Rivera Presser

[Kakarot]

Haha @ that plan went out the window. 

I knew Luke was going to play the whole game. He wasn't going to sit any of this game

[Moorgan]

I rewatched the game and noticed a few things. It did seem like Harper was the biggest liability on defense. He wasn't terrible but I would point to him as the biggest point of weakness. Delaire impressed me by getting a ton of pressure on Wilson. And JStew ran like a mad man. He played great and with a very hot fire.

[Chaos]

I get that Harper has some limitations in his game given his age, but that doesn't remove his responsibilities.  If you're on the field, then you've got a job to do.  Can't just say that the QB had too much time so of course he will give up catches, so just shift blame to the front seven. 

Harper, great vet with leadership skills, terrible in pass coverage. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Yep, I'm really hoping as the season goes on Harper's time on the field will be more limited and situational.  I hope another safety (looking at you Boston) will step up and show that he needs to be on the field instead of Harper in obvious passing situations.

[Dave Gettleman's Shorts]

I love how so many 'fans' poo on Harper. He's made the Pro Bowl and somebody in another thread actually called him trash today. Give the guy a break. He's a 32 yr. old safety filling a need and providing veteran leadership for young DB's. You can't upgrade every position with young talent all at once. 

Making the probowl 5 years ago has nothing to do with how he is playing currently. The man is getting burnt every single week. I'm tired of seeing people just run right past him and if it wasn't for Wilson overthrowing his target, the receiver would have caught it and ran for a TD. Would you still be defending him if that was the deciding factor for us not winning the game yesterday? I know Jimmy Graham is a difficult receiver to cover but Harper was making silly mistakes when covering him.

[LinvilleGorge]

I don't think simply not being fast enough and agile enough to cover a guy like Graham is making a silly mistake.  The coaches love Harper because he always plays his assignment.  He never had mental mistakes.  Coaches love that.  But, at this point, Harper's physical abilities have declined to the point where guys are beating him simply because he no longer has the physical ability to hang.  He can still be a valuable situational player and he showed that yesterday breaking up a key 3rd and short pass to Graham, but teams are really working on drawing up plays that isolate him in space because they know they're going to have a clear advantage in those situations.

[L-TownCat]

Ok here is my expert and never wrong opinion.  

The Panthers gambled that Jimmy couldn't beat them if we shut down the run and pressured RW.  McDermott saw that w/o his top 2 DEs a 4 man rush would not get it done.  So he brought the blitz.  This would use up one LB forcing the other 2 into run support or QB contain.  This caused JG to be left with Harper and Harper did just enough to keep us from having to abandon the game plan.