This is a playoff team

[Peon Awesome]

There is so much parity this year, honestly there are 25 teams that could realistically have playoff aspirations and we are definitely one of them. We need to show some resilience and get back to our winning ways first but I have no doubt we are capable. It also helps that there are 7 teams that qualify in the NFC and probably at least 1 9-8 team getting in. Outside of the NFC west runner up, who can you even pencil in for wildcard slots? 

[glenwo2]

48 minutes ago, pantherj said:

The requirement for QB limbo is having a QB who has had plenty of time in the league to show off a high level of talent, but instead has showed they are inconsistent (a game manager), or are lower tier (bottom of the NFL in stats).

Having a QB who is great doesn't automatically mean a SB win is only a matter of time. Only some great QBs win SBs, but only teams with great QBs win SBs in this era, with maybe an extremely rare exception. Just look at the last 20 or so SB winning teams. See the QBs?

We're in limbo with Sam. There is no getting out of limbo so long as Sam is the QB.

I'm not a fan of Hyperbole.    Especially when we don't know for sure what we have in Sam at this point.

We'll know by the end of the season, though. 

 

[Raleigh PF]

Two really big things have to happen for the Panthers to make the postseason:

1- CMC must stay healthy.

2- The OLine must gel, play more as a unit and have consistent improvement.

Now, if you believe those two things will happen, you're an optimist. It *could* happen, but I don't think it likely.

[PootieNunu]

6 minutes ago, Peon Awesome said:

There is so much parity this year, honestly there are 25 teams that could realistically have playoff aspirations and we are definitely one of them. We need to show some resilience and get back to our winning ways first but I have no doubt we are capable. It also helps that there are 7 teams that qualify in the NFC and probably at least 1 9-8 team getting in. Outside of the NFC west runner up, who can you even pencil in for wildcard slots? 

Not us without CMC. IF he comes back full strength we have a shot. 

Teams know how to beat us without him, just attack the interior OL.

[PootieNunu]

1 minute ago, Raleigh PF said:

Two really big things have to happen for the Panthers to make the postseason:

1- CMC must stay healthy.

2- The OLine must gel, play more as a unit and have consistent improvement.

Now, if you believe those two things will happen, you're an optimist. It *could* happen, but I don't think it likely.

Those go hand in hand, the OL is not going to improve without CMC on the field. These guys just suck too bad. 

[NAS]

5 hours ago, Adb6368 said:

Counterpoint:

we win the next 3 in a row against average teams and go to 6-2 on the way to the wild card. 

The power of positivity will prevail!

Can your positivity play center or guard? 

[Fox007]

4 minutes ago, NAS said:

Can your positivity play center or guard? 

Put em in coach

[ncsfinest21]

12 minutes ago, Raleigh PF said:

Two really big things have to happen for the Panthers to make the postseason:

1- CMC must stay healthy.

2- The OLine must gel, play more as a unit and have consistent improvement.

Now, if you believe those two things will happen, you're an optimist. It *could* happen, but I don't think it likely.

This right here. If CMC stays healthy is the biggest part. CMC on the field we get by alot of these games and thats with a bad OL. CMC hides our discrepancies with wins.

Edited October 12, 2021 by ncsfinest21

[beo]

Fingers crossed, I really do hope we make the playoffs this season. Been too long. If not though we're still a young up and coming team and I don't think it was realistic to expect more from this group this season.  Making the playoffs would be huge for this squad and really show that we're ahead of schedule. With the extra wildcard spot, it's not out of the question for us to make it. I'm already willing to say that our defense is a good unit.

The main concern to me is the offensive line because at their current state they are playing so poorly that any time we play a team with a decent defensive front no matter the quality of the rest of their roster it can completely ruin the game for us. The line being so poor throws the entire offense out of sync; we can't throw deep very much because Sam is often pressured on his 2nd read, that also probably contributes to Sam flat out missing reads at times though that is a Sam issue too. Since we cant threaten deep that well DBs can start jumping the short routes. Not to mention that he can't really step up into the pocket. Brady's playcalling hasn't helped things but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now since he's young and had little playcalling experience beforehand. OL needs to be a top priority next off-season. Christensen wasn't great last week but he was about as good as you could hope for in a rookie OT getting their first start. In an ideal world our tackle situation ends being settled but it's too early to say that firmly and we'll have to see how it evolves over the year.

CMC coming back will ease the OL woes some. His threat out of the backfield will hopefully stop opposing teams from just pinning their ears back. If, or well when.. one of guards get put on their ass Sam can quickly check it down to him. It's just concerning because we can't keep relying on CMC like we have, we're going to run him into the ground in short order. Chubba looks good and he was one of my favorite picks of this past draft (along with Deonte, who I hope we see in the game at some point this season) but as of now his brick hands are really disadvantageous to us given the situation on the interior. Still, I hope we continue to use him once CMC's back particularly on earlier downs;  it's kind of a no brainer unless we're trying to go for the any% world record on how fast we can run a franchise legend into the ground.

 

[GoobyPls]

8 hours ago, SBBlue said:

Do you know what "turnover" and  "short field" mean?

You do know you still get yards off short field also?

 

Only a complete moron thinks yards per game is a better way to judge a defense than points per game.