Newtcase

Pittsburgh probably chuckling so hard at our “identity” in the post game locker room.  A complete team doesn’t need an “identity”, they adapt to the weakness presented.  We approached this game with the same plan we took to Seattle and Tomlin had his team ready for it.  We had no more chess moves once that was obvious.  
 

It was an embarrassing defensive performance.  I can’t recall being beat to the edge so often.  Tackling was a huge issue throughout the game.  Put Taylor in hopeless positions throughout the game.

 Overall, I just didn’t see the team really given an opportunity to compete.  Never went tempo, abysmal lack of screens, ran the predictable play over and over.  A vanilla game plan exposed.

I’ve seen enough Fox and Rivera style football.  Wilkes is cut from the same cloth.  Can we ever have a team with a little juice again?  Boring football is boring.

July - BUY BUY Baker!

November - BYE BYE Baker!

Matthew Stafford was born in 1988.  Just 5 years later the NFL approved the team expansion that included the Carolina Panthers.  This guy is that guy's father.  Checks out, Panther related.

• DJ hasn't been consistent.  
• QB play, at best hasn't been consistent......at worst it's been awful. 
• DJ is a defensive focal point.
• Play calling has been awful. 
• Coaching has been awful.

The weight distribution of these factors is debatable, but they're all part of the story.

While interesting, this is 2d analysis.  The 3d analysis includes cap impact and the potential that these players walk away for nothing after the 5th year.

In 2018 he had Kelvin Benjamin and Zay Jones at WR, Charles Clay at TE.  The team rushed for 2000 yards.  ROUGH

In 2019 they completely overhauled WR/TE with Cole Beasley, John Brown and Isaiah McKenzie at WR and drafted Dawson Knox at TE.  The team rushed for 2000 yards.  IMPROVEMENT

In 2020 they added Stephon Diggs and Knox began to develop.  The team rushed for 1700 yards.  MASSIVE STEP

in 2021 they ran Diggs, Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders.  Very talented WR group.  Dawson Knox takes another huge step forward.  The team rushed for 2200 yards.  ARRIVAL

Beyond Allen developing over this time the Bills have made aggressive acquisitions to put real weapons on the receiving end of his passes.  Buffalo has always supported Allen with a wildly successful running game (of which he is a huge part) averaging 2000 yards per season over his first four years.  Give a strong armed QB good coaching, potent receiving weapons and 2000 yards a year rushing and you get Josh Allen.

I don't think the players tank but I do think they take on a me first attitude.  What can be achieved when you're on a terrible team?  Avoid injury, stay employed, try to improve value?  It's hard to expect players to risk their career for a team that's going nowhere.  So yeah, players take plays off, play soft, give less than 100%, in general protect themselves and their future to the extent acceptable.  This might give the appearance of players tanking but it's just human nature.

Countless examples yesterday but the most obvious was Jaycee.  That dude made half a dozen business decisions against Mixon.  

27 minutes ago, UpstatePantherfan said:

Say what you will about PJ, and this will be very unpopular, but same exact situation yesterday in the final minute of the game, Cam wouldn’t have come through clutch like that. I can maybe remember one or two times at most Cam 100% won a game for us in the final minute or so like PJ almost did yesterday. 
 

Don’t get it twisted, Cam is obviously the better QB for sure, but he definitely lacked that clutchness we saw from PJ yesterday 

Not sure how you can say that, there's no way to know if Cam would have completed that pass.  In his prime he certainly had the arm.  We do know that Cam definitely had some amazing moments.  First that come to mind are the 2015 wins @Seattle (will never forget that Olsen TD!) and the amazing drive @NO to take the lead and remain undefeated.  There were many more, these two just came to mind first.  Why do we need to subtract from Cam to uplift PJ though?  

Other than that, PJ did win the game for us.  He may have won the game on the previous drive as well if DJ hangs on.  There was nothing further PJ could do, he did his job to the tune of the longest completed air pass in next gen stats history.  Coaching took the ball out of his hands after the OT turnover which I thought was a huge mistake.  Putting the game on a kicker who just missed vs. the QB that just put the team on his back.  

PJ has won me over.  Wanted him gone after the Rams game.  Tampa and Atlanta have completely changed my perception.  He's played really well.  That pick 6 was an insane defensive play.  He was barely missing on some first half throws yesterday.  I want to see more, it definitely feels like his ceiling is quite a bit higher atm.  Subject to further evaluation as the league gets more tape on him.

22 minutes ago, Gerry Green said:

 

Good plays are contagious. And the inverse is also true. Good teams make fewer mistakes, and in a game that is usually close, that can mean the difference between winning, and losing.

 

CJ is playing far better than last year. But every little mistake gets taken out of context and over-blown. It's just what fans do.

Quality of play leads to accountability IMO and that definitely snowballs either direction.

Hard to say.  This team was robbed in the Cleveland game and could have quite easily won the Giants game as well.  As terrible as the season has been we're a couple bounces away from a 4-3 record instead of 2-5.  

Win or lose, we'll be able to put the Bucs game in better context after this Sunday.  

Just now, SCO96 said:

Good point. Unfortunately, too many QB's coming out of college and picked in the first round are not true "franchise quarterbacks". They just happen to be the best of the group coming out in a particular year. The bust rate for first round QB's is quite high.

Same thing with defensive players.  Some guys are solid, but are not so dominant that they make everyone around them better. Shaq Thompson, Derrick Brown, and Vernon Butler were all first round picks. Derrick is showing signs of improvement this season, but so far none of those guy have significantly elevated the play of others when they are on the field.

Yeah, I'm in no way saying that we're a lock to benefit from this process.  In fact, I'd agree the odds aren't all that favorable.  Simply saying that when you do hit a single player can count for more than 1, in fact quite a bit more than 1.  The Panthers are clearly trying to give themselves the best chance to get the best player next year.  If we hit on coaching and draft it opens a fairly large window, if we miss then we're the Browns/Jets/Jaguars of the last decade.

4 hours ago, Scum of the Turf said:

I don’t believe in tanking in the nfl.  Only the nba. 1 player in the draft to be a starter in the nba s 20% of yur starting rotation.  Getting a player in the nfl draft gets u 1/22 starter in the nfl.  It’s more about culture in the nfl.  Winning begats winning , losing begats losing. Tanking in the nfl, especially in wk 7, kills the fans, the players , and the organization .  And makes the owner look worse than he does.  So this better work ! 

I get your point but not all 22 starters are equal.  A franchise QB can immediately elevate the players around him.  Disruptive defensive players can elevate the play of others.  In this way the synergy a high quality player contributes adds up to more than a singular influence.

Happy for CMC, he deserved better.

Nope.  Brown, Horn, Chinn and Icky are untouchable.  

Pretty sure everyone knows we're going to trade draft picks to bring in a veteran at RB.  It's the Panthers way.

Watching college football just got a lot more serious for me.  

Shaq and Burns can go.  Brown, Horn, Luvu and Chinn are the building blocks on defense.  
 

We also have the second most important offensive position covered with Icky IMO.  Everyone else on the offensive side could go for the right price.

We need to accept that this year and next year is about acquiring young talent and the right coaching staff.  The rebuild is on and if we half cook it then it’s gonna be another decade before we have a chance to contend.  

We are 1-12 in our last 13 games.  The only win came against Jameis Winston playing with a broken back, and just barely.

12 minutes ago, SCO96 said:

Can you imagine what the pundits and Huddlers would do if Sam (or even Eason for that matter) got hot and led us to a 9-2 or 8-3 finish and we somehow sneek into the playoffs? 

This is the same imagination process I use with a lottery ticket. 

41 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

But the real question is, will they allow him to throw beyond the LOS?

The real question is do we have a play design beyond the LOS?