Otah and Gross are the two most important Panthers this year

[unicar15]

It was apparent yesterday that Jeff Davidson has no confidence in the running game when Otah is not in the game. That HAS TO BE the only explanation for him throwing the ball in the redzone rather than handing it off to Williams or Stewart (who accounted for 18 of the 35 TDs in 09).

Considering that our QB play is once again going to be abysmal, I'm going to go ahead and say that the key to us being at all successful on offense this year starts with Otah and Gross. Until Otah comes back and is fully healthy...I expect us to struggle.

[PantherBrew]

Didn't we run the ball alot the last few games last season?

[SorthNarolina]

Jeff Davidson and Magazu have made it work PLENTY of times without Otah. We just got outplayed plain and simple. That's why he had no confidence.

[House]

The reason that Davidson had no confidence in the running game was that NYG were stacking the line with 8 and 9 guys. For once, we needed the pass to set up the run. We couldn't get anything going in the passing game so NY just stayed with thier 8 man fronts. Otah would have helped with this but not too much, gotta get those LBers to back off and the DL to widen thier gaps. That wasn't happening because our pass game was poo.

I don't know that running it on the 4 and GL was going to get us anywhere. I understand why they called the pass plays on the first three downs, the fourth down I would have ran. You throw because you are playing against the clock as much as you are against the Giants in that situation. You are relying on your QB knowing that that far down the field an incompletion is better than nothing else. Even on 4th down, because that gives the Giants the ball on the 4.

Maybe not the best play-calling but it was understandable. What made it irrational was the fact that our QB sucked, especially in the RZ.

[Jackofalltrades]

We didn't have Gross or Otah at the end of the season, we ran on everyone.

[CRA]

It was apparent yesterday that Jeff Davidson has no confidence in the running game when Otah is not in the game. That HAS TO BE the only explanation for him throwing the ball in the redzone rather than handing it off to Williams or Stewart (who accounted for 18 of the 35 TDs in 09).

Considering that our QB play is once again going to be abysmal, I'm going to go ahead and say that the key to us being at all successful on offense this year starts with Otah and Gross. Until Otah comes back and is fully healthy...I expect us to struggle.

Otah didn't play last year at NY - record day on the ground. Pretty sure he didn't play against Vikings (Stewart is the only guy in about a decade to put up 100 on them).

the only explanation is John Fox is an idiot. We don't need to overthink it.

[Retemnav]

It's apparent that Stewart isn't as far along in recovering from off-season surgery as people thought. Between missing all the preseason games and getting only a few carries in this game, he obviously was not ready to go 100%. Hopefully another week of practice will get him into better football shape.

[CRA]

We didn't have Gross or Otah at the end of the season, we ran on everyone.

Yep. And we did it with the box being stacked and we did it with Davidson tipping off his run plays (like aways)

[CRA]

It's apparent that Stewart isn't as far along in recovering from off-season surgery as people thought. Between missing all the preseason games and getting only a few carries in this game, he obviously was not ready to go 100%. Hopefully another week of practice will get him into better football shape.

Fox and Davidson did the exact same thing last season. They didn't run the ball and give touches in the 2nd half of games to the RBs.