Seriously what are we going to do without Kemoeatu ??

[spartan_pantherfan]

I dont care who's in there, they Hayden experiment needs to end.

[mountainpantherfan]

Hayden actually impressed me tonight. Damn if he didn't get pushed around like a rag roll most of the night but his speed was way better than I thought it was. And he had good penetration which shows his has some power but I'm guessing his weekness is his lower body strength since he was getting a push and then got pushed out of the way. He isn't starting caliber and that I agree with but my expectations were low to begin with so he did impress me.

For me watching this game tonight a question that is just as big as "What are we going to do without Kemo?" is "What are we going to do with Lewis?" I thought he played horrible last season and felt we needed to upgrade his spot. He is a starter and while he was better than Hayden he wasn't by much. He was getting pushed around and routinely just looked lazy. There was one play were he actually had a great push and was inches from Eli and then pulled up, stopped, and then watched as Eli lobed a pass over his head with Lewis, hands to the side, watching. WTF. This may be the preseason but I can at least apprechiate a player trying and working his ass off and getting beat a lot more than I can a "starter" going half ass.

[Snake]

Our problem is the same problem all Cover 2 DTs face. When Big G are up front they get pushed around. Our LBs are gonna have to do more work this year cause we dont have anyone on the starting line that is above 310 pounds. The only DTs I saw that had a good push was Favorite and Irving.

[mountainpantherfan]

Our problem is the same problem all Cover 2 DTs face. When Big G are up front they get pushed around. Our LBs are gonna have to do more work this year cause we dont have anyone on the starting line that is above 310 pounds. The only DTs I saw that had a good push was Favorite and Irving.

IMO I think for this line to even come close to working the team will have to do one of two things. Go to Favorite and Irving starting because they are both better than Lewis or Hayden. Or go for sped and go to a 4 DE line. Neither is ideal but I think they would be better than starting either Hayden or Lewis.

Hopefully they can find a DT (or 2) through trade or cuts. The only problem with cuts and I didn't really think about this until earlier today is the Panthers position on the waiver wire. Even is a DT that is worth anything is cut the chances that 28 other teams pass on him to get to us is very unlikely. So I think a trade is going to have to happen.

[Snake]

IMO I think for this line to even come close to working the team will have to do one of two things. Go to Favorite and Irving starting because they are both better than Lewis or Hayden. Or go for sped and go to a 4 DE line. Neither is ideal but I think they would be better than starting either Hayden or Lewis.

Hopefully they can find a DT (or 2) through trade or cuts. The only problem with cuts and I didn't really think about this until earlier today is the Panthers position on the waiver wire. Even is a DT that is worth anything is cut the chances that 28 other teams pass on him to get to us is very unlikely. So I think a trade is going to have to happen.

A trade is quite possible but I would not expect anything big. Maybe a 6th round pick or something like that. Really its more of our players not playing there gaps then there size IMO. Gap control is something we did not have at this point. Our LBs are part to blame also cause there tackling was well horrible if you ask me. Whats the point at flying to the ball when no one makes a good tackle.

[Delhommey]

If you want to teach someone who knows nothing about football how to spot where the play is, tell them to look wherever Nick Hayden isn't.

[Jangler]

Hayden actually impressed me tonight. Damn if he didn't get pushed around like a rag roll most of the night but his speed was way better than I thought it was. And he had good penetration which shows his has some power but I'm guessing his weekness is his lower body strength since he was getting a push and then got pushed out of the way. He isn't starting caliber and that I agree with but my expectations were low to begin with so he did impress me.

His speed doesn't do much good if he gets pushed around all day. I hope Hurney is looking for somebody, anybody right now!

[Edley]

Lewis will be all right, especially with Irvin and Favorite providing more depth than we had last year with Walker and Hayden. I didn't see Hypolite being much more than a camp body, but even at that he'll still prolly beat out Nick. The FO will bring a vet in after cut downs and go from there. I'm interested to see how Meeks packages play out though, which we won't really get a good gauge on until the regular season.

[mountainpantherfan]

A trade is quite possible but I would not expect anything big. Maybe a 6th round pick or something like that. Really its more of our players not playing there gaps then there size IMO. Gap control is something we did not have at this point. Our LBs are part to blame also cause there tackling was well horrible if you ask me. Whats the point at flying to the ball when no one makes a good tackle.

I see your point and missing Davis was a big part of that but the DT situation effects this entire defense. The guards were constantly able to get into the 2nd level and put huge blocks on every LB. With that being able to happen you started seeing a lot of clips and blocks coming from the TE/FB/RB. Those might look minor but when tackling having the right leverage and angel are so important that those clips can really disrupt the entire defense's ability to play a solid game.

Gap control was also a problem but for me it was so hard to tell because of all the 2nd and 3rd level blocking that was taking place.