Why you should be worried (and why you shouldn't be)

[Snake]

Week 1 on the road while playing a west coast game I can let a bit slide. Hopefully we will clean it up in the future or we will lose games. 

[Wolfcop]

5 minutes ago, Chief Keek said:

Good write-up. I hope the force feed CMC gameplan changes as the season progresses. I know part of the gameplan today was to get the Defense to focus on him to free up the rest of the Offense but at times it was too much.

The 49ers were so scared of CMC that they had at least 3 defenders around him a lot. WRs were running free all over the field several times. He is going to get the ball a lot, and its going to help our offense. 

[Chief Keek]

28 minutes ago, Wolfcop said:

The 49ers were so scared of CMC that they had at least 3 defenders around him a lot. WRs were running free all over the field several times. He is going to get the ball a lot, and its going to help our offense. 

No doubt about that, hopefully they can get Samuels, Byrd, and everybody else involved too.

[Eazy-E]

I thought Matt Kalil played really well. Probably some of the best left tackle play I've seen for the Panthers in the past few years. (I know that really isn't saying much)

San Fran has a lot of first round talent in their front 7 and the entire line held up very well.

[FakePlasticTrees]

This was ugly at times. I would not have thought it possible feel so uneasy about a 20 point road victory? One might say that the offense was offensive. I would like to believe that the primary reason for this was the fact that Cam was so limited in the preseason. I cannot say I have that belief. At this point, it is simply my hope.

 

[Jangler]

1 hour ago, Captain Obvious said:

fugging glass half empty. 

sorry, I was thirsty.

[NYPantherFan]

26 minutes ago, FakePlasticTrees said:

This was ugly at times. I would not have thought it possible feel so uneasy about a 20 point road victory? One might say that the offense was offensive. I would like to believe that the primary reason for this was the fact that Cam was so limited in the preseason. I cannot say I have that belief. At this point, it is simply my hope.

 

I was uninspired by the offense as well. I'm hoping it was just rust. The pass to Dickson should have been an easy 6. Olsen was running wide open at times and Cam didn't see him. We easily could have had 2 more TDs I think in that first half.

[DaveThePanther2008]

The first quarter defense was a little shaky.  Most of Hyde good runs came in the first Qtr.  We vastly improved as the game went on and for the most part the defense was as advertised.  IMO we did just what we needed to do defensively. Stop the run, control the underneath routes and get after Hoyer on deep balls.   4 sacks and should have been 5 if it weren't for the BS call on Johnson.

Offensively, Cam needs his reps and it was good to see him go 6 for 6 in the second half.  Overall very rusty but he'll get back in stride soon.  There were a couple of times CMC jitterbugged instead of going North and South but I feel he was just trying too hard.  He seemed to settle down in the second half (minus the fumble) You could tell the defense was not going to let the rookie beat him.   I like what Rivera did with him after the fumble because you could see it upset him a bit .  He sat out a couple plays before he got back in the game after the fumble.

Gano was solid and pretty much split the uprights on all kicks so we all should be happy about that.

Compared to other game 1 we have had in the past, I thought we showed we were the dominate team.

Sure there are some concerns but nothing that won't work it way out.

I cannot recall seeing one read option.   I know we might be protecting Cam but IMO we should not abandon that as part of our offense.  Cam in a good weapon and we should employ Read Option every now and then just to give the defense one more thing to think about.

[Cyberjag]

10 hours ago, lightsout said:

 

I think Matt Kalil did fairly well in his first real action with yet another new line.  The difference now is he's playing with a solid interior for a great coach.  He's going to improve all year, and I think we enjoy our best LT play since Gross. Really, all we need from him is to keep Cam's jersey clean, and he did a decent enough job at that.  I worry about what happens when we face some serious speed rushers, but for his first outing as a Panther I'm happy.

I am not worried about Cam a bit.  One of my favorite plays of the game was when he took off running for the first down--you could feel the defense say "Oh hell, forgot about this."  He is going to look like a different player in a few games--It's not like he had Tommy Jone...

The Panthers have a secondary.  Let that sink in for a minute

CMC still needs to get used to the speed at this level, that's for sure.  I'm not worried about him at all, and loved how much space he occupied in the defense's collective head.  His presence also made Stewart more effective.  Just think about what happens when we finally get Samuels into the mix.

I think special teams look like a lot more of the same, but with a different returner.  Maybe they will get better.  

Overall, I think we're going to be dominant all season on defense, easily finishing in the top 10.  Our offense will be average at best for the first half, but by November it should be in cruise control and one of the scariest in the league.  Not New Orleans scary, where you worry about what Brees will do next, but Carolina scary, where you don't know where it's coming from, but it's coming.

2017 is gonna be a good year.