Time To Set Aside The BS and Talk Football

[KendrickPanther]

I'm tired of hearing about referees and league agendas. We heard it all off season. We've heard it the past 48 hours. We can come up with more interesting topics. 

 

From what I saw Thursday night the week 1, 2016 Carolina Panthers are better than the week 1, 2015 Carolina Panthers. 

Last year we only managed 20 points against an uninspired Jaguars squad in front of a pro Panthers crowd. We moved the ball better against the Denver Broncos than we did the Jaguars. Stewart had 3.1 yards per carry week 1 last year. We needed J No's touchdown to get us to 20 points. We also lost Luke in that game, we are relatively healthy going into week 2 this year. 

Getting gashed in the run game is nothing new for us. We go through these growing pains every September. Remember CJ Spiller? Giovanni Bernard? Leveon Bell? Heck some guy named Andre Brown got a buck on us in 2012. We see this every year, I'm not panicking. Eventually the coaching staff will get everyone into their gaps. We normally don't play one of the best zone run schemes week 1. 

Getting thrown on by Trevor Semian doesn't bother me that much either. Luke Mccown and Ryan Mallett nearly beat us last September. We've been beaten by Mark Sanchez and EJ Manual before. I fully expected our defense to be leaky. It happens every September. We just played a tough opponent in a hostile environment this year. I don't see this game as a sign the Panthers regressed. It's a new season with new personnel. 

As individuals, I cannot think of a single Panther I would single out for having a poor game. I thought many of them looked impressive at times. Graham Gano and Tre Boston were probably two of the least impressive players I saw.  

The coaching staff was abysmal. That has become a September theme as well. We had 6 timeouts. I don't think we used a single one of them well. The Broncos had their own substitution problems and luckily they didn't need their timeouts. 

We did appear to get too comfortable with a lead in the third quarter. This is something they really need to work on as coaches and players. I feel like we could have run the ball with more urgency in the 2nd half. 

The most encouraging thing I saw in this game was Cam Newton make terrific throws in 2 end of half situations. His throw to Ginn that set up the field goal was really a thing of beauty. If Gano makes that kick, all we would talk about is Cam finding a way to pull out a victory. 

We lost that game for many reasons. But lack of talent and skill were not among them. That is a good sign of things to come. All of our problems are correctable. Our Quarterback still looks like an MVP. Let's enjoy the season and watch this team gel. 

[CPantherKing]

The big difference from the Jaguars game from 2015 and the Broncos game from 2016 is #24.

Norman came up big forcing turnovers and returning one for a pick 6. Bradberry played lost for most of the game and imploded from the end of the 3rd quarter into the 4th.

Watch the drive the Broncos score their second TD of the game.

Bradberry left his zone and was the only defender in man coverage with the receiver taking him all the way down the field allowing for a screen pass with no defender. McClain had to run over and clean it up. Kuechly looked for him after the play to point out where he needed to be.

Then he gets beat on a play badly at the line allowing a first down pass. He was also called for a hold on that first down play, but the hold was declined.

Then on the TD play for the Broncos the Panthers are in a cover 2 and Davis is blitzing from the weak side since he knows there are no receivers in his zone. Bradberry vacates his zone and stays in man again being taken all the way down the field into the end zone. Boston makes his break on the pass to the shallow part of his deep 1/2 zone responsibility, but then he hesitates because he realizes Bradberry just ran past him into the deep zone. Boston realizing Bradberry forgot his responsibility of the flat then has to break on the flat, but it is too late. Coleman had to come running across the field to cover the deep 1/2 zone Boston was responsible for since he had to jump into Bradberry's position. On top of that, Bradberry is stuck on a block in the end zone for the entire 27 yard TD play. This was by far the worst defensive play of the game.

Those were 3 consecutive plays to end that drive. This entire drive was the turning point of the game going into the 4th quarter.

Kony Ealy messed up terribly on that drive too. He was responsible for recognizing the screen and the pulling OLs and he missed every one of the screens on that drive. He never once keyed in on the screen until it was too late. Even with a blitzing Thomas Davis he just  runs in behind Davis to watch the play allowing all 3 offensive blockers to set up the screen. The Broncos kept jogging blockers right around Ealy on several of their screen plays in the game. He was completely oblivious to his reads.

Expect teams to keep attacking that side with the screen since Bradberry is failing to understand his assignment and going man when the Panthers are in zone. What makes it even better for opponents and their screen pass is  Ealy can not read a screen to save his career. Until those two get their act together teams will always take the easy screen passes for 15+ yard chunks.

[ThPantherFan]

I still think we're better off without Josh Norman.  He's a player, but attitude plays a part of the franchise.  Josh was getting the big head.  I'll go with Bradberry.

[uncfan888]

1 minute ago, ThPantherFan said:

I still think we're better off without Josh Norman.  He's a player, but attitude plays a part of the franchise.  Josh was getting the big head.  I'll go with Bradberry.

I agree

[Pejorative Miscreant]

I think we (self included) are still butt hurt over the super bowl and gave too much weight to the Broncos starting an untested rookie.  The panthers are far from perfect but don't want to write them off yet.  Still 15 more regular season games to play.  

[Growl]

People absolutely have a right to be extremely angry about this issue which supercedes the game, and them expressing their frustration and doing their part to make sure it stays in the new cycle and ensure justice is more important than you getting your fluff piece fix.

 

Tl; dr deal with it

[motocross_cat]

I think we got to find ways to get to the qb without sending our cover backers.

But run d, tackling, and clock management lost that game.  None of its suprising due to it being the first game.  All can be fixed.

Oh and gram missing diddnt help.

 

[the butch]

Yeah headlines to the side, this game was a positive from last season. Every team has their quirks to figure out to start the year, and with a rookie CB starting, were one we'd have ours. That said, we still looked better in this game than we did week 1 last year. 

[top dawg]

5 hours ago, ThPantherFan said:

I still think we're better off without Josh Norman.  He's a player, but attitude plays a part of the franchise.  Josh was getting the big head.  I'll go with Bradberry.

I like the Norman move, but only if you use some of that money and give yourself the best chance to win this season. No need to have close to $24 mil just sitting, otherwise pay the one year rental fee for Norman. Moreover, from what I saw Thursday night, this team needs some more attitude. You can't let someone run over you (damned near literally, as well as figuratively). 

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

Thank You Kendrick Panther for getting some order back into this forum..a much needed read. 

I agree the team looks much better on offense than this time last year.

 

 

[Kevin Greene]

This thread

[KendrickPanther]

2 hours ago, Growl said:

People absolutely have a right to be extremely angry about this issue which supercedes the game, and them expressing their frustration and doing their part to make sure it stays in the new cycle and ensure justice is more important than you getting your fluff piece fix.

 

Tl; dr deal with it

Do you really find yourself that important? Player safety was all over national sports media Friday and I can assure you it was nothing to do with the Carolina Huddle.

[Growl]

29 minutes ago, KendrickPanther said:

Do you really find yourself that important? Player safety was all over national sports media Friday and I can assure you it was nothing to do with the Carolina Huddle.

I'm sorry who are you

[SZ James (banned)]

Yes let's get back to the "My thoughts" threads, those were great.