Flukes, Illusions and Mistakes

[Mr. Scot]

Yesterdays game saw its fair share of each.

FLUKES

Things that we saw yesterday that I can't put all that much stock into...

The DeAngelo Williams Fumble: It hardly ever happens, but yesterday it did, and at a really bad time. That play cost us a chance to get the game close, and from there it was a struggle, but largely a futile one. With that said, DeAngelo pretty much never fumbles, and I don't expect that to change.

The Blocked Jason Baker Punt: Baker has made mistakes in two straught games. last week it was a low liner that facilitated a runback (block in the back helped too). This week it was taking forever to get a punt off. Weird, and bad, but I don't see that happening again anytime soon.

The Final Interception: Delhomme played decent for most of the game, but picked a really bad time to turn it over. With that said, I'd trust Steve Smith to go get the majority of those passes. Sadly, not this one.

The Louis Leonard Injury: You're kidding me, right? On an end of the game play that was largely already lost, a guy who was already a replacement for another guy lost at a thin position gets hurt? Wow. People may just start believing that whole "black cat" thing.

ILLUSIONS

Things that are not quite as they might appear...

Jake Delhomme's Performance (and the Falcon Defense): Delhomme being one of the nicest guys you'd ever find, I'm happy that he bounced back to have a good game yesterday. But while I'd love to sign on to the notion that he's "back", I find myself not ready to buy in. Why? because I don't believe the Falcon defense is really that good. They generated only minimal pressure yesterday. You could credit the O-Line, and that's fair, but deep down I just don't think the Falcon defense is all that good. Time will tell if it's true.

The Tony Gonzales Mystique: The saying goes in the NBA that 'the stars get the calls". And in at least one game in the NFL yesterday, that saying was true. Gonzales is good, make no mistake, but he got away with some pushes and shoved yesterday that would make Michael Irvin proud. I can't recall Gonzales doing this so much in the past, but this could be attributable to two things. Either A) I just haven't watched him closely enough or He's just having to resort to this sort of tactic now because he's getting older. Either way, he wouldn't have come off as good as the announcers said had some of those calls been made.

The Officiating: Speaking of which, to define the officiating yesterday as largely "hands off" would have been an understatement. I saw blatant holding on both sides of the ball go uncalled. I'll call that a wash, but the calls on offensive and defensive interference? Not so much. Marshall was guilty of his major foul for sure, but there were some really questionable no-calls on the other side. And of course, there's the Gonzales issue above. If I were Fox, I'd be sending some tape to the league this week.

The Eagles Defense: Something of a side note. Last week, Sean McDermoot looked like a new young defensive god. I said if he tried that ultra-aggressive approach against someone who knew how to deal with it, we'd see a different result. Looking at the highlights of yesterday's Eagles-Saints game, that appears to be what happened.

MISTAKES

The factors I saw yesterday which really bothered me...

Clock Management: As time was winding down, I thought the Panthers coaching staff did a poor job of managing the clock. Had they called a time out prior to the two minute warning, I believe we'd have had a little more time at the end. With that opportunity gone, they still could have called another one at a better time during the final drive. Overall, just not good.

Julius Peppers: He apparently does still play for us, but not much was seen of him or from him yesterday. To be certain, I believed - and still believe - that franchising him was the right thing to do this offseason. To let him go for nothing would have been ridiculous. What I disagree with is the decision to franchise him for the purpose of keeping him. When peppers finally signed his tender, my hope was that the Panthers would beon the phone with New England trying to acquire Richard Seymour or some other compensation. No such luck. And just to sum up yesterday, I considered posting this item under "Illusions" because that's what I felt his on-field time yesterday was, for the most part.

Not Paying For A Long Snapper: Jason Baker wasn't solely responsible for the punt block yesterday. While the snap did indeed get to him, it wasn't exactly perfect. New guy J Jonah Jameson Jansen had a couple of miscues in preseason. And while this was a relatively minor one, I feel we've got more to come on that front. Truthfully, we have other special teams issues as well, but that's part of an ongoing issue.

Continued Reliance on Blocking Tight Ends: I've said many a time that this team needs a hybrid tight end, and yesterday it would have been really nice to have. Jeff King's failure to secure a catch the way Gonzales did and the resulting outcomes of the respective challenges provided a perfect contrast. The Falcons showed how much of a weapon a good TE can be. Just wish John Fox would buy into that notion (and I find myself wondering if Jeff Davidson feels the same way).

Defensive Approach (And Execution): While the offense wasn't ideal yesterday, it still could have been enough. Unfortunately, the defense just couldn't stop the Falcons passing attack. One of my longstanding complaints with Fox is that I all too often see an unbalanced defense. With yesterdaym they did okay stopping the run at points, but outside of the one pickoff the pass defense looked awful. No pressure, and receivers with plenty of room to run. You might get away with one or the other of those, but never both.

Bottom Line For Me: I'm hoping that the defensive problems are part of a learning curve and that things will get better as the season goes on. I have no real evidence to suggest this, but it's a hope. As to the QB situation, I still feel we're only prolonging the inevitable. It seems clear though that if the inevitable hits, Fox will turn to A J Feeley rather than trying to get the possible future started with Matt Moore.

[scpanther22]

Did anyone notice that they were running right at D.lewis..

[CLTPanther]

You must not have seen the punts Baker had blocked last year. Who the hell takes the time to roll the ball over, then flip, before trying to punt in the NFL. Kind of reeks of last years TB game in TB.

[Guild]

Great write-up!

JJ will hopefully become more solid as he gets more playtime.

[rayzor]

Did anyone notice that they were running right at D.lewis..

turner ran towards the RDT 7 times. that was also where ryan made his successful QB sneak. i don't know if lewis was there on all of that but it sure isn't something you want.

when they ran up the middle the defense was much better.

[Guild]

turner ran towards the RDT 7 times. that was also where ryan made his successful QB sneak. i don't know if lewis was there on all of that but it sure isn't something you want.

when they ran up the middle the defense was much better.

I agree, however we did seem to have some trouble filling the gaps and wrapping up to make the tackle.

[mr beauxjangles]

Good write up. A few reactions from me related to your points.

The Blocked Punt

I was at the game, and correct me if I am wrong, but Atlanta didn't have anyone back there to field the punt given the field position. Once I saw that, I knew it was going to be blocked before the ball was even snapped. When you see that no one is back to field a punt, you call timeout.

Clock Management

I counted at least five times when the game clock ran down multiple seconds past the time when the referee blew the whistle and/or when we called a timeout. I'll have to go back and watch it on DVR, but that last possession of the first half - from inside the dome it looked like there should have been seven seconds on the game clock, not two.

The Officiating

Lots of holding on the Falcons second TD drive. Other than that, it seemed like a pretty clean game. But it's a lot harder to see these things without the benefit of TV replay.

[rayzor]

The Blocked Punt

I was at the game, and correct me if I am wrong, but Atlanta didn't have anyone back there to field the punt given the field position. Once I saw that, I knew it was going to be blocked before the ball was even snapped. When you see that no one is back to field a punt, you call timeout.

that would have been the smart thing to do.

[GRWatcher]

Great job, Mr. Scot. I too have thoughts about these points:

Good write up. A few reactions from me related to your points.

The Blocked Punt

I was at the game, and correct me if I am wrong, but Atlanta didn't have anyone back there to field the punt given the field position. Once I saw that, I knew it was going to be blocked before the ball was even snapped. When you see that no one is back to field a punt, you call timeout.

I don't think that Baker or JJ knew that the return man had run off the field and that they were facing 11 at the line. The TV camera angle was so bad that I didn't even see the guy run off the field. Someone at the line should've yelled at them to watch for the block or, better yet, called time out.

Clock Management

I counted at least five times when the game clock ran down multiple seconds passed the time when the referee blew the whistle and/or when we called a timeout. I'll have to go back and watch it on DVR, but that last possession of the first half - from inside the dome it looked like there should have been seven seconds on the game clock, not two.

I thought the refs did one horrific job of watching the clock. That Atlanta timekeeper was sneaking the time forward every chance they could to get time off the clock. Almost as bad as them spotting the ball for Atlanta .... errrrr.

The Officiating

Lots of holding on the Falcons second TD drive. Other than that, it seemed like a pretty clean game. But it's a lot harder to see these things without the benefit of TV replay.

There were too many non-calls. They looked as confused as our defense. Blatent holding, Jake is hit a few times after he threw the ball, Gonzo throwing around our db's, etc. Then they hold up the end of the game .........

[mr beauxjangles]

I don't think that Baker or JJ knew that the return man had run off the field and that they were facing 11 at the line. The TV camera angle was so bad that I didn't even see the guy run off the field. Someone at the line should've yelled at them to watch for the block or, better yet, called time out.

I didn't see anyone run off the field either...I don't think there ever was anyone back there. It's not up to JJ or Baker to see that. It's up to Fox and Crossman to see that.

[Rhys]

The Officiating: Speaking of which, to define the officiating yesterday as largely "hands off" would have been an understatement. I saw blatant holding on both sides of the ball go uncalled. I'll call that a wash, but the calls on offensive and defensive interference? Not so much. Marshall was guilty of his major foul for sure, but there were some really questionable no-calls on the other side. And of course, there's the Gonzales issue above. If I were Fox, I'd be sending some tape to the league this week.

Some of the spots were VERY generous.

I remember a scoring drive where they tried to convert a third down and ran it between the tackles and the ball was spotted nearly a full yard, maybe more, in front of where Turner was able to get it.

I remember thinking what the hell they were measuring for after the play and then realized the terrible spot.

Then, the ensuing play they ran a QB sneak to try and convert a 4th down, and I celebrated because, from what I saw Ryan clearly did not get it. Again the spot seemed way off, though not as off as the previous play, but still enough to convert and get the first down.

They scored their last TD on this drive if I remember correctly.

Maybe the bad officiating was the reason our players kept knocking over the officials.

[rayzor]

Maybe the bad officiating was the reason our players kept knocking over the officials.

or maybe the reason they were making those placements was because we kept knocking that one old ref over.

[Darth Biscuit]

I didn't see anyone run off the field either...I don't think there ever was anyone back there. It's not up to JJ or Baker to see that. It's up to Fox and Crossman to see that.

I was gonna say this too... another mistake to chalk up to the coaches... the punter ought not have to worry about who's on the field, that's the ST coach's job.

[Snake]

IMO this team is poorly set up for the cover 2 but thats what we got. As much as I want this team to be good I dont think we will see much better performance out of them. We have a whole pool of really good LBs but yet we dont even use them for pressure and thats gonna be our downfall cause our Dline just stinks.