gambling with both the oline and no real option behind Darnold.

There has been heated disagreement here but few are telling others to go and root for another team. Anyone who is here through this slop probably isn't going to bail now. 99% of us seek the same thing only a tiny percentage actually want to see failure. I totally understand people who take the optimist approach but barring a miracle we won't see back to back winning seasons until minimum 2024 or 2025 so the critics are very much justified. Some people are just tired and it is absolutely relatable.

All along I figured even if Sam would turn the ball over at a moderate or high rate he would still have the arm talent to make this offense watchable and keep defenses honest with the deep ball. That was the biggest part of convincing ourselves into the acquisition. But other than the final drive he did virtually nothing for 3 quarters and it wasn't much better against Philly. Losing to Jalen Hurts and his 37.1 QBR at home is abysmal.

Sam Darnold has a worse QBR than both Mac Jones and Daniel Jones. These people just cant be reasoned with if they still aren't seeing it.

Worse than last year yes but even last year Teddy had hella pressure in his face his mobility saved him and made the line look better than it was often. But the key plus was he was more decisive with the ball and processed faster. Even with time Sam has made some seriously ill-advised throws. Week 1. When was the last one?

We can all agree the oline is bad. It's worse than last year but 2020 was still not good either and Bridgewater's mobility masked some of that. That being said why didn't we have these issues and talk of hospital balls when Teddy was qb? Our top two wideouts each put up 1k last year with the same oc and a similar oline talent wise. No Sam is not in an ideal or particularly fair situation but at some point we have to stop pointing fingers in every direction and see some of this is the same crap that went on with the Jets.

He's still making the same bad decisions he did in New York. Carson Wentz whom most fans here dismissed as a lost cause seems to be doing fine with that learning curve. Even Teddy started off well in Denver they have the same record as us. I get that we want to take a glass half full look with our team and our oline and playcalling are not always ideal but our offense should not be this inept with the talent we have and Sam has to start connecting on those deep balls enough is enough with the kid gloves even his coach is saying so.

We have no deep passing game. Some of that is on the oline and Brady. But the rest is on Sam for sailing passes over receivers or out of bounds. Arm talent was supposed to be the plus in acquiring him so we could flip the switch from Teddy. Defenses know about this limitation and have adjusted.

Sam is a fourth year pro the training wheels are off now my guy.

The rage posts are cute but the simple fact of the matter is if our playcalling does not get better and Sam does not get on the same page with his receivers we are going nowhere. Yes receivers like Robby with the drops need to do much better but it's a two way street Sam also has to put his own offense in position to succeed. The ball is still in his hands no matter who else we may want to lay blame on. The excuses are getting toxic and frankly pathetic.

This is Kyle Allen all over again with these Sam fanboys. He's a fourth year pro these mistakes are who he is accept it.

They don't want to talk about the eight turnovers though.

The defender should've been ejected for that hit. I would rather he be okay and not heading to the hospital like the Seahawks player last night. You're taking the defend my qb stance to an extreme here.

Seven winning seasons in a quarter century but sure let's blame the fans

Some of you are weirdly defensive of Sam.

We can work with the right side. I think we could work with it overall if not for Paradis. I tried to tell people this spring but most seemed to think center was good for some delusional reason. I could almost look past the Erving and Elflein contracts if we hadn't gambled the middle of the line on Paradis and Tecklenburg. But to do all of this with Sam Darnold is just asking for trouble and here we are.

Most of those are Robby I assume. If there is anyone who has a pff sub and can get our team drop numbers for 2020 and this year to compare that would be helpful. We have the same hc the same oc the same top 2 receivers that each put up 1k+ last year the biggest difference is qb. There has to be something going on to explain this huge swing. Either last year was a mirage and Robby got paid and stopped caring or there are things behind the scenes we don't know about.

Did he elaborate further on this? We ran the football well against the Eagles and had 100 yards rushing against the Vikings. We can want to run the ball more all we want but if the defense knows our qb can't connect deep their job is that much easier. The problem still remains

Newton got a lot of flack for those hard throws especially on shorter passes it was definitely a frequent source of criticism. The thing is if fans notice these issues so do opposing defenses who watch film. This is not a rookie quarterback people really need to shelve this silly mindset he is a veteran this is his fourth season. If he isn't on the same page with his receivers then it's his job to make that happen. They have this week to figure it out they should be spending a lot of time together it's on the leader of our offense to get that going.