BlitzMonster

don't forget the dumb penalties the Panthers have been racking up

It was beautiful watching the Ravens OL open up big holes between the tackles time and time again on Sunday night. Compare that to the penetration the Saints DL routinely got against our OL. Ugh - it was night & day.

Agreed You can't "figure out" talent. If the athleticism and execution are outstanding, a defense is going to succeed.

The 2020 draft was fantastic at adding serious defensive talent to this team. And adding Horn & Bouye might be the last pieces of this puzzle. Being able to have CB who can go single coverage on talented receivers really opens up the possibilities for exotic blitzes and crazy pressure on the QB.

I know this team is young but I want them to learn how to go for the jugular and start blowing games open. Don't allow the other team to keep things close ! When we get a lead - thump their QB. Have guys in his face play after play. No soft prevent defense play-calling. Stay aggressive all game on defense.

a detailed read about Snow's defense and how others (Sean Payton, Aaron Rodgers) view it best quote: "Snow could be the NFL's leader of a new revolution." https://sports.yahoo.com/phil-snow-turned-panthers-defense-130802046.html

all of these are currently #1 in the NFL Points per Game allowed (10.5) Yards per Game allowed (190) Rushing Yards per Game allowed (46.5) Passing Yards per Game allowed (143.5) Sacks (10) https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/stats/team/?sortStatId=POINTS_ALLOWED_PER_GAME&selectedTable=1

it's way too early to tell about the playoffs a number of things would all have to happen for the playoffs to be a reality : CMC stays healthy all season Sam Darnold continues to improve at QB (if even just a little bit per game) OL needs to get some continuity and improved push in the run game (especially short yardage / goal line) Offense has better red zone performance (we're leaving too many points that could easily be ours) Note that everything mentioned is about the Offense. The D is currently playing great and I expect them to get even better as the season rolls along. The Defense is a playoff-caliber unit right now.

I'm sure that's the plan.

Given how much concern there was over the Panthers OL during the off season, I'll gladly take an "OK" or "half way decent" line to start the year. And there is some hope for improvement. The Panthers two well-regarded rookies are getting acclimated to the NFL. And we picked up the Bengals guard Michael Jordan who's got NFL experience and is learning our OL protections. So we've got some bodies to add in the near future. As such I think our OL should continue to gel and get better as the season progresses. Not a dominating unit but a serviceable one. And it's likely there will be some high picks spent on talented OL during the next draft. So it should continue to improve.

I though Brees was going to be an apologist for why his beloved Saints looked so bad on Sunday. Maybe try to malign the Panthers with some snarky comments. But Brees seemed to be sincere and honest in his description. It appears the Panther's defensive schemes are much more similar to those played in the college game than the NFL. Which other NFL folks have echoed as well. I'm not a HOF quarterback so all I know is sacks & int's are what they are. Dominating the opponent's line of scrimmage is a good thing. Keep doing that stuff and the Panthers will continue to win. I don't care if it's using a middle school defense.

The media can rank us wherever they want to. As long as the Panthers keep kicking ass, the team will FORCE the league to give them some respect. Respect is earned not given away. Keep pounding.

I think most here would agree our short yardage push is currently inadequate. I'd love to see the Panthers install a jumbo package with Deonte Brown lined up as one of the TE. Brown would only be in to block, not catch a pass. But can you imagine the push we could get from Brown & Moton lined up beside each other ? Plus Tremble as an H-back for blocking. And use the big back we recently acquired, Royce Freeman as the ball carrier. That's the kind of lineup to make a tough 3 yard gain.

One positive thing as to our run blocking - we've currently got a man-mountain sitting on the bench. Deonte Brown is huge and could definitely help our short yardage push.

Maybe that's what the Huddle largely overlooked - a quick read / quick throw QB can substantially help the offensive line avoid sacks. And Darnold has largely been operating that way. Maybe it's good play calling from the OC. Maybe Darnold as a 4th year vet is now processing the game fast and can make the quick throws. Whatever has been the cause, the result has been a boon to our OL play.

Yeah, the OL run blocking has not been as good as I would like. I think our short yardage / goal line push needs to improve. But the ubertalented CMC seems to make a lot of those issues just disappear.

All off-season the Huddle was worried about the OL. The belief seemed to be that the team would take a half-dozen sacks per game and Darnold would be constantly running for his life. The reality has been far from that. In the first two games the OL has looked fine. Darnold has been sacked once a game or so. He's looked fairly cool & calm in the pocket. The OL hasn't been the trash fire many expected it to be. Even with Elflein & Erving getting banged up, the team has been able to plug in replacements (including the rookie Christensen today) without skipping a beat. I must say I've been pleasantly surprised with the "not horrible" OL play so far. And that's against two teams with good DL.

I think the Panthers wanted to "solve" the OL problem before the draft to give themselves flexibility to go BPA. The only problem is that they deluded themselves into thinking these two signings would actually fix their OL. It seems pretty clear now that both contracts were a reach. Sad thing is most of the NFL scouting community seemed to already know that.

That's why it's so important to hit on your draft choices. Young starters are CHEAP starters. I'd love to see Christensen and Brown get installed as starting Guards effective immediately.

the Jets are probably sending over Brinks trucks full of money right now to replace Mekhi Becton

the Panthers took your advice !

It all depends on how many coaches and (most important) players are positive for COVID. A game can go on without coaches (or maybe with remote coaches using headsets) but if enough players are exposed, the game will get shut down. Only the NFL knows what the number is to have a forfeit. The team was displaced due to the hurricane and is currently practicing in Texas. First game in FLA. So two COVID hotspots.

A forfeit would give the Panthers both a W and a bye week. But it would be much more fun to beat the Saints on the field.

The New Orleans Saints have had five offensive coaches test positive for COVID-19, calling into question their status for Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter. However, one team source said, "We'll be just fine." Saints head coach Sean Payton said during the summer that the team's coaching and personnel staffs were 100% vaccinated. The Saints play Sunday at 1 p.m. ET at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32207953/handful-new-orleans-saints-offensive-coaches-test-positive-covid-19-sources-say