Gapanthersfan

It’s a real kick in the nuts. Every time you think the coaching staff is finally ‘getting it,’ you realize that they’re not, nor are they any closer than they have been since the beginning.

It makes you question everything about the team. What is real and what is not. I still hold true to my belief that the front office is adding good NFL talent to the roster, but that’s really about the only consistently improving aspect.

One of the elephants in the room: Where is the damn pass rush? If the talent on D is improving, and it most certainly is, why on God’s green earth  is this backsliding? The Panthers have NEVER been this bad at getting to the QB, so what’s the damn problem? 

Bryce is who he is. Game manager. JAG who will have a few games where he looks like that guy, but will quickly regress back to the mean. He has the talent around him, but the play caller still has no clue what to do and when to do it. 

We see the same BS every other week, and I can say with confidence that it is NOT Tepper this time.

The wins have come in spite of coaching, not because. One of our studs players stepped up and had a DAY. Rico. Brown. Horn. Coker. Think about it. Who were the main ballers in Miami, Dallas, Green Bay and the Rams? Those games were not won on the X and O front. It was ALL individual effort from a few and everyone else just held their own. That’s not to say that the team lacks talent otherwise because it certainly does not. It means that coaching is completely inept in scheming players to be successful. Regardless of how the season finishes, it’s another year of fools gold. 

I’m tired of this coaching staff. I’m tired of Bryce. Everyone else can stay. 

6 minutes ago, CRA said:

well, would be a disclaimer on that, they could beat anyone w/ that strategy if a team doesn't show up or plays poorly. 

We could play the Rams 10 times and play well in most, they are going to beat us the majority of the time.  Pretty big disparity in talent still exists IMO.    

Yup. Top gear for top gear, panthers lose by 2 plus scores. High gear panthers vs an elite’s team middle gear is probably a 3 point game either way. 

High level Panthers football looks like the third quarter of the Rams game. This team has 2 very solid backs and a powerful line. That can make any game close. 

21 minutes ago, CRA said:

if you didn't watch 3 plays.....the D that played the Rams looked exactly like last years.  I mean the Rams are a very good offensive team but just how easy that walked the field us on all game is a tad concerning.

and the Panthers should 100000% roll out the same gameplan vs the Saints.  All you need is Jaycee Horn not to give up 2 massive TDs and it's an easy ugly win.   We know how the winning forumula.  It isn't balance.  It's leaning on the run and having Bryce make very few throws that matter.  Hope he can when the few moments call. 

This. If Bryce can just be a game manager  and Canales leans in to the run game, this team can beat anyone in the league. Bryce can make clutch throws in clutch moments, but asking him to do it all game is a recipe for failure. 

There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear… 

Bad and untalented teams don’t beat the Rams, Packers and Cowboys. Hell, even in our most dominant seasons those 3 wins would be very impressive. 3 of our losses were by the best teams in the AFC (Pats, Jags, Bills). They swept the falcons, our kryptonite team. Screwed the pooch in Nola and San Fran. Should have beat SF. That still stings. 

This has been one of the hardest schedules this team has had in recent memory. Going up against the best teams in the AFC and NFC, actually winning a few and now 2 wins away from the playoffs??? 

They used to be considered the team NOBODY with playoff aspirations wanted to play in December, and that rings true once again. It’s Far cry from the get right game they were not that long ago. 

100,000,000% fixed. 

Bijan is yet to see the ball on the game winning drive, and all they have to do is get in FG range? 
 

BS

I don’t see how Morris will still have a job by the end of the year. 

Tampa is doing NOTHING to mitigate the aggressive defense of ATL. It’s like bad Canales is calling their offense tonight. 

Tampa running at will but still trying to air it out. I can dig it. 

VERY few players completely change the complexion of the game. Brown is now at that level.

How do you scheme around a cheat code DT who collapses the center even when double teamed and bats passes on the regular? How do you block him and not draw a holding call? One on one and he rag dolls linemen. Most elite edge guys can be somewhat schemed around to a certain degree, but what the hell do you do against someone as physically dominating as Brown who lines up just a few feet from the football on every snap?  

His presence alone has been good for at least 2 extra wins this season. He is the most physically dominating defensive player this team has seen since 2003 (sorry Star and Hardy), and he is STILL yet to reach his ceiling. 

Now if Dan and Co can draft a DROY edge and shore up the LBs… 

3 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I think it's fairly clear he is not dedicated to being an NFL player. We don't have the time and luxury of being able to wait until his 5th year of the NFL for him to start to figure it out much like it took in college.

He is just another in a long line of Panthers WR flops. We should all be very familiar with the symptoms of that at this point.

Exactly. This last offseason Dan said that adding dudes that ‘loved playing football’ was the priority, and that’s just not who XL is. I don’t see the team patiently waiting for the bulb to come on. 

16 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

If your boss at work did you completely dirty, would you want to keep working for him if you had the chance to leave?

 

EE is gone, ya'll need to accept that.  Guys like him have egos and moral character.

I can subscribe to this. 

For men with pride, it’s not about the money. The 2 things that I hope hook him in to staying:

1. His wife and kids are calling Charlotte home and don’t want to move. 

2. He is now starting to see his vision unfold. 
 

I humbly recant my EE bashing that I’ve done in the past. Guy is putting together a stout defense. 

I think this whole ‘controversy’ was fabricated by the media. Chuba was the starting back. He got injured. Backup performed admirably. Chuba came back too soon and it cost the team a game because DC put his loyalty to Chuba over that of the team. The media then shoved microphones in the faces of Chuba and DC wanting comments on the ensuing ‘demotion’ and from there the narrative was born. This exact scenario plays itself out on every team in the nfl many times over in a season. Our local media is just hungry for ANY story that isn’t considered heresy, lest their access be abolished by the king. 

2003 playoff Rams. 

I knew they’d beat the Eagles after that performance but to take down the greatest show on turf in their house? 

19 minutes ago, ImfromClayton said:

I'm not even sure this is a debate. He's turned himself into one of the top LT's in football. Can't let him walk this early. His first 3 years, I thought he was a bust, so kudos to him for growing mentally, and physically. I'd call him a cornerstone of the franchise at this point. I anticipate having to take a RT replacement in a draft pretty soon. 

I’m a reformed Ickey knocker. He is a legit franchise LT. He will demand, and receive whatever he wants from somebody. He is a road grader and has really upped his game in pass protection. The potential is there to be even better than prime Gross. There will be no discount and there will be gnashing of teeth when the numbers are published, but he knows his value. 

10 minutes ago, CRA said:

Panther football in 2025.....is basically the Panthers needing things that are often completely outside the norm/expectations to happen.  I still contend, this is the most illogical season I have watched.  Which makes it very entertaining (which is all I ask). 

I’ve said it in the past that this team has found brief runs of success this season off of a player or few that decides to turn God mode on for the day.

Yesterday Chuba looked like the stud many forgot he was last season. Mike Jack ball hawked a pick 6 to the house? WTF? Derrick m-fin Brown.  Does anyone remember the last time a Panthers lineman closed out a big game? That play was classic Jenkins. 

Coker is a stud (we are VERY fortunate to have him). Tet is a stud. Brown is a stud. Rico is a stud. Ickey is a stud. The O line continues to play much better than they rightfully should be. The depth players by and large have been refreshingly competent. 

If they would have just played Panthers brand football all season they would probably have 9 wins but it is what it is. I think Bryce is far more comfortable in the game manager role, which for now is ‘ok’… for now.

A team that can run the ball at will and has an opportunistic defense is a tough out for anybody, home or away. 

If they play Panthers football they can beat anybody, as we saw yesterday. The bye could not of come at a better time. Perfect time to get healthy.

This team beat the Rams to death yesterday. The Rams. They barely touched the ball in the 3rd quarter.  Nothing that I would call flukey. They made Stafford have a bad day. 

Healthy Chuba, Rico and o line will make for bad days for opponents. 

As long as Dave can finally acknowledge that Bryce is a game manager, we have a chance. 

It is not possible to run the ball too much with this team. 

1 hour ago, onmyown said:

Young is a Tepper mistake and no one will convince me otherwise.

No NFL coach comes in, sees what Bryce has done, a short QB hopping around under throwing the ball and says yep, I can make a future with this QB and statistically he will be the first in history to do it with his limitations.

Some people seem to believe this. Tepper is strapping the team to Bryce.

There are a few of us who can see the obvious truth. 

Criminal negligence that many coaches would be fired for. Rico/Hubbard would have greatly swung the chance of winning squarely in our favor and he still chose to ride with the injured noodle armed kid. This one hurt, bad. 

16 minutes ago, Panthers Fan 69 said:

This just fuging infuriates me.  This is why Dave sucks and we will lose Rico in the offseason. What a terrible coach.  The players see it. The fans see it. The media sees it. The announcers see it.  Only one they doesn’t is Canalas. fuging idiot. 

This one really pissed me off. Panthers SHOULD have won by 2 scores. Had they not pissed this and the Saints games away, they’re 8 and 4 and squarely in first place in the south. Sour grapes and all but this was BS. 

18 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Half of the roster?

We don't even have half of the starters that would start on most NFL teams. 

I also bristle at the idea of a "bridge" coach. That's letting Tepper off easy when it was juat plainly a bad fuging hire.

Especially when you have guys like Ben Johnson and Shane Steichen that aren't struggling this way.

Half of the starters are legit good NFL talent.

Tet, Coker, Ickey, Hubbard, Rico, Moton, Hunt, Lewis, Brown, JC Horn, Moehrig. 

Definitely still lacking in places and no where what I would call a good roster, but it has trended in a positive direction. 

Bridge is the only consolation I can give myself to cope with this gross coaching negligence in every aspect. There are/were so many better options that weren’t welcome here (Harbaugh/Payton) or never were going to be a part of this ish show (Ben, Shane, etc).

I think the team circumstances are different than when Canales was hired. The roster was almost completely void of legit nfl talent AND nobody was going to want anything to do with Bryce. The season went exactly as it was supposed to. 

It’s different now. Half of the starters are actual legit good nfl players who would start on most other rosters. Good o line. Great RBs and stud WR1.  Rapidly improving defense. The team is a couple offseasons away and a journeyman QB away from being very competitive. Moreover, you can rack up a lot more wins in the NFC South than any other division in football so it’s an easier road to the playoffs. You’ve got to fade Tepper, but with the talent infusion, the job is a lot more attractive of HC candidates. 

At this point I see Canales as a bridge coach who has basically been nothing more than a placeholder to fall on his pocket knife for BY. There is no way on God’s green earth anyone in the locker room respects him after that BS on Monday night.

The only apprehension I have with wanting him gone is starting yet another coaching cycle change, but it is different this time around. 

20 minutes ago, electro's horse said:

Pretty obvious people on mint wanted Bryce to have a big performance on prime time. 

Exactly this. Either by mandate or his own doing, Canales’ job is not trying to win football games, it’s trying to make Bryce look competent, but the 2 are mutually exclusive. One is very doable, the other is completely impossible. 

I refuse to give him the out that he is just that dumb because nobody is that dumb. I also refuse to believe that Rico didn’t approach him on the sidelines to voice his frustrations, which if so, obviously didn’t get him anywhere. 

5 minutes ago, csx said:

Canales is a fraud

His play calling on Monday would get most coaches fired. Panthers could have won by 2 scores by just doing the obvious. It’s so perplexing that one has no choice but to consider nefarious intentions. He wants to be seen as a play calling savant and I honestly believe that he loathes running the ball successfully. 

I could see a situation where a player has made enough $ to be comfortable, gets a few concussions and begins to realize he’s growing more and more forgetful and that his personality has changed/worsening depression. It’s just not worth playing any more at that point, regardless of how badly they want to hoist a lombardy trophy one day… and you as a fan can’t be upset with that.