The "Jeff Davidson sucks" mantra.

[Captroop]

I will give him this much credit. He called an excellent drive to end the half. My god, with 9 seconds left he calls for a long pass to the endzone? Wow. Standard Fox ball in years past would have been run up the middle, call a time out and set up a straight shot for Kasay.

It's also proof that Fox isn't calling the plays.

[SmootsDaddy89]

Oh the irony...but, I digress.

You should have titled your thread:

"It's Not Davidson's Fault; Blame Fox"

I don't even really blame Fox, I was just saying IF you want to blame someone, Fox has more control over our overall scheme than Davidson.

I just meant that a lot of the hatred is misdirected imo.

[KillerKat]

F**k 'em both.

[panther4life]

I assume each weeks gameplan is mapped out and john fox has at least a heavy opinion on what kind of plays their going to run and how often. So the blame on davidson is misplaced. So at this point blame has to lay mostly on matt moore and partially on Fox.

I have been calling for Clausen for a while simply because the ceiling is soo much higher and really never felt moore was the guy. Only time can and apparently will tell what we have in Clausen. Give him 1 shot and if does dramatically better and leads us to a win keep him in.

[SmootsDaddy89]

Why don't we do something completely unexpected? I mean, would it really hurt to do something that people won't expect?

We are known for our vanilla offense. We are predictable and boring. Can't we sacrifice ONE play out of the whole game to try something weird? I mean, the worst that could happen is we throw and INT, and its not like that hasn't happened before.

What about putting Goodson in the slot? We could do that and see what happens.

Was watching the mountaineer package against Pittsburgh not enough for you? If we aren't any good at running gadget plays, there's no real point in trying them. And we just suck at them. I wish we were better, sure, but we aren't, and I don't think that's Davidson's fault either.

And I wish people would get over the idea of moving Goodson to receiver. I really think he's going to be an insurance policy if D-Will leaves, and therefore, they have no intention of converting him.

[panthers2u]

I just meant that a lot of the hatred is misdirected imo.

To the extent that some on here have singled out this or that person as the scapegoat for yesterday, I fully agree.

Usually, I'm a little reserved after the first game because I know that most teams are going to exhibit some rust.

My main complaint, is that IMO, Davidson could have done a much better job of protecting MM. The guy was simply pounded into a pulp. MM is still a WIP, regardless of his status as our number 1.

[sharkman]

I don't have a DVR, but I seem to recall Goodson lined up in slot in some of the 4 WR sets.

Also, I noticed Rosario getting more work at WR like many of us had called for in the past.

Hell, just seeing some 4 WR sets was a big difference.

Those are the types of things I see the coaching staff (Fox & Davidson) putting together during the week while game planning. Calling the plays on Sunday is Davidson, not Fox.

It's nothing new that if we get 6 points or more behind Jeff gets pass happy and abandons the run completely.

And as I pointed out in another thread, when the defense knows you have quit on the run they are going to ignore it and come after the QB - which in turn makes the O-Line look bad.

Bottom line, it's the same story without Jake Delhomme here to blame. I'd say with Moore we've likely regressed more than people care to admit.

[SmootsDaddy89]

I don't think the offensive line did THAT poorly.

When you're down by 15, you're gonna have to throw a lot. When you throw a lot, you're going to be blitzed a lot. When you get blitzed a lot, you have to make them pay, so that they'll back off. If you can't, you get blitzed even more.

[panthers2u]

Bottom line, it's the same story without Jake Delhomme here to blame. I'd say with Moore we've likely regressed more than people care to admit.

I've decided to stay away from such broad statements until the 4th game.

TBQH, I saw some really dumb poo across the league yesterday and some of that poo was from some teams that were much more "mature" than the Panthers are.

[4th_and_inches]

I think that Davidson lost the confidence early on that we could run the ball. Of course, every time we ran the ball it was up the middle into a sea of 300lbs. defenders.

Our Run.Run.Run.Pass.Punt.Repeat offense does get painfully easy for the defense to pickup on. As much as I'd like to see Moore let loose, we just don't have the receivers capable of catching poor passes, outside of Smith.

[ChucktownK]

Yeah I don't think he sucks...I think he made stupid play calls for game 1. It is what it is. Why so vanilla with NY tho?

[Cat'sGrowl]

Maybe it was obvious because Matt Moore couldn't hit the blind side of a barn 75% of the time and we were forced to be one-dimensional until we got like 15 points behind but idk.

Maybe they were doing it in the first quarter when we had the lead but idk.

Davidson's dumb.

It's the players that have carried this team.

[SmootsDaddy89]

We only had like 6 pass attempts until that last drive in the 2nd quarter. It was definitely not until we got way behind that we were only throwing.

[Cyberjag]

I don't even really blame Fox, I was just saying IF you want to blame someone, Fox has more control over our overall scheme than Davidson.

I just meant that a lot of the hatred is misdirected imo.

Fox pretty much approves the playbook, and Davidson is calling the plays. So instead of calling the runs, Davidson is calling the pass. And that's what's got everyone pissed.

I don't think the offensive line did THAT poorly.

When you're down by 15, you're gonna have to throw a lot. When you throw a lot, you're going to be blitzed a lot. When you get blitzed a lot, you have to make them pay, so that they'll back off. If you can't, you get blitzed even more.

When you say stupid things after the game that suggest the elevated passing numbers were by design because you wanted to surprise the opponent, you kind of cut the legs out from under people who post the exact same point you just tried to make. We didn't abandon the run when we were done, we did it when we were up by one.

For the last two years of Trgovac’s defense, reports trickled out of the locker room about how Fox effectively took over as DC midway through the season. He did it because he wasn’t happy with what he was seeing out there. He would know, because his background is as a DB coach and then a Defensive Coordinator.

But he’s never been an offensive coordinator, and doesn’t have a playbook. Last year the reports that trickled out were more along the lines of him telling Davidson to “just run the damn ball, no more passing.” That was before the Arizona game, where we ended up throwing the ball 15 times versus 44 runs. And one of those passes was a 50 yard touchdown strike from Delhomme to Smith. Good things happen in the passing game when you run, right?

Fox doesn't call the plays, he lets his OC do it. And given how one of the biggest complaints about the game is playcalling, I don't see how you can avoid people being critical of your Uncle Jeff.