Honest Observations

[KillaCamNewton]

Went to my first home opener since 2001 (moved to CLT in February after 17 years in Arizona) so the anticipation was wild. got home and was super drunk and passed out around 5pm then woke up at 2am and couldnt go back to sleep so i watched the replay on gamepass

 

Honest assessments of the team and game

-the atmosphere around the stadium and around South End/Uptown was great. im used to just flying in then flying out for games so have never really had a chance to experience it, but now that i live here i really got a chance to appreciate how much the city embraces the team/gameday - especially for a city that is filled with transplants

-it was hot as hell at the game. i'm from Arizona and have never been so hot. i respect anyone who sat through it because it was rough

-the stadium was about full at gametime - not sure what people were talking about the stadium being half empty. i think alot of people were just going to the concourse to cool off. 

-the rams dont really have a fanbase so kinda hard to assess but it looked to me like no one was selling tickets to opposing fans

 

onto the game

-Cam is fine. had some shitty overthrows (like literally every QB does in a game) and on the INT the defender bailed off CMC at the last moment and made a great play. His mechanics and motion looked good and he was getting the ball out in a hurry and on the mark. wish he threw downfield more but in all honesty we moved the ball fine nickel and diming down the field. ill take that all day over the long developing Shula routes. the best way to score points is to not get behind the sticks and when you try to push the ball downfield it inevitably leads to sacks - especially with our OLine. i had zero issues with the gameplan other than wanting an occasional deep ball and more runs designed for Cam. We need to be more than just riding McCaffrey. Cam is the most dominate QB in the league when running and throwing, taking away his running is stupid and quite frankly makes him expendable. 

-really not sure what we were doing on defense, I thought the pass defense was good, but there were way too many times that we rushed 3 and sat in soft zone. Goff is significantly worse when he's getting pressured and we didnt seem to blitz at all. we have the personnel and the speed to be more of a press coverage and blitz team than weve ever had in the Ron era

-Shaq had a monster game. not sure if he simply is just better or if he has been playing out of position his whole career but he looked like prime TD out there yesterday

-Bradberry and Jackson had great games as well. need to keep both of them around, this is the best corner duo since Gamble and Lucas a decade ago.

-Burns is as advertised. nothing in the stat sheet but he was getting constant pressure and hurrying and bothering throws. he has problems when the tackle can engage him but man he gets around the corner quickly

-McCaffrey is a legitimate OPOY candidate. if there wasnt a stigma about white running backs people would talk about him the same way they talk about Zeke and Saquon. Trying to figure out what exactly those guys do better than McCaffrey

-time management is still annoying and pathetic. its so frustrating that every college team can effectively run a hurry up offense but we cant get out of the huddle until 15 seconds left on the playclock. we should be doing whatever we can to keep defenses off balance and we seem to do everything we can to make things easier. it allows them to sub, lineup correctly, change plays, and most importantly time the snap. what's even more annoying is the few times we go hurry up we always seem to skip right down the field. it's 2019 Ron/Norv, stop making your offense easier for the defense to defend

-we got hosed on 3 major calls. the backwards pass would have been ruled incomplete if it was called that on the field. same goes for the Kuechly forced fumble. the reasoning for not giving us the ball on that one was total BS as well. those were both game changing calls in my opinion. the PI they called on Jackson was BS as well. not sure if that drive ended up with points or not but that was a terrible drive extending call that was on 3rd down if I remember. Cooks had no chance of catching that ball

-all in all, I'm pissed that we lost, we did enough to win that game and I don't believe in moral victories at home. especially after losing 7 games in a row to end the season that being said, that is probably the hardest or second hardest game on the schedule and reality is we went toe to toe with an elite team and showed we are good enough to beat them. it would be way more demoralizing if we were manhandled or outclassed and looked like we didnt belong on the same field. you could watch that game and clearly tell the talent level was even, the Rams just made one or 2 less mistakes and their fumbles happened to bounce their way and ours didnt. You can clean up mistakes, you can't magically make your team better from a talent standpoint overnight

 

Keep Pounding and let's right the ship on Thursday against Tampa 

[PanthersBigD]

I thought this was going to be another sucky, whiny post. I was pleasantly surprised. We need more of this. 

[Burnout189]

11 minutes ago, PanthersBigD said:

I thought this was going to be another sucky, whiny post. I was pleasantly surprised. We need more of this. 

Give it about ten minutes and someone will come in and derail it by whining about how "Cam sux" or some other inane, knee-jerk reactionary comment.

But to the OP glad you got to enjoy a home game after such a long time away. I agree with pretty much all of your points.

[KillaCamNewton]

3 minutes ago, Burnout189 said:

Give it about ten minutes and someone will come in and derail it by whining about how "Cam sux" or some other inane, knee-jerk reactionary comment.

But to the OP glad you got to enjoy a home game after such a long time away. I agree with pretty much all of your points.

im excited for the year man. thankfully my family has had PSLs since Year 1 and when we moved to Arizona when I was a kid we didnt sell them. now that Im here I can go to every game instead of going to a home game once every year or two or waiting for us to play the Cardinals or a Cali team

[Panthers are good]

I really think that Ron is just not a good coach and is stuck in his 1980s mindset. You have to be unpredictable on offense, why do the Panthers never ever ever go into no huddle before the game requires it? Why? Oh that's right, cause Rivera can't stand the idea of moving the ball quickly and potentially getting the defense back on the field. Guess what Ron? The offense stalls out on a 3 and out and the defense still has to come back on the field quickly. Change up the flow of the game, adjust. That's what McVay did in the second half and it killed the Panthers defense.

Cam fuged up big time yesterday, no doubt about it. He has to make those throws and I think he will end up being ok. Even if he doesn't have a great year, I think he will start trusting himself, using his feet more and will get a groove. He definitely messed up yesterday, but the coaching is pathetic and will continue to be so because Rivera can't change and won't change out of pure stubbornness. 

[SpeedOFLight]

Good post and observations! We are going to be just fine. We lost a game we should/could have won. It happens. We will bounce right back!  Keep pounding 

[mc52beast]

Agree with pretty much everything you said. The players left everything on the field, they backed up their mantra of “Keep Pounding “. Fix the fumbles and other hiccups, get used to the guys you’re playing next to and they will be fine.

Coaching is a whole other story. Ron seems to be stuck in his 85 Bears uniform and refuses to use up tempo even though he knows the offense is built for it. And he continues to screw up time outs, which yesterday could’ve got us the ball back and a game winning drive.

Pretty sure he didn’t cool off the hot seat he’s on

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

56 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

-it was hot as hell at the game. i'm from Arizona and have never been so hot. i respect anyone who sat through it because it was rough

That southeast humidity is nothing to mess with

[OneBadCat]

Good take OP. Can't wait to have Bruce Irvin in the line up also. I think having him in the rotation is going to be a big factor.

[Seltzer]

Rams had 3 fumbles they recovered, and 2 calls that went their way (tipped ball/lateral) and the complete/incomplete bs that I won't waste any further brain cells trying to figure out.

Over the course of a season, those things tend to even out.  That's not to say that the Panthers didn't make their own mistakes, and ultimately good teams find a way to win and mediocre to bad teams don't.  Most NFL games come down to a few plays.

Still, I've been to a lot of games over the past 13 seasons, and this looked like a good Panthers team.  I've seen teams that I knew from watching them in the Home openers (2006, 2009, 2014 (even though we won that game and a watered-down NFCS) that were not good enough to be in the playoffs.

This year's team is good enough to make the playoffs.  I'm nowhere close to crowning them, but very few teams that win it all look like the best team from the start all the way through.  Let's let this play out.

The Rams are solid from top to bottom.  They made a lot of mistakes, too, especially early and we didn't capitalize.

Thursday night is a huge night for this team to be Week 2.  If we drop to 0-2, I might have to recalibrate my expectations.

That being said, my wife is scheduled to give birth on Thursday morning, and I'm hopeful I will be watching a Panthers victory with my new son Thursday night!

[Seltzer]

11 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

Agree with pretty much everything you said. The players left everything on the field, they backed up their mantra of “Keep Pounding “. Fix the fumbles and other hiccups, get used to the guys you’re playing next to and they will be fine.

Coaching is a whole other story. Ron seems to be stuck in his 85 Bears uniform and refuses to use up tempo even though he knows the offense is built for it. And he continues to screw up time outs, which yesterday could’ve got us the ball back and a game winning drive.

Pretty sure he didn’t cool off the hot seat he’s on

We moved the ball at-will (outside of the Cam INT) in the 4th Quarter when we went up-tempo.  Cam is and has always been his best in a rhythm.  Going up-tempo and designing some runs for him (or at least the option of it) seems to help him be his best. Cam missed some throws yesterday that he needs to make for the team to truly compete at a high level.  Olsen on a post and Samuel on a go-route were WIDE open, and Cam just flat out missed them.

Those are the throws an elite QB has to make to win games in a NFL that comes down to just a few plays.  Still, he wasn't awful- he led 2 huge TD drives in the 4th Quarter to give us a chance.  

This team is good enough to win games even with Cam playing like he did yesterday.  To compete for the playoffs and beyond, we need an elite QB (just as any other team for the most part)

[bigdavis]

47 minutes ago, carolina-chucky said:

We really need to make a trade for a true #1 wide receiver if there is one available. Seeing a rookie Marquise Brown (my #1 wr in 19’ draft) having a huge day even though it was vs a bad miami team makes me think how much better Cam can be. I cant really think of any wr that could be on the trading block by deadline. But i would love to see what Indy would want for TY Hilton if they start losing some games.  People talk about how fast Moore and Samuel are but i just dont see that one game day. Moore can get open but he’s a yac guy, not someone who will beat u deep consistently. And samuel is “overhyped”. He really is. Just overhyped.  If we cant make a trade for a wr this season then we better draft one in the 1st round next if we plan on keeping Cam. 

The opponent makes a difference, though, doesn't it?

The Rams have a talented secondary, unlike Miami -- or more importantly, the Bucs.  Let's see how our air attack works vs TB before we write it off as inferior.

I'll go so far as to predict a 40+ yd TD pass to Samuel this Thursday.

[Moorgan]

Great post OP. Agreed.

For those blaming Ron for not going up-tempo (no huddle)...remember the Offense is 100% controlled and called by Norv. Your problem is with Norv not Ron. Sure, Ron, as HC, can dictate that but we all know he wouldn't do that and seriously, we wouldn't want him to. I'm not saying the criticism isn't valid. I'm saying you're directing your ire at the wrong coach...for this specific complaint.

[rippadonn]

Aside from officials, totally agree, the two teams are evenly matched.

That should bode well going forward.