2016 Panthers Schedule - Thoughts and Musings

[KB_fan]

I thought it would be interesting to compare strength of schedule and Panthers historical win % against our opponents for both the 2015 and 2016 seasons:

Here's 2015:

Here's 2016:

Based on our opponents' prior season records, our overall strength of schedule is harder in 2016 than 2015:  .512 vs .434

In 2015 we played 4 playoff teams.  In 2016 we play 6.

Here's more comparisons:

Perhaps the greatest difference is that we play significantly fewer teams coming off really terrible seasons.  In 2015 we played 5 teams with 4 wins or fewer the prior season (incl Tampa twice).  In 2016 we play only 1 such team (San Diego).

Yet, even though our strength of schedule is harder, we do go into the 2016 season with a higher historical win % and a higher recent win % (since 2011) against these teams.

Looking at the breakdown, I'm a bit more concerned with the Vikings and KC games than I was.  I wasn't aware of our historical and recent losing records against both teams.  Also, I hadn't realized (or more likely I'd just forgotten / blocked it out of my mind) that we've never beaten the Broncos under Cam & Ron...  So... there are some challenges ahead.

The toughest games look to be

• At Denver
• Vikings
• Kansas City
• At New Orleans (short week, coming at end of intense stretch)
• At Seattle
• Atlanta (based on schedule as well as our toughest division rivalry)

Arizona is actually the opponent we face who had the best regular season record last year, but I'm less concerned about that game since we've beaten AZ convincingly twice in the 2014 and 2015 playoffs, and since we'll be coming off our bye.

It encourages me greatly to look back at 2015's strength of schedule and historical record table because it reminds me of the challenge we faced in winning against some teams who had owned us for awhile:  Seattle, Dallas, Green Bay ... heck we'd even struggled previously against Tennessee.  We beat them all.

Let's look forward to getting our revenge against Denver and Atlanta, and wins against Minn, KC, continuing our recent dominance of TB and New Orleans, and continuing our newfound success against Seattle....

We got this Panthers fans!

[iamhubby1]

2 hours ago, KB_fan said:

I thought it would be interesting to compare strength of schedule and Panthers historical win % against our opponents for both the 2015 and 2016 seasons:

Here's 2015:

Here's 2016:

Based on our opponents' prior season records, our overall strength of schedule is harder in 2016 than 2015:  .512 vs .434

In 2015 we played 4 playoff teams.  In 2016 we play 6.

Here's more comparisons:

Perhaps the greatest difference is that we play significantly fewer teams coming off really terrible seasons.  In 2015 we played 5 teams with 4 wins or fewer the prior season (incl Tampa twice).  In 2016 we play only 1 such team (San Diego).

Yet, even though our strength of schedule is harder, we do go into the 2016 season with a higher historical win % and a higher recent win % (since 2011) against these teams.

Looking at the breakdown, I'm a bit more concerned with the Vikings and KC games than I was.  I wasn't aware of our historical and recent losing records against both teams.  Also, I hadn't realized (or more likely I'd just forgotten / blocked it out of my mind) that we've never beaten the Broncos under Cam & Ron...  So... there are some challenges ahead.

The toughest games look to be

• At Denver
• Vikings
• Kansas City
• At New Orleans (short week, coming at end of intense stretch)
• At Seattle
• Atlanta (based on schedule as well as our toughest division rivalry)

Arizona is actually the opponent we face who had the best regular season record last year, but I'm less concerned about that game since we've beaten AZ convincingly twice in the 2014 and 2015 playoffs, and since we'll be coming off our bye.

It encourages me greatly to look back at 2015's strength of schedule and historical record table because it reminds me of the challenge we faced in winning against some teams who had owned us for awhile:  Seattle, Dallas, Green Bay ... heck we'd even struggled previously against Tennessee.  We beat them all.

Let's look forward to getting our revenge against Denver and Atlanta, and wins against Minn, KC, continuing our recent dominance of TB and New Orleans, and continuing our newfound success against Seattle....

We got this Panthers fans!

 

Yes ma'am we sure do. And I for one am loving it. Course after almost 100 years of marriage, it really feels good to love something again.

[SOJA]

eesh that schedule looks rough- and you better bet teams are going to bring their A game against next year 

[OneBadCat]

On 4/16/2016 at 7:56 PM, Ship said:

i think this team is gonna go 16-0. doesn't matter who it is, i think we are pissed are we are gonna break some teams into pieces this year. had the same feeling before the seattle playoff game. if you thought we were villains last year we are gonna be one of the most hated teams ever by the end of next season. why? because we're not just gonna beat teams anymore we're gonna josh norman-OBJ them. we're gonna be punking teams and brawling teams and just ending them. scorched earth to the super bowl take no prisoners all revenge will be taken.

This. We won't have any holes by the end of the draft and KBs return will help us overmatch just about any team in the league.

[OneBadCat]

12 hours ago, SOJA said:

eesh that schedule looks rough- and you better bet teams are going to bring their A game against next year 

I take strength of schedule with a grain of salt. Seems like every year a team gets the "toughest" schedule only to find out their opponents poo the bed or are decimated by slumps and injury.

[ctrcat]

12 minutes ago, OneBadCat said:

I take strength of schedule with a grain of salt. Seems like every year a team gets the "toughest" schedule only to find out their opponents poo the bed or are decimated by slumps and injury.

Exactly why our schedule is "easier" than last year.  You can predict, with a reasonable degree of certainty, how chitty/bad/average/good/elite, a QB will be.  And our opponent QBs this year are worse than last, pure and simple.

[bleedsgreenandgold]

I'll be interested to see what kind of shape the field is in when we play in LA, USC plays Oregon at home the day before.

[o803oVaDeR]

Pulled out my work schedule the other night comparing to Panthers schedule and it's the best it has ever looked. I have 13 of the 16 games off. Have to work during the Vikings game, the Rams game, but I am on night shift, so still be able to watch most of it before work, and the Seahawks game. I seriously only had 2 home games off last season.  I had to use up so much vacation, it was ridiculous. Will be out of town on vacation during the TB Monday Nighter though. That sucks, but other than that and trying to work during the Seahawks game I couldn't be happier with where the games fell. 

[DaveThePanther2008]

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 4:54 PM, Servant of Cthululelei said:

 

I don't know this is necessarily true, seeing as the Seachickens have an altogether much tougher division than we do.  They didn't win it last year and are likely not the favorites this year either.

Outside of the 49ers.  I see this being a three dog fight.  Just like when we had N.O., Atl and us fighting for the NFC South.  It isn't impossible for each team to have two to three loses in conference play alone. 

[KB_fan]

On 4/15/2016 at 1:54 PM, Servant of Cthululelei said:

 

I don't know this is necessarily true, seeing as the Seachickens have an altogether much tougher division than we do.  They didn't win it last year and are likely not the favorites this year either.

good point.  After all it was AZ breathing down our necks this season, causing it to go down to week 17 to lock up the #1 seed.

[KB_fan]

In doing my 2015 vs 2016 strength of schedule comparison which I posted above on Sunday, I noticed again just how incredibly fortunate we were to have 3 of our 4 "murderers row" games at home last season.

Thankfully this year we don't have a long stretch of back-to-back games against winning teams as we did in 2015.  But I'm glad that three of our six games against playoff teams are at home.  That should help us against the Vikes, the Chiefs and the Cardinals.  We've got quite an incredible home win streak going.  BoA is becoming a formidable place for our opponents to come!

Seattle we've proven now we can beat at Century Link - though it won't be easy.   Denver will be tough to beat at Mile High, but with their QB mess and more player turnover than we've had, hopefully they will not be in top form in week 1.  And well Washington.... yeah they're much better at home than away, typically, but we shall see if they can continue to contend or whether last season was a fluke.

[CosmoGirl]

On 4/17/2016 at 11:26 AM, KB_fan said:

Just had a somewhat random schedule-related thought / question pop into my mind.

Has CLT ever hosted a Christmas Eve game?  If so, what's the attendance like? 

I would think that with holiday travel, family gatherings, church commitments, etc., Christmas Eve could be low attendance?  Probably helps attendance that it's against a hated division rival - Atlanta.  But if we're not playing for anything much at this point (i.e. if we have the division / playoff spot / seed already locked up) I worry that it could be a less-than-capacity crowd.

Any reason to be concerned?

Played a few years ago against Dallas (and the refs) on Christmas Eve. It was packed, from what I recall. Had club level seats so since the game sucked, I did damage at the bar. 

 

[Pondmanmark]

All SET and ready to Go....booked for February 1-8 for the game.......