Can you feel it?

[bigdavis]

13 minutes ago, Smithers said:

For the first time in years I feel confident in offensive 3rd down conversions, confident in defensive 3rd down stops, confident in halftime adjustments, etc.

it’s refreshing.  It also feels a little weird haha

And don't forget not having to hold your breath every time we have to field a punt.  Pharaoh Cooper has been very reliable.

[Icege]

Lemme tell you what I'm gonna feel if we rattle off a win streak and walk into the second half of the season at 6-2

[Mr. Scot]

Not sure I'd say I "feel it" just yet, but there are definitely some things I feel...

Do we have better coaching? Granted it's still early but my answer so far would be yes, especially on offense. Actual adjustments are being made instead of playing out the game with an attitude of "well this is what we said we were gonna do so we're gonna do it". That's huge. And that the coaches hold themselves accountable rather than putting it all on the players is a vast improvement.

Are we better talent-wise? In spots, yes. Some areas not so much. The secondary is iffy, the interior OL is a concern, the tight end position is largely invisible and the drop off in middle linebacker talent from last year to this year is...well...

I guess if the ultimate question is whether there's reason to be optimistic about the direction Matt Rhule is taking this team, my answer would be yes. I don't know how optimistic to be just yet, but after years of feeling like I was watching the same movie over and over again, it's nice to have something different.

Bottom Line: Watching this team is fun again, for sure. I want to see a ticket to a higher level, but for the moment, "fun" is an improvement.

[Jeremy Igo]

8 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Granted it's still early but my answer so far would be yes, especially on offense.

The defense is performing better than at any point last season when Rivera had Luke Kuechly on the field. 

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, Jeremy Igo said:

The defense is performing better than at any point last season when Rivera had Luke Kuechly on the field. 

Better than in the first two games when they looked awful, granted. But to be fair, Matt Ryan gave us a lot of help yesterday.

I still want to see how we perform against a better offense. Also want to see how the offense does against a better defense, as well.

Not sure if that question gets answered this week as I'm not really buying into the Bears...

[t96]

6 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Better than in the first two games when they looked awful, granted. But to be fair, Matt Ryan gave us a lot of help yesterday.

I still want to see how we perform against a better offense. Also want to see how the offense does against a better defense, as well.

Not sure if that question gets answered this week as I'm not really buying into the Bears...

Ryan was not great by any means, and Julio was out, but that is still an extremely talented offense there with an elite OL and other great receiving weapons. To hold them to 16 (13 meaningful) points is extremely impressive from any D, and especially from ours whose roster on paper looks like a sure-thing bottom 3 D. I, like many others here, was very worried about Snow and our D going forward. Not any more. They've been absolutely fuging amazing given the talent level of the unit. Best coaching on D here by far since McD left for the Bills.

[Mistuh Jones]

LOL guys... yes this has been a great peak but we still need to be mentally prepared for some valleys. I'm still on the "as long as we're in the game and fighting, I'm happy" train. Let's not look too far ahead y'all!!! 

[Pantherxtreme]

1 hour ago, t96 said:

Ryan was not great by any means, and Julio was out, but that is still an extremely talented offense there with an elite OL and other great receiving weapons. To hold them to 16 (13 meaningful) points is extremely impressive from any D, and especially from ours whose roster on paper looks like a sure-thing bottom 3 D. I, like many others here, was very worried about Snow and our D going forward. Not any more. They've been absolutely fuging amazing given the talent level of the unit. Best coaching on D here by far since McD left for the Bills.

Yes that Falcons offense is no slouch. Every one waiting for us to face to better competition will be waiting a long time. The NFL is an 8-8 league, not much separates a 6 win team from a 10 win team except for coaching, Qb play, remaining relatively healthy.

This is a well coached team with good team speed on both sides of the ball. Our offense can go toe to toe with any of the big boys. The defense is young and flies to the ball, the only thing missing is we only have 1 elite pass rusher in Brian Burns, when he left the game it was quite evident for our defense as Matt Ryan had a ton of time to stand in the pocket. Good thing Phil Snow zone concepts are night and day from Rivera's and Ryan was still confused most of the game.  

[Moose Hoover]

2 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Can you feel it?

 

Get up, come on get down with the sickness

[Mr. Scot]

I have to admit part of the reason why I'm not entirely "feeling it" just yet is that I've ridden the Panthers rollercoaster before.

You know, the one where we get a last place schedule, beat some bad teams, think we're trending up and then the following season get a tougher schedule and find out we're really not...

I think it was Simon Le Bon who said "I'm on a ride and I wanna get off". That's how I feel about that particular rollercoaster.

Here's hoping that ride gets decommissioned.

[Ricky Spanish]

I have been ENTHRALLED by the overall coaching of this team so far this season.

It hasn't felt like we were being outcoached at any point in time.

With LV we were in it till the end. TB, turnovers killed us but we fought back and made it competitive. 

The last 3 games our coaches have out coached/schemed the opposition and it's been a breath of fresh air. 

[mesolith]

4 hours ago, Panthera onca said:

It’s very refreshing to have confidence in the We playedstaff and know that they will make the necessary adjustments during a game to give us the best chance to win. As we continue to upgrade the roster, we will be primed for deep playoff runs in the coming years.

THIS!! OMG, this!  For years we have played the first half, often getting a lead, then second half it is obvious the opponent made adjustments at the half and BOOM!  we keep playing the same plan,  and we get our asses kicked. Never able to understand that.

[PootieNunu]

3 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

Better than in the first two games when they looked awful, granted. But to be fair, Matt Ryan gave us a lot of help yesterday.

I still want to see how we perform against a better offense. Also want to see how the offense does against a better defense, as well.

Not sure if that question gets answered this week as I'm not really buying into the Bears...

Falcons put 25 on Seahawks, 39 on Cowboys, and 26 on the bears. We held them to 13 meaningful points and Chicago is supposed to have an elite D compared to our young inexperienced D. I think we did pretty good.

[PeterPablo]

7 minutes ago, mesolith said:

THIS!! OMG, this!  For years we have played the first half, often getting a lead, then second half it is obvious the opponent made adjustments at the half and BOOM!  we keep playing the same plan,  and we get our asses kicked. Never able to understand that.

I think this was because of the talent we had. Our defense was always on point. Especially during the McDermott years (I remember praying for the Panthers to let Ron go and promote McDermott to head coach). Everyone knew he was a stud coach and we had the talented players to back him up. Then we had Cam that could completely carry the offense by himself. Bad playcall from Shula? No problem, Cam will scramble 60 yards on a broken play to seal the win. 

Take 2015 for example. We would come out of the gate dominating. Panthers would get a good lead through talent alone. But then things would change in the 2nd half because of a combination of the other team adjusting and Ron putting a short leash on the offense because he wanted to slow the game down. It was maddening watching Ron take his foot off the gas when we only had a 14 point lead and we were only midway through the 3rd quarter. I can't remember exactly what happened in all the games of 2015 but I swear I remember almost all of them coming down to the wire. It was like our defense always HAD to make a stop at the end in order to get a win. The Seattle playoff game was the perfect example of this. It seemed like we never won with the offense at the end (except the Arizona game). We never adjusted. We never kept our foot on the gas. Just get a good lead in the first half and then milk the clock in the 2nd.

The attitude of the coaching this year just seems so different. Putting together an 8 minute drive at the end of the Arizona game felt so nice. Yea we had a good lead but we didn't put it on the defense to close out the game. We sealed it with the offense. The last drive in.the first half of the Atlanta game was also amazing. We looked like the Patriots there. They are going for the throat using the offense. It hurts me to think about what the current coaches would have done if they were in charge during the Cam/Luke years. So much wasted potential because of crappy coaching. I honestly think Cam could have had 2 or 3 rings if Ron and Shula were replaced (especially Shula). Cam should have at least 1. No way we lose against Denver with even an average offensive coordinator.