Shaq says Wilks is bringing back the Panthers to what they used to be.

[nogoodbum]

It's evident the difference in when grown men are treated like grown men by both Wilks & Fitterer rather than as barely past high school teenagers.

[SetfreexX]

3 hours ago, Smithers said:

After the Rhule ordeal, I refuse to believe anytning that comes out of a players mouth about a current coach 

In most cases you tell when it's ''real'' talk.

[Panthers4real]

Keeping in perspective the support for Rhule was equivalent. These guys get paid millions of dollars to play football and show support for their players and coaches. I would do the same poo. 

[Mr. Scot]

21 minutes ago, Panthers4real said:

Keeping in perspective the support for Rhule was equivalent. These guys get paid millions of dollars to play football and show support for their players and coaches. I would do the same poo. 

Was it?

I only recall a hearing a very few players actually speak out in support of Rhule, and one of those was Robbie Anderson.

Forget the public speaking though. It's not hard to watch the games and see that the team plays harder for Wilks than they did for Rhule.

That's a way bigger indicator of their true feelings than comments to the media.

[Panthers4real]

4 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Was it?

I only recall a hearing a very few players actually speak out in support of Rhule, and one of those was Robbie Anderson.

Forget the public speaking though. It's not hard to watch the games and see that the team plays harder for Wilks than they did for Rhule.

That's a way bigger indicator of their true feelings than comments to the media.

Was it not? CMC as another example. 
 

not saying it’s not true, and also not saying wilks doesn’t has them playing with a lot more urgency than the other guy, but just have to take these comments with a grain of salt, imo.

 

for the record, I really like what wilks had done with team so far, but unfortunately, while he’s the coach I would want, he’s not the coach we need. 

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, Panthers4real said:

Was it not? CMC as another example. 

not saying it’s not true, and also not saying wilks doesn’t has them playing with a lot more urgency than the other guy, but just have to take these comments with a grain of salt, imo.

for the record, I really like what wilks had done with team so far, but unfortunately, while he’s the coach I would want, he’s not the coach we need. 

Don't know if Wilks gets the permanent gig...

But yes, there's a tangible difference in the way players feel about him versus how they felt about Matt Rhule.

[Cullenator]

I would actually pay to watch the team that has taken the field the last two weeks.

[BeenPounding]

People have very short memories.  While we were not on the same level of the Patriot's, Chiefs, Steelers, Packers, or Colts in terms of consistency, I feel like we have had very good and entertaining spurts of success.  Many people agree that the NFL is built for teams to hover around .500%.  Inherently, you are going to encounter years of build up and break down.  Here are the Panthers since Fox, and Rivera.

The Bills are the rage right now, how long did they go without being in the playoffs?  Let's take a look.  (Spoiler, it goes all the way back to 1999)

The Chiefs from 1999 - 2012 made the playoffs 3 times only winning one playoff game during that time.  The 49'ers have made the playoffs 7 times in 22 years.  Long story short, consistency is much more rare than it seems.  

I'm proud of our history.  In fact, 2003-2009 and 2012-2017 were some really fun years, even when we didn't make the playoffs.  If we have had 12 of 28 successful years where we were either in the playoffs or right there in the mix, I'll take those odds.  Heck if you add in 95-97 and 99 we were right at or well above .500% again.  57% of the time we are in the mix.  Rhule was a stain on our history, even worse than Siefert, but we will come back.  Heck the best thing for our franchise was the Clausen year and the last Siefert year.  Shoot we even pulled off a 7-9 record during the Vinny/St. Pierre/Wildcat season.

Be a fan and show some faith.  The Panther way works.  Better than the Lion, Jaguar, Jet, way.

 

#keeppounding 4 life!!!!!!

[Shotgun]

9 hours ago, Thorrez said:

If that why they used every possible resource we have trying to upgrade at QB since Rhule got here?

They utterly failed at it, but it was not lack of trying because they "don't value the QB enough"

Fitt and Rhule are just not good at identifying NFL QBs. Hopefully we can get someone on the building that can. 

[Mage]

The team got an interception and returned it to the 34-yard line.  The offense had scored a touchdown on 3 of its last 4 possessions.  The kicker had just missed a field goal/XP at the end of regulation.  What did Steve Wilks opt to do?  Stay conservative and have McAdoo run Foreman 3 times up the gut.  Nothing creative, no uniquely designed run play, not even a safe RPO.  They settled for a field goal instead of trying to take the game in their own hands.

I disagree wholly with this idea that Wilks has brought back old-school Panthers football... or maybe he has, because we have always been frustratingly conservative.  If anyone else made that decision to settle for the L, they would be scorched for it.  

Look, I like Wilks.  And I agree the team looks a little bit better, although let's be real - we've played the Falcons and Bucs (Rams beat us by double digits and we didn't score a single point in the second half).  But to say he's brought Panthers football back?  Nah.  He's just exceeding what were insanely low expectations.  The fact of the matter is 2 of the 3 games, we threw for 170 or less yards.  The game we eclipsed that was against the worst (or in the conversation) pass defense in the NFL. We're giving up an average of 362 yards per game in the 3-game stretch.  We are not playing winning football.  And look that isn't all on Wilks, I just think we've benefited heavily from playing 2 weak teams.  This is still the same bad team it was 4 weeks ago.

[Luciu5]

36 minutes ago, Mage said:

The team got an interception and returned it to the 34-yard line.  The offense had scored a touchdown on 3 of its last 4 possessions.  The kicker had just missed a field goal/XP at the end of regulation.  What did Steve Wilks opt to do?  Stay conservative and have McAdoo run Foreman 3 times up the gut.  Nothing creative, no uniquely designed run play, not even a safe RPO.  They settled for a field goal instead of trying to take the game in their own hands.

No, you are wrong here. That is a XP range we were in. The chance of an interception or fumble is higher than missing that kick. Hell, I would have kicked the field goal on the 1st down to avoid any chance of a fumble. Was it safer to kicker the field goal yes? Yes. Was it smarter than being risky with the football in that situation? Also yes.

[L-TownCat]

I get the sentiment from Shaq and agree that it’s mostly a positive.  My consternation remains, as it always has, with the franchise’s overall ability to assemble a winning football team.

Generational talent at QB?  
-No line.  No WRs.

Generational talent at MLB? 
-No DBs.

Generational talent at RB? 
-No line. No QB. No Coach.

We never seem to be able to put an entire team together.  Every year there is at least one or more glaring weaknesses from roster to staff.

I applaud the effort to return to a hard nosed physical team that fights, but inevitably wins must come or it’s just noise.

 

[frankw]

3 hours ago, Panthers4real said:

Keeping in perspective the support for Rhule was equivalent. These guys get paid millions of dollars to play football and show support for their players and coaches. I would do the same poo. 

True but the results post Rhule speak loudly too. It cannot be understated how better the overall atmosphere and vibe of the team seem to be and that's under an interim that almost nobody is giving a chance of being a full time head coach again.

[Purrnicious]

14 hours ago, bigdog10 said:

I’m grateful that the guys believe in Wilks. I genuinely want him to do well. But, I’m not interested in what the panthers used to be. What we’ve been is nothing more than an inconsistent mess for the better part of 25 years. That game last week was a perfect description of our history. A few really high highs followed by some really low lows with a whole lot of meh in the middle. 
 

We need to demand better than what we used to be. If Wilks and Shaq can’t deliver that, then it’s time to look elsewhere. 
 

Just being a competitive  football team is not the bar that we need to be shooting for. We need to win. 

I hate this narrative. Outside of New England, Pittsburgh, and I guess Seattle which teams have consistently made deep playoff runs for more than 5 years in a row?

 

People forget this team was highly competitive from 2003-2008 and again from 2013-Cams Shoulder dying. Most of the off years in those time periods we're caused by things that had nothing to do with "The Culture" of the franchise being ok with mediocrity and everything to do with the fact that the NFL is about parity. 

 

If Steve smith doesn't break his ankle in 2004 we were literally a top 2 team in the NFC for 3 straight seasons. And if someone had the wits to give Cam an O Line we'd have been competing for NFC championships for a decade. The "Culture" had way more to do with us winning than losing.