Top 3 Reasons The Panthers Lost Today

[KB_fan]

We had a string of drops / incompletions in the 4th quarter, when in other games we've been making those catches.  Cotch & Olsen, as well as Brown.  Not sure how much was the fault of pressure on Cam and some inaccuracy, vs. good defense by AZ.  Very worried that Ted Ginn may be hurt.  The big difference in our game today was no big plays. (Well 1 - a run by CAP, if I remember correctly)  Our offense has been built around big plays all season.  Today they were nowehere to be found,

[TheMaulClaw]

2 hours ago, scpanther22 said:

Ive watched Allen on plays and he comes off the ball incredibility slow. That fast first step really isn't there anymore.

I agree and he looks light.

[SamMills4Life]

Norman got beat a number of times today.

[Billy Love]

9 minutes ago, TheMaulClaw said:

I agree and he looks light.

 

9 minutes ago, TheMaulClaw said:

 

I agree and he looks light.

He is too slow and too light to be an effective pass rusher. 

[tondi]

Its no coincidence that we suck on third down and we have no pass rush.  How many third and long conversions have we allowed the last several games where we played great defense for two downs only to allow the QB to leisurely stand there and survey the field on a third and long while our four man rush gets no pressure whatsoever?

[FootballMaestro]

1 hour ago, SOJA said:

Hindsight being what it is- this was a gigantic trap game. 

Emotionally and physically exhausting game versus Giants.

Christmas week with an away game. 

We embarrassed Atlanta last time we played them. 

Atlanta has "hope" for the post season. 

Some of us actually did see this game as the one the panthers would most likely lose, if they're were going to lose one ( because of most, or everything you mentioned).

Edited December 28, 2015 by FootballMaestro

[RelaxImaPro]

13 minutes ago, tondi said:

Its no coincidence that we suck on third down and we have no pass rush.  How many third and long conversions have we allowed the last several games where we played great defense for two downs only to allow the QB to leisurely stand there and survey the field on a third and long while our four man rush gets no pressure whatsoever?

too damn many

i've been talkin poo about the pass rush all year, but some of the homers around here just point at the sack totals like we're dominating up front... we're not.  A ton of our sacks have been coverage sacks or are coming off of blitzes while the front 4, other than KK, struggles

Edited December 28, 2015 by RelaxImaPro

[CPantherKing]

Here are the top 3 reasons the Panthers lost:

1. Kurt Coleman losing track of his deep angle on another top NFL receiver - his #1 priority. How many times has he lost his deep or sideline angle on the #1 target this season?

2. The defensive play calling for soft coverage on 3rd down leading to 5/5 3rd down conversions on the Falcons first TD drive.

3. The Panthers offensive play calling for failing to challenge their offense to make plays. This was clear when the Panthers settled for 3 points late in the game at the ATL 15 when the offense needed to be challenged to win the game. Also, Shula forcing Cam to play it safe in the 2nd half did not help the Panthers. This game was coached to save their players and game plan more than it was to win the game.

Would being undefeated and going down in history be great? Absolutely. The coaches are playing this out for the playoffs. I believe that is bad for the team with home field still up in the air. It better work and they better let the panthers unleash come playoff time. If this coaching staff bottles the Panthers up into a conservative game plan like their 3 previous playoff games, then it will be a horrible decision and a wasted season. Let them loose and get out of the way of the star players.

If the Panthers' coaches come with more of the same against Tampa Bay and the Panthers go into the playoffs with a losing streak, a one week bye, and losing home field advantage to the Cardinals, then the coaches are going to make the biggest mistake of their career.

Personally, I am tired of seeing coaching hold back the players from what they want to do. These players have always rode momentum for success, and when the coaches shut them down to play the averages/play conservative, then it always puts the team in the tank. History has proven that to everyone.

[Ace_Aladdin]

3 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Top three contributing factors in the Panthers losing to the Atlanta Falcons. 

 

1. Poor performance from the Panthers defensive front 4 (not named KK Short.) 

Johnson, Ealy, Allen, Lotulelei, Edwards combined had 4 tackles and 0 sacks. That is just awful. 

KK Short alone had 7 tackles and two sacks. Thank goodness for KK. 

Those other guys.... they need to pick up their game in a big way. If the Panthers need to use linebacker and safety blitzes constantly to get quarterback pressure, it won't be a good time. 

This is my biggest concern going forward, espescially If the Panthers face Seattle or Arizona in the playoffs.

2. Poor QB protection, particularly Mike Remmers.

Cam Newton was pressured too much for him to get in a rhythm on offense. The Falcons defense is one of the worst in the league. To score only 13 points against them is inexcusable. 

The good news? This may be an aberration. The Panthers have had excellent protection most of this season. Let us hope this is a one week phenomenon. 

3. The Panthers have only one Josh Norman. 

It appears the loss of Bene Benwikere is worse than we first thought. Last week, the Giants provided a blue print for offenses going forward. 

Step 1 - Identify your best receiver.

Step 2 - Keep him away from Josh Norman. 

Step 3 - Score. 

Peanut Tillman is a savvy veteran player, but he is not 100% healthy and not the fastest guy on the field to begin with. At nickel the Panthers are not left with a real solid answer. While Shaq Thompson is great in some instances, he cannot cover the speedier wide outs. Finnegan has been serviceable until now, but how much can we really expect from a guy that was sitting on his couch a few weeks ago? 

Overall, this was a poor performance from the Panthers, the worst of the year. So much so that Cam Newton's heroics were not enough to overcome their mistakes. 

 

 

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You have some valid points but loss of Stewart had bigger impact on the L  than fans wants to accept. His ability to grind out yards and sustain drive is key to keeping the defense fresh, but it was his ability in pass protection that was  sorely missed in this game that led to stalled offensive drive. 

Edited December 28, 2015 by sanjay_rajput

[LA_Panther]

1. Our d-line sucks, and that's the big elephant in the room. Yes, Kwann gets his sacks, but I may have seen like 2 weak hurries on Ryan the entire game. You can disguise a bad d-line with blitzes only if you have the right personnel and you know what you are doing with blitzes. Blitzing is playing with fire. If you don't know what you are doing, you'll get burned. All our blitzes were picked up with ease except for the one with TD, but Ryan stood there and threw a dart as he got drilled. That's the closest we got to him. I think a bigger problem though is our run defense. This is on the d-line mostly as well, but there were missed assignments and missed tackles by our LBs. We can fix the missed tackles and assignments, but opposing RBs will still get their yards if our d-line is getting pancaked like today. If you can't stop the run, you are in trouble especially in the playoffs against teams like Arizona. Atlanta today was pretty much a poor man's Arizona. We got 2 weeks to fix the run defense. We can make up for lack of pass-rush, but better stop the run, and stop it quick
    
2. You can also get by with bad D-line play if you have a good secondary. The loss of Bene is huge. Peanut Tillman has lost a step and doesn't have Bene's speed. Harper is Harper. We know he is a liability in the passing game. We are not the legion of boom. Our only legit DB right now is Norman. Don't care how good our LBs are. If our D-line doesn't produce, our secondary gets exposed. 
    
3. Play-calling/Cam - You can cover for bad line play on defense if you have a great offense which we did this the past couple of months, but our O-line was getting punked today all game. Not sure why we got away from the run. We were running the ball well and it is not like we were getting blown out. Play calling on offense has been great this year, but not today. With this particular game, I think we lost when we abandoned the run. Also, I'm not gonna excuse Cam's poor pocket presence today. Personally, I am never a big fan of going backwards to escape the pass-rush. Cam does that and gets away with it because he is a freak of nature, but at times I'd rather he slide around in the pocket and make a quick decision. Even when taking off, he has better lanes in front of him and he tries to take the long way out of the pocket. That 15+ yard sack he took was 3 points we left on the table. 

 

Edited December 28, 2015 by LA_Panther

[Carl Spackler]

I have a sneaking suspicion Tampa Bay is going to shred our defense in the passing game and the running game, and I base that on losing Bene for the season, having a slow secondary and an old DL that has peaked early with the exception of KK. Luke needs a bounce-back game too. The offense looked lost today and is wildly unpredictable.

[UKPanther94]

Artis Payne got 49 yards on 5 rushes (18 on 4 taking out the one long run and thats still solid numbers) along with a 7 yard reception. How on earth was he not getting more of the ball, especially when Fozzy went down?

[crushcard1976]

The way I see it it Panthers don't try to tip balls or get hands up in throwing lanes if the opposing Quarterback is getting the ball out fast to negate the pass rush

[SportsCrazie4172]

Did Ted Ginn actually get hurt today or was he just locked down?