For those of you down on Luke's performance..

[DeAngelo Beason]

35 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Luke has a bad game here and there. It happens, and usually for the same reason. When the defense is playing like poo, he spreads himself too thin trying to compensate for it. I feel like this was the case on Sunday. When the defense is lazy, as Ron Rivera puts it, Luke tries to do too much. The result is him not looking like the best defensive player in the league, which he still is.

Been trying to explain this all week to my buddies.  It's very easy to tell when Kuechly is trying to overcompensate for the rest of the defense.  It shows in his performance too.  

[DeAngelo Beason]

And as far as Mack vs. Kuechly...  Khalil Mack may go down in history with about 20 other pass rushers as being really good at hitting QBs.  

 

Luke Kuechly is the most talented and effective linebacker of his generation, and quite possibly in the entire history of the NFL.  I could see many teams willing to give up two 1st rounds picks and then some to obtain a player of his caliber.

[Khyber53]

Luke was simply spread too thin in Atlanta and our D-line was really underperforming throughout the game. 

[Captain Obvious]

"He's no Sean Lee that's for sure"......Aikmen and Buck.

[t96]

51 minutes ago, mjligon said:

Kalil Mack is laughing at this.

He’s useless against the run.

[therealmjl]

27 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

No GM in the league would trade Kuechly for Mack straight up. You crazy.

Mack would fetch more in the open market in terms of trade currency. That tells me he is worth more.

Luke is once in a generation, sure, but that doesn’t mean he is always the best defensive player in the league.

[therealmjl]

1 minute ago, t96 said:

He’s useless against the run.

Okay then, in that case -tell me more about how great Kuechly is on blitz/rushing the passer?

 

[t96]

2 minutes ago, mjligon said:

Okay then, in that case -tell me more about how great Kuechly is on blitz/rushing the passer?

 

That’s not his job in the pass game as a 4-3 Mike. He’s dominant in coverage against the pass and dominant against the run, both phases of offense. Mack great against the pass through pass rushing but useless in the run game. 

[Carolina Cajun]

Pretty much agree, but he still didn't have a great game.  I do however acknowledge on many of the missed tackles, he was in positions that 90% of all other Linebackers would never be able to get to, but still doesn't absolve it.  He had a bad game, but many others on that defense were infinitely worse.

[Zaximus]

1 hour ago, ForJimmy said:

Overthinking, having bad position, being overtired, being out of sync, but also the offensive guy wins sometimes. With Luke it’s not very often, but it happens....

Definitely, that's why I'm not really worried that much.      Overall the team was terrible against the run, and that's a collective matter.   

[raleigh-panther]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Luke has a bad game here and there. It happens, and usually for the same reason. When the defense is playing like poo, he spreads himself too thin trying to compensate for it. I feel like this was the case on Sunday. When the defense is lazy, as Ron Rivera puts it, Luke tries to do too much. The result is him not looking like the best defensive player in the league, which he still is.

Playing on a hyperextended knee didn’t help

all of us on this board would be on crutches and pain meds 

[DeAngelo Beason]

I really don't think Kuechly had a "bad" game.  A few missed tackles, yes, but he misses a few every week.  It's just that Kuechly found himself in the open field against skill players over and over again because the rest of the defense had their heads up their a$$es.  Pretty rare for a linebacker to make open field tackles against RBs and WRs.  Kuechly was all over the field... he was just the only one that was so he was kind of hung out to dry and made to look bad.

[Steve_Smith_Sr.]

Luke is the LAST person who needs to be criticized for that horrible performance by the defense. 

[Lumps]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Luke has a bad game here and there. It happens, and usually for the same reason. When the defense is playing like poo, he spreads himself too thin trying to compensate for it. I feel like this was the case on Sunday. When the defense is lazy, as Ron Rivera puts it, Luke tries to do too much. The result is him not looking like the best defensive player in the league, which he still is.

Luke having a bad game is not the issue.

The issue is when Luke has a bad game, there is no defense. These are issues real, every year contenders do not have. The plug in the next guy or have other players that can step up.