tukafan21

In SF on MNF CMC is about to put a Smitty like beating on us with that kind of stage, not sure how beatable they're going to be with him doing that.

Looks like someone has been going back and re-reading my posts about him from almost 2 years ago LOL. Green has always been my comp of him going back to his Freshman year in school. And the thing I kept saying in the lead to the draft that people thought made me sound crazy, was that I said by the time he signed his rookie extension, he'd be a clear Top 10 WR who is considered by some (or many?) to be a Top 5 WR.

I don't think it's a matter of being "on the precipice of taking games over" as much as "Canales and Bryce might finally be realizing they need to force feed him targets" It's really felt all year long like they have been trying to prove they can spread the ball around with a balanced attack, in particularly in key situations where they just use him as a decoy route and don't even look his way before the pass is thrown. Yes, he's had a few drops that hurt his stats a little, but in reality, what's been holding him back isn't himself, or even Bryce's play. But the play calling and decision making by Bryce once the ball is snapped, and just not looking his way as often as a team with such a gap between WR 1 and 2 like we are right now.

Not saying it’s what I’d do (because it’s not), but a lot of coaches like to do that so they can then double the elite WR and think doing those two in tandem will shut down a passing game as much as possible

I'm the biggest T-Mac fan there is, and I have no problem admitting that I was one of those people saying that in the offseason. For me it was always the word "expect" that got me with that discussion. Always said it was a legit possibility, but to "expect" it wasn't fair. Especially for a rookie, even while it happens at a much more frequent rate these days, it's still a difficult thing for any rookie to hit that mark. I also said that before we traded Thielen, and before Coker got hurt a day later. Once those two things happened, I definitely shifted into thinking 1k was closer to an "expectation" than just being hopeful to see it. Then really leaned into thinking it should happen once XL got hurt as well, at that point it almost got to where it would be a real disappointment if he didn't get there.

This His foot was initially inbounds, but his toe 100% went out as he pushed off that step, no doubt about it.

100% give him his props, he earned it today. But it's the same thing I've said all season long when pointing out concerning things after wins. If you (and by you, I more mean the team) just stick your head in the sand over real concerns, just because we won (or even because he did have his best game as a pro yet), then it's only going to cause problems down the line. Great game, full credit, but I think the game on the whole was more fools gold than a breakthrough. Get upset at me for saying it, I know most people will, but just my objective perspective.

In no world do I expect him to make every throw in a game, at all. But it's that there are certain types of throws that he just flat out can't make, and he had a number of them again today. That's what concerns me, not that he wasn't perfect, but that we continue to see him try to thread the ball into windows when he needs to be driving it, but he's just unable to drive those throws in that way. And again, I give him full credit for having his best game of his career, I'm not out here saying he played bad today, not at all. But it's still just a fact that he doesn't have an NFL arm and that fact alone is why I hope we move on from him this offseason. It's like how people say a golfer has every shot in his bag. The Bryce equivalent would be that he can only make half the shots that professional golfers need to be able to make. Sure, you could still go out there and play a great round, maybe win a tournament. But that doesn't mean it's a golfer I'm going to make a long term bet on.

Also a Bryce hater here, and yes, I'll give him credit for having his best game of his career. But at the same time, he still had so many just baffling plays and terrible throws. It's a very weird feeling after this one, as I still very much don't think he is a viable long term solution at QB, but it was his best game of his career, I can admit that. But also admittedly, my fear is he just played his way into having his 5th year picked up and given the starting position again next year.

Yes, the mistakes are bad, but for me, they're still the secondary problem, the big one is the numerous incomplete passes because he's unable to drive the ball when he isn't able to have perfect balance and step into the throw. Because even if you fix his mental mistakes, he still will never have a strong enough arm for this league. You can't win with a QB who can't drive a throw from the hash mark to the opposite sideline and only 15 yards downfield.

Kneeling on it is a terrible indictment on Bryce and them knowing his lack of arm strength. As we didn't have enough time to get into FG range, but we could have gotten into range or a Hail Mary... if we had a QB capable of throwing that pass. Canales felt that even if they got a chunk play and called the TO, that Bryce still wouldn't be able to throw the Hail Mary, so just kneeled on it instead.

Also a microcosm of this game itself Bryce plays his best game of his career, but at the same time also had a good 6-8 plays (if not more) today where he just made terrible decisions and/or throws that in the end, likely cost us the win. So even when he plays well, his issues still cause problems

The weird thing is that in ways this was his best game of the season, maybe his best as a Panther. Easily his best game of throwing the ball down the field for a change. But in others, you could say it was one of his worst as he's made some terrible mistakes on critical plays that have clearly cost us the game. Holding it too long taking a few bad sacks as well as multiple passes where he just doesn't have the arm to drive it properly, but even an average NFL arm would have been good enough to make the plays and we likely win the game.

That play might be the perfect representation of this season

Noodle arm can't drive the ball You can't contend with a QB who can only throw touch passes

This one has nothing to do with T-Mac, I'd be saying this same thing if it was XL, a player I was calling for us to trade at the deadline because I think he's a bust. It just happened to be T-Mac on the play, but it has literally nothing to do with him, it's plain as day that no player was catching that ball on purpose, it would have needed to be deflected directly into them.

Well looking like he's finally going to crack 200 yards for the 2nd time this season. Guess we'll have another week of people going back to thinking Bryce can be our long term solution again

No, you have not, but it's okay, just keep sounding dumb

In THAT specific situation, then yes it would have been. If he adjusted his hands/arms/body to make that catch given where it was tipped and that he was already diving for the ball, it would have been one of the most insane catches ever. It's not about tipped passes not being able to be caught, it's the totality of him diving one direction and the ball getting tipped a good foot (if not more) in the opposite direction, all maybe 2 feet in front of him. It's just not possible to react and adjust THAT much in THAT short of a distance. Again, the only way that ball is getting caught is if it was tipped directly into his arm/body and that allowed him to bring it in, he was never adjusting to it given the situation.

Seriously People have said I have an agenda to defend T-Mac no matter what, but if anyone can look at that play and think there was even a 1% chance he should have adjusted to make that catch, then they have a bigger anti T-Mac agenda than my pro T-Mac views. Just lunacy to think he could have adjusted to that one, the defender just made a great play, it happens.

No they wouldn't There is no way in hell a player is reacting to that ball tipped just in front of them and changing the trajectory as much as it did. The ONLY way a player is catching that is if the tip caused it to hit him in the body/arm and because of it he was able to secure it. But in no world is any player in the history of the sport making that catch because they were able to adjust to the tip pass and purposefully catch it on it's new trajectory, not with him already diving/going down and extending for the ball.

No, this is nothing like that, it just flat out was a ball that no player is making, like absolutely insane to think he even could have caught it, let alone saying he SHOULD have caught it

There isn't a player in the game that was making that catch. He was literally diving for the ball and it was tipped 2 feet in front of him and altered the path of the ball by a good foot or so behind his diving outstretched hand. It only "looked catchable" when watched in super slow motion, but I don't think even race car drivers (who have obscene reaction time) could have reacted in time to that one.

And right on cue LOL Guy was diving for a pass and 2 feet before the ball got to him it was tipped and completely changed the trajectory of the pass. But sure, he "dropped" it, SMH