The Time Has Come

[Raskle]

The only dissenting view I would have: McCown -- there's nothing that he's shown me in preseason, etc. that leads me to believe he'd be any better than Jake. Both over/underthrow their targets. Neither looks comfortable out there, and neither looks like they have any accuracy or zip on the ball. I still have no idea what it was that made them bring him in (other than no viable other options). Could they really have been that butthurt over the one game from x years ago where he led the Cards to a good game against us? Maybe the coaches live too much in the past?

Other than that, I agree 110% with what you've posted here, and feel it's time to give Moore a chance to shine, with the coaching staff presenting a solid front backing him. Will he be an all-pro straight out of the gates? Not by a long shot. But I do feel he would have enought o win some games for us, and more importantly, not lose them for us like someone we know.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Oh wow, I had completely forgotten about Carr. I think he's a repressed memory at this point.

[bleys]

I don't see McCown being that much better than Moore, even if he was healthy.

If this goes down and Fox does the unpredictable by benching Jake, then it's time for Moore to show us all how he developes over real games for an entire season.

McCown will only lead us down a road where we feel he has potential, but due to McCown playing, we would never see it.

Which will then only leave us optimistic about Moore's future next year, instead of sure about his future this year.

In turn, leading us on another year with a toss up of should we find a future prospect or should we put our eggs in Moore's basket.

Granted, Moore may not be the future in some peoples eyes, but little does that change the F.O. Eyes (if they are still around).

[Kevin Greene]

Good write up. At least Fox did display yesterday he was willing to pull his starting QB.

[pantherclaw]

I've never been much of a McCown supporter. Although in pre-season, he looked sharp. Got rid of the ball quickly. Knows how to throw it away when needed (Something Jake doesn't). Anyone know the extent to his injury? I haven't seen anything posted on it.

As for Moore, I've always been a Moore supporter, and he's proven in the past to play well for us. So I'm more than ready to see Moore. Will it happen? We'll see.

[Guest BradThomas]

This is the question I posed on PI.com last November after a horrible game against the Raiders:

Scenario:

Jake Delhomme had his worst statistical game of his pro career against Oakland. Delhomme has another bad game against Detroit (multiple interceptions, bad throws, poor decisions), but the team wins again and is 8-2. The next week against Atlanta, Delhomme has a smiliar game to the Oakland and Detroit games, but the Falcons beat the Panthers due to a fumble for a touchdown (which is the deciding factor in the game).

The Falcons, the Panthers and the Bucs are tied for the division lead.

Jake Delhomme comes out against Green Bay flat again. It's half time -- do you put in Matt Moore or Josh McCown to finish the game? Do you wait, let Delhomme finish the game and risk falling to third in the division late in the season? Do you have faith that Delhomme will "come back to form" after nearly 4 bad games in a row? Do you think John Fox will allow the Panthers to possibly miss the playoffs in hopes that Delhomme will come out of his funk?

How long is Jake Delhomme's leash?

----

Then, they went on to lose against the Cardinals, and I wrote this ...

----

Those of you tuning in to see the Carolina Panthers take on the Arizona Cardinals were greatly disappointed. Not only did you miss it, you wasted a few hours of your life as well.

The quick and the dirty of it is that everyone wants to blame Jake Delhomme for the game. True, Jake did have six turnovers in the game ... wait ... did i just write six turnovers? How is any team going to compete committing six turnovers ... and how does one man get the opportunity to commit six? What is the benching threshold?

While Jake isn't completely to blame -- there are layers of blame that I'll illustrate shortly -- a great deal of it falls on his shoulders. Poor technique has plagued Delhomme throughout his career. He's developed a penchant for locking in on certain receivers on certain routes. Poor field vision and questionable accuracy also play a huge part in what ended up being one of the worst quarterback performances in Carolina Panthers history. Even Delhomme himself saw how monumental of a collapse this was. "Not even close, " Delhomme said when asked if this was his most frustrating game ever. "Yes. Not even remotely close."

I think most fans can live with two to three interceptions ... but five? In a playoff game? Are you serious?

Some fans will snidely remark "Who would you replace him with?!", as if there weren't a QB on the roster capable of not throwing interceptions by the half-dozen. The fact is it doesn't matter who would replace Jake -- it would be the symbolic gesture of going in a new direction with new hope that people want to see. It would be a statement to the team and the fans that committing six turnovers is unacceptable and that they deserve better than what they have been given. Just like Delhomme replaced a wildly ineffective Rodney Peete in the 2003 season opener against Jacksonville, it was time for Delhomme to be benched for someone else to have a shot. That is what this team deserved on Saturday night. They didn't deserve to have their fate decided by a QB who had an off night. They have two other QBs that deserved a shot at winning a game. They are paid too, and are on the team for a reason.

"Jake had a great year for us," head coach John Fox said after the game. "I told those guys to walk out of here with your head high just like I will. It's not where we wanted to end up but it's reality. I think Jake is a hell of a quarterback who had a rough night."

But the horrible QB play is just a layer of blame. There are at least two more. You've got his position coach, Mike McCoy, who masquerades as a QB coach and passing game coordinator for the most non-imaginative offense of the last decade. A QB coach with no pedigree, no major experience and who had his tutelage under a coach -- Dan Henning -- who despite having Barry Sanders and three top notch receivers in the 90's couldn't compete on a regular basis and ruined more quarterbacks with promise than he ever developed. You can see a huge difference in the Delhomme of 2003 and the Delhomme of today, and perhaps that is a result of the coaching he's received in Carolina. The Delhomme of 2003 would fire passes to receivers and hit them in stride. He'd hit the open man. We haven't seen that in Carolina in at least a few years. Can we really blame the QBs here? They all have the same symptoms: locking in on receivers, having poor judgement, holding onto the ball too long. Is this really a staff that we can trust to develop young talent?

On top of the ineptitude of McCoy, there is the Davidson layer, which takes a huge chunk of the blame for last night. Davidson is a relative newcomer to Carolina, and although he's called a few good games this season, the gameplan that unfolded against the Cardinals was mind-blowing. The Panthers have the most explosive running back tandem in the NFL, and yet there are no creative ways to get them the ball. No screens, no direct snaps, no double backfield of Double Trouble. The game started out well with the Panthers running it on the first series, but then turned into a Delhomme fiasco that snowballed because of the constant turnovers and the Cardinals scoring after getting fantastic field position off of them. Steve Smith didn't have his first catch of the game until the third quarter. When Delhomme did look for Smith, it was one of those "chuck and pray" plays where Delhomme chucks it high and hopes that Smith will go up and get it. Meanwhile, the Cardinals had all sorts of routes that sprung their biggest weapon, Larry Fitzgerald, wide -- and I do mean wide -- open. The Panthers showed absolutely no imagination or ability to adapt against the Cardinals. When it was apparent Jake Delhomme wasn't going to get the offense back on track with the same old plays they'd been running, what did the Panthers do? They kept running the same plays that weren't working.

The top layer of blame of course falls on the shoulders of head coach John Fox, who undoubtedly bought himself and his staff another few years in Carolina after going 12-4 in a tough division. Fox is loyal to a fault, sticking with his veteran players often well past their prime. He's a coach that will allow a player to play through their mistakes. Have you noticed how Davidson and Henning's offenses are very similar? They are both vanilla with few wrinkles. I can't remember a time where I've seen the Panthers run a play and thought to myself "wow, that was imaginative", other than a few years ago when the Panthers ran the direct snap to DeAngelo Williams nearly every down against the Falcons. That was the problem Saturday night. The Cardinals knew where Delhomme was going to throw, and they knew how to bait him into throwing it where they wanted him to throw it. That's a symptom of a QB locking in on targets and an unimaginative offense.

But the problem isn't just the offense.

Defensively in the first half, the Panthers were getting no pressure on Cardinals QB Kurt Warner, and Larry Fitzgerald was open on nearly every play. That's also a scheme problem. You see, the Cardinals -- and every other NFL team -- knows what kind of scheme the Panthers run on defense. They know where the holes are in their coverage, and they know how to exploit them. The Panthers did not get pressure on the QB last season, resulting in the wide receivers having more time to get open. That allows a good QB like Kurt Warner to pick apart the defenses and make throws he wants to make, not throws he has to make when pressured.

Fox is the head man, and it's his fault for allowing these break-downs on both sides of the ball to happen. He is accountable for the poor coaching and the poor gameplans. He is accountable for not making changes when changes needed to be made. It is his fault.

So where is the hope for 2009? Fox is going to be back with the same cast of characters. They'll probably resign either Jordan Gross or Julius Peppers -- but probably not both. They have no first round pick, and their second round pick is at the tail end of the round. They don't have a lot of money to spend in free agency. They will be sticking with Jake Delhomme at quarterback and won't be developing a player to take his place. The Panthers will have a much tougher schedule in 2009 than they did in 2008, and if they continue on the course they are on, they likely won't compete in a division where the Falcons and Saints are both teams on the rise.

Julius Peppers, a player that very well might not be in Carolina in a few months, hit the nail on the head. "Really you can point a finger at anybody you want to in any group," Peppers said. "You can point it at the secondary; you can point it at the D-line; you can point it at the O-line, Jake, the running backs, take your pick. It's nobody's fault. It's not one person or one group's fault. We've just got to play better. We just didn't play well today at all – anybody."

What's your perception?

[Kurb]

- DeAngelo Williams all but went missing

- Jonathan Stewart looked "not quite there", though arguably better than Williams

Are you seriously on drugs?

You are smarter than that.

Playing 8-9 man fronts from those blitzs and we wonder where the RUNNING GAME went ?

Maybe... just fuging maybe we should have adjusted our calls to avoid the 150 guys the Eagles had blitzing every play ?:confused:

[CatMan72]

Great write-up, but I think there are times when benching a QB serves as a wake-up call (like with McNabb). In this case, I don't think Jake needs a wake up call, he's wide awake and playing like crap. It's clear from his reactions that he has no idea what's going wrong, he's in quicksand right now - the harder he fights to get out the deeper he sinks.

Playing QB is all about confidence and right now Jake has none, I don't care what he says in a press conference... he has that "deer in headlights" look. I think the Panthers owe it to themselves to give Jake another start, but it should be handled on a quarter-by-quarter basis. If he throws and INT in the 1st quarter of the Atlanta game - give him the rest of the day off.

[Fiz]

[jasonluckydog]

I love Jake one of his biggest fans but he looked lost and the O-Line didnt so poo to help it or the Eagles are that damn good........

[Mr. Scot]

Are you seriously on drugs?

You are smarter than that.

Playing 8-9 man fronts from those blitzs and we wonder where the RUNNING GAME went ?

Maybe... just f**king maybe we should have adjusted our calls to avoid the 150 guys the Eagles had blitzing every play ?:confused:

The coaching staff failed to adjust for certain, but other than the first drive, Williams didn't show me much. Seemed like he was out a lot, and even when he was in he didn't look right. I was starting to wonder if he got hurt somewhere in the process (and we saw him limp off once).

We have good enough blocking receivers that I don't worry as much about 8 man fronts as I would otherwise. What bothers me more is the flashback I had to Green Bay in 2004, when they blitzed nearly every down and we never adjusted the playcalling to compensate (misdirection, screens, draws, etc).

Another coaching staff will be smart enough to exploit that overaggressive approach. Ours should have been, but wasn't.

[Taom82]

I've supported Jake for years............

I'm done

McCown? seriously? no

I'm with Moore from now on

We don't owe Jake anymore starts, HE OWES US

As painfull as it was, All the Jake memorabilia came down in my house yesterday. His play was much more painful.

[Carolinafan320]

our team at the moment is just that bad

[Carolinafan320]

we need to start matt moore!