Rational Assessment Thread

[fieryprophet]

After spending much of the night fuming at the multitude of garbage that had to be endured at the hands of an NFL whose idea of refereeing is in conflict with basic human decency, it's time to let the logical side of the brain take over and understand that, despite the result, the season is still on track to be as special as we want it to be.

POSITIVES

- Going into an incredibly hostile environment with tremendous media scrutiny and playoff-like intensity right out of the gate is an excellent way to gear up for the long slog of a regular season ahead. The Panthers did not experience a ton of adversity early last season and by the time they got into a battle with a team out for blood they were not able to respond. Despite the outcome last night, they were in position to win a hard-fought game in which they did not play their best against an opponent that was playing at its highest level.

- Losing an intra-conference road game is practically the best loss a team can have, as its effect on playoff positioning is minimal within the conference.

- As vile as it was to see Cam getting absolutely blasted with little repercussions, the media's eye is now intensely fixed on how the NFL handles this situation in the future. Cam's going to be old enough to get those calls from here on out, because every ref in the business is going to know that the media is waiting to pounce and the NFL loathes any attention to its greatest failing.

- Cam played the kind of game that earns respect from across the league, taking blow after blow and still putting his team in position to win. He broke two NFL records, played dramatically better than he had in the Super Bowl against a defense that resorted to cheap shots to try and turn the tide. That retarded Super Bowl fumble storyline just took a major dent as Cam laid his body on the line repeatedly, and his teammates have to be even more driven to follow his lead after that display. The team as a whole knows that none of them left more of themselves out there than their quarterback did.

NEGATIVES

- While some fans think that playing a first-time QB should mean instant victory, that depends entirely on the context of the surrounding team. Most first time QBs are starting on shitty teams: Denver is not one of those, and Siemian did much more than the Hall of Fame QB he replaced to put his team in position to win than Peyton did in the prior matchup. That being said, it's still a disappointment to see that plays that could have been made against a rookie were not made because of a streaky defensive effort, particularly in pass rush. Poor tackles allowed short completions to turn into long gains and gave them confidence.

- The run defense was atrocious, and there's plenty of blame to go around. The quickest way to defang the Panthers defense is to be able to run the ball on them, and bad angles and an inability to get off blocks hampered the defense all night. If I was the coaching staff I would hammer run defense all week and push on the defensive line in particular. Short and Lotulelei have had much betters efforts in the past, and Ealy still finds himself out of place too often.

- The offense got away from the running game too much in the second half, and this has been a theme going back to last season. We seem to still be going through the awkward transition of figuring out how to mesh a power running game with a downfield passing attack and tend to favor the first early and the second late, rather than being consistent throughout the game. Play action was almost non-existent and you have to take more shots deep if you're going to keep trying to throw the ball against a defense like Denver.

- Timeout management was abysmal, although the blame can be spread around as everyone, Cam included, seem to take too much time to get plays called in. Better to make these mistakes early, but still, they were bad.

Overall, it was a tough loss due to a shank that has plenty of hidden bright spots for those who care to look. We're not a finished product and no one should expect us to repeat 15-1 as that just doesn't happen everyday in this league, but the Panthers are still a playoff team with work to do and the time to do it.

[UpstatePanther]

[Your GFs favorite huddler]

Yea bottom line,  it's the first of a 16 game regular season. The season was not gonna be win or lost last night. Cam responded to the off-season bs with one of the gutsyist performances I've ever witnessed. We will learn and grow from this, completely different narrative if Gano came through ...

[uncfan888]

We should use this as fuel for the fire this year.  Rivera loves being the underdog and the nfl basically just gave us a big "fug you" 

[Darth Biscuit]

That clock management is something we struggled with last year a lot also...  not sure what the cause of it is, but has to be in large part communicating the next play in to the offense.  Possibly also on Cam's shoulders, not sure exactly how all that works tho...  definitely something they have to get right.  I rarely see other team's offenses consistently running the play clock down under 5 seconds as often as we seem to.

[FuFuLamePoo]

Defense is average at best, offense should be very good. 10 win team, lose in the first round

[Khyber53]

You forgot another positive: We found a punter that can basically kick the ball into the parking when called upon.

 

[Jeremy Igo]

Might end up being the toughest game of the year. Not bad to lose it away and at the last second by a missed field goal. 

[The Lobo]

26 minutes ago, FuFuLamePoo said:

Defense is average at best, offense should be very good. 10 win team, lose in the first round

The O will be fine. The D I feel will step up and perform better. I wouldn't say they are average yet. Maybe two more games and we will see. 

[panthers_fan_in_tx]

A positive.  Our next 5 games...with exception of vikes,  a very manageable schedule as far as defenses go.   KB had a nice first game back.  

[tiger7_88]

2 hours ago, fieryprophet said:

- Timeout management was abysmal, although the blame can be spread around as everyone, Cam included, seem to take too much time to get plays called in. Better to make these mistakes early, but still, they were bad.

A lot of those "slow Cam" times were after he'd been clocked (yet again) in the head by the Denver defense.

It could have been Shula getting the play in slow.  Or it could have been Cam trying to listen to the play call in his helmet, but his brain wasn't comprehending at that particular time because its bouncing from side to side hadn't stopped yet.

So, as much as I agree with the rest of what you wrote, I'm gonna have to disagree with the "Cam included" part.

[tiger7_88]

1 hour ago, E CaT PanTHer 2 said:

I think a lot of times Cam couldn't hear Shula in his headphones. Either that or Shula was late delivering the plays to Cam. 

Either that or his brain was hearing Shula, but it wasn't comprehending because it was still bouncing from side to side inside his skull

[bigdog10]

If you get past all the bullpoo that took place, the this isn't a bad loss. 

-It's an AFC loss, so it does nothing as far as conference the breakers

-Outside of Arizona going to Seattle, Us going to Seattle, and New England going to Denver, it is one of the most daunting road games on the entire NFL schedule. 

-it's in the altitude in a historically tough place to play regardless of who is under center

-all that and we were within a gang game winning fg of starting 1-0. 

This team will rebound. There are too many good players and great leadership for them not too. Cam is going to have a huge game against the niners. The defense will abuse Gabbert. The run defense will be fixed in time for Minnesota and AP, who we have historically played very well against. 

[Fox007]

Also...apparently old man Harper and his slow oldness wasn't that bad afterall...

I mean....can't believe he was taken for granted...Harper was really that good at SS....damn....

But hey we got speed at S now...dood is fast enough to blow right past the play and miss the tackle but also still suck in coverage. At least Harper didn't miss many tackles and was in position even if he was slow.