OK, time to decrease expectations.

[hank pimple butt]

this is sad.......its f'n pre season!!!!!!!!!!!!

i swear this has to be the first year some of y'all have watched football.....relax!!!!!

[Davidson Deac II]

Pre-season games are used to make judgments. That's what they are about. Maybe not used to judge the first string defense as a whole. but the many parts thereof. No one really gets an A tonight, except maybe for Anderson.

I am not saying the sky is falling, nor am i saying that we won't improve, I am just saying that we should be realistic based upon what we have seen so far, which is the NFL's version of LOST.

And let's not even begin to think about the injuries. This alone is troublesome.

On individuals perhaps, but not on the team as a whole. We may indeed struggle this year, but preseason performance is not an indicator of how we will play. Never has been and never will be. Remember that Detroit's defense performed great in the preseason last year only allowing 8 points per game. Not so in the regular season.

[Htar]

I can't get a bit worked up over preseason.

[Cape Fear Cat]

Maybe in the end all you guys who see dark clouds will be proven right, but I choose to wait until December to make that call. I'm no football guru or anything, but I thought I saw a marked improvement last night over the first preseason game. Sure, there are still things that need work, but that's kinda' to be expected with all the change this off-season, isn't it?

[panthers55]

We have yet to have al our starters in on defense. Look at last night. Davis disn't play at all and Beason didn't play that long. Godfrey didn't play either. Bottom line is when you play most of the night without your two best linebackers and your best safety, you are going to have a few busted plays which is what bit us in the butt. Miami also opened up their playbook and blitzed regularly on defense.

even with all that we were ahead in the third quarter. I don't understand all the doom and gloom. This is an opportunity to get work for some defensive members who might be called on to come up big this year.

I did see some attempts at stunts and blitzes last night which was encouraging. Problem is we need more practice obviously as we often took poor angles and didn't have as many free runs to the quarterback. But with the exception of Beason's injury, I came away feeling better about this game than the last.

[JungleCat]

Yeah, it's too early to call it now. Our DT situation needs to be fixed ASAP. I'm worried about depth if we lose any more starters. I think Beason will be all right. We were 2 and 2 in pre-season last year so there's still time to get it right.

[top dawg]

Some of you guys are killing me. How many times do I have to say the sky is not falling, nor are there black clouds rolling in? Furthermore, I already said that pre-season is used to judge "the many parts thereof" and not the whole. I am just a little concerned with what I saw last night on the defensive side of the ball, and am thinking that it may not be all gravy this season, especially at the beginning.

Personally, I was being extremely optimistic about our chances of equaling our 12-4 mark last year, but with last night I might have to drop it down 2-4 games and come back down to earth with more level heads. But, I am still somewhat optimistic (hell, it's the start of a new year). Sure we had some improvement from the first game, but in my opinion it wasn't "marked" improvement, or at least not "marked" enough. Like all, I hope there is an even bigger progression in these next couple of games, so that my optimism will grow back up into the clouds, but for now it's guarded.

[panthers55]

Some of you guys are killing me. How many times do I have to say the sky is not falling, nor are there black clouds rolling in? Furthermore, I already said that pre-season is used to judge "the many parts thereof" and not the whole. I am just a little concerned with what I saw last night on the defensive side of the ball, and am thinking that it may not be all gravy this season, especially at the beginning.

Personally, I was being extremely optimistic about our chances of equaling our 12-4 mark last year, but with last night I might have to drop it down 2-4 games and come back down to earth with more level heads. But, I am still somewhat optimistic (hell, it's the start of a new year). Sure we had some improvement from the first game, but in my opinion it wasn't "marked" improvement, or at least not "marked" enough. Like all, I hope there is an even bigger progression in these next couple of games, so that my optimism will grow back up into the clouds, but for now it's guarded.

It because you talk out of both sides of your mouth. You say on one hand that the sky isn't falling then you go on to produce a litany of complaints and reasons why we aren't improving up to your expectations. If you can't tell muxh from the pre-season than you can't change predictions or issues from what you see from mostly backups and guys who won't see the field.

That is what everyone is saying to you. You respond with the same old- the sky isn't falling and then talk about not making marked improvement or not enough. Again, it means nothing. Game three may see more guys back or we might keep more out to protect them. How do you think we will do if we for example keep Moose Smitty and Goodson out. Or keep Davis, Beason and Godfrey out again and continue to play vanilla on defense against Pittsburgh and Baltimore while they blitz on every play. And in game four the scrubs will play all game. So you won't see marked improvement the rest of the way. In fact you won't see improvement at all. That is what people are saying to you so stop making a big deal about preseason or expecting to see anything definitive or better.

This isn't about playing better as a team but filling out the roster with the rest of the team. deciding if we pick up a linebacker or a DT given the injuries to Kemo and 2 of our 3 starting linebackers. So expect to get bashed when you make statements like you did while you backpedal faster than Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk.

[SCpanther]

Decrease expectations because of two preseason games? I think not. I'll wait until they've at least played a few REAL games, not glorified scrimmages.

[d-dave]

Let us also not forget that there are 6 weeks of the regular season in which we can make trades...

Let's remember that a lot of good teams use the preseason to evaluate talent, and while doing show, look terrible and lose in the preseason. Let's talk about expectations after the first 4 real games.

[Brooklyn Bully]

Vanilla schemes, one defensive front, two or three coverage packages, maybe a blitz, etc, not to mention the lack of game-planning. It's basically looking at our defense purely on talent. And they did very well against a competent Miami offense which is by definition what would be our weakness given our current situation at DT, which was game planning.

First off, I am not saying the sky is falling but I'm tired of people saying the pre-season is no way to judge this team as a whole. If, as so many say, our D is simply out there almost goofing around and testing individuals...that means Miami's offense is doing the same. Do some of you think the Panthers are the only team in the NFL not giving the pre-season any importance? Some of you sure act like it. My point is that if the Dolphins offense was "vanilla", what happens when that same offense really gives it a go to our defense that's giving it a go?

Same result, a close loss?

Too soon to tell?

I say a bit of both. Yes, we aren't seeing everything from our D, but we aren't seeing everything from the teams that we've played also and we're 0-2 and Jake has yet to even throw a TD (other starters have around the league).

Again, the sky is NOT falling...but you can indeed get glimpses here and there of what may be in store for us and the answer to all of this is: we may not be ready for the regular season yet. Good thing we have two more "vanilla" games left.

[top dawg]

It because you talk out of both sides of your mouth. You say on one hand that the sky isn't falling then you go on to produce a litany of complaints and reasons why we aren't improving up to your expectations. If you can't tell muxh from the pre-season than you can't change predictions or issues from what you see from mostly backups and guys who won't see the field.

That is what everyone is saying to you. You respond with the same old- the sky isn't falling and then talk about not making marked improvement or not enough. Again, it means nothing. Game three may see more guys back or we might keep more out to protect them. How do you think we will do if we for example keep Moose Smitty and Goodson out. Or keep Davis, Beason and Godfrey out again and continue to play vanilla on defense against Pittsburgh and Baltimore while they blitz on every play. And in game four the scrubs will play all game. So you won't see marked improvement the rest of the way. In fact you won't see improvement at all. That is what people are saying to you so stop making a big deal about preseason or expecting to see anything definitive or better.

This isn't about playing better as a team but filling out the roster with the rest of the team. deciding if we pick up a linebacker or a DT given the injuries to Kemo and 2 of our 3 starting linebackers. So expect to get bashed when you make statements like you did while you backpedal faster than Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk.

I stand by what I have been saying all along. Furthermore, I am fairly sure that you aren't one of the ones who said we would be equal to last season (and I am too lazy to look through your posts to verify it).

I have the right to move my expectations back 2-4 games, particularly on what I've seen from the defense, particularly with the mounting injuries. And I deem it as quite irrational and very "forumish" for others to lambaste me because of it.

Save your hate for the threads that really deserve it, like the "Where is the 17 million $ man?" thread.

[joemac]

LOL, I dont know if you watched the game last night, but Miami's offense was ANYTHING but vanilla....they were fuging New York Super Fudge Chunk. They were pulling out every trick play in their playbook. I really fuging hate the wildcat.....its so gimmicky.

[grateflday]

Whenever I read threads like this, I remember - Detroid was 4-0 in the preseason last season and look how that turned out. There are many times in the past the opposite happened and a team that doesnt look great in the preseason ends up having a great regular season.

The Panthers run defense does look bad and that does need work. Other than that you never know - if its the regualr season with starters playing more than two or three series maybe D'Angelo goes on to run for 200yrds; Smitty and Moose play, and the starting Defense settles in ----- it is only preseason. I will leave my "sky is falling" feelings for the regular season should it be warranted.

My expectations for this season have not changed. Just cant wait for the home opener