Are They Really Losing Faith?

[Hairless Cat]

It may be unfair, and it could be selective memory, but I can't remember seeing Rivera doing anything to try to raise spirits when things have gone badly.

Every team hits rough spots. It is incumbent on the leaders to pick the team back up. When things have gone badly for us, I see Rivera with his stoic look on the sideline, Cam pissed at himself on the bench, Smitty ready to put a beating on someone, etc. What I don't see is anyone giving encouragement and pointing out that they can turn it around with a positive attitude.

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the same thing?

say what you want about him, but back in the day Delhomme wouldnt be sitting on the bench sulking with a towel over his head. hed be up on his feet trying to get the rest of the team motivated. that pisses me off about newton- I know hes a rookie but hes got to show some leadership on the sidelines and stop acting like a whipped puppy.

[panthers55]

The reality is we sucked on Sunday. This chicken little attitude says more about the posters then it does about Rivera or the team. If we continue to play poorly for the next 7 games, then you might have a point. Until then, this kind of conversation is ridiculous.

The whole team including the coaches are all inexperienced and learning. The only thing unexpected is that is took 9 games before we had a poor performance rather than right out of the chute. Really the biggest area of legitimate criticism right now are all the excessive penalties.

[Inimicus]

Some of you folks would bitch if I gave you a McLaren F1 with 3 flat tires, a burned out head lamp, and no radio...

[Dpantherman]

say what you want about him, but back in the day Delhomme wouldnt be sitting on the bench sulking with a towel over his head. hed be up on his feet trying to get the rest of the team motivated. that pisses me off about newton- I know hes a rookie but hes got to show some leadership on the sidelines and stop acting like a whipped puppy.

Bullshit. What leadership did he show in the 2009 Eagles game when Smitty had to keep him from crying?

You can't determine a guys leadership capabilities from a few clips during a game. His teammates say he is a leader, and I do tiibn he has to prove that to anyone else but them.

[Proudiddy]

It's obvious the team's mentality has changed a bit since the GB game. We believed we could win and hadn't had a history of blowing games at that point.

Now, we've blown leads in several games and had some tough losses. That is going to affect your mentality no matter how mentally tough you are as individuals and a team. Rah-rah speeches only can give but so much motivation and for a short period of time, it's up to the players to take pride in what they do and play like that... Additionally, some things have to start going their way and give them some positive momentum.

Right now, we're used to things going badly, we're accustomed to making mistakes, getting penalties, and feeling like we don't get any of the breaks. When we get a lead, I'm sure the players wonder if the defense can hold up instead of assuming they'll dominate and force a turnover or a 3 and out.

We're just in a bad spot right now confidence wise and our performance shows it... It will remain that way until we start getting some things to work in our favor. Turnovers, allowing returns for TDs, and stupid penalties aren't going to help us turn it around.

[grateflday]

Say what you want about John Fox but the spirits were high even when the game plan sucked. With Rivera, they just seem to get down in the dumps and stay there.

Gotta disagree with this statement, especially the last 3-4 years of the Fox tenure. Panther implosions were common. How many times did we here..."xyz happened and the team just never recovered". The answer is plenty.

[Happy Panther]

fyi happy panther is slightly beyond "questioning rivera's leadership"

who me?

[Happy Panther]

Some of you folks would bitch if I gave you a McLaren F1 with 3 flat tires, a burned out head lamp, and no radio...

Last year I was told is that we were an 8 win team if it weren't for Fox and Clausen..

[Happy Panther]

The reality is we sucked on Sunday. This chicken little attitude says more about the posters then it does about Rivera or the team. If we continue to play poorly for the next 7 games, then you might have a point. Until then, this kind of conversation is ridiculous.

The whole team including the coaches are all inexperienced and learning. The only thing unexpected is that is took 9 games before we had a poor performance rather than right out of the chute. Really the biggest area of legitimate criticism right now are all the excessive penalties.

I'm not sure why we have to wait 7 more games before criticizing this team. We are 4-19 over the past 2 years. You are saying 4-26 is the magic time?

Rivera is not an inexperienced coach...

Penalties emanate from coaching...

[L-TownCat]

Last year I was told is that we were an 8 win team if it weren't for Fox and Clausen..

D/ST's bro, D/ST's.... its that easy. You do remember that big guy in the middle by the name of Beason right?

[Happy Panther]

D/ST's bro, D/ST's.... its that easy.

No it isn't.

Other teams win with injuries. Other teams win with most of the pieces but not all.

No team is made or broken by one player.

Except the Colts.

[twylyght]

No it isn't.

Other teams win with injuries. Other teams win with most of the pieces but not all.

No team is made or broken by one player.

Except the Colts.

Beason

Davis

Edwards

Two large pieces to our D, and another we were counting on to bring our rookie DTs along. Rookie DTs have gotten better play over time, but Edwards could have helped us pick up a couple earlier wins in the season while they got their feet. LB corps has been decimated by our losses... another possible two wins.

This last game I lay solely at the feet of our offense. After 9 min of ToP in the first quarter, they laid enough 3 and outs to let TN have the ball 27 of the next 45 minutes of the game. Our D was good enough to hold them to 16 points until TNs last drive showed how gassed our guys were.

Strength of Schedule differences between this year and last. This year we played NFC North outside our division, last year it was the NFC West AND AFC West. Any semblance of decent coaching would have gotten us at least 6 wins last year. I was a Fox supporter until he left, but last year left a horrible image in my mind.

What is more disturbing to me for this past performance was coming after a bye week. Good coaches would have had our team ready. Our guys on offense were simply flat.... ESPECIALLY the offensive line and special teams. Olsen also had his worst game of the year by far.

That said, I honestly think we have 6 winnable games remaining. NO will likely be resting their guys the last game. Houston is without Schaub. We can take it to TB and Atlanta if we bring our A game. Detroit will likely destroy us.

[jarhead]

well when SP lets the 1st punt get run back for a td it is a bit depressing.

[rayzor]

Say what you want about John Fox but the spirits were high even when the game plan sucked. With Rivera, they just seem to get down in the dumps and stay there.

ehhh....may want to check that.

no one likes losing. no one likes not having a chance.

the last couple years of fox this team really didn't have a chance and you can tell by listening and reading what players have said since fox left that they weren't really happy with the way fox was running things.

aside from this last week, they've had a chance every week and just barely lost. they may not be happy with losing and they may be frustrated, but i can promise you that they wouldn't go back to the way things were with fox.

rivera has a young team that is trying to find itself and they are were thrown in without a lot of time together. more than that, they have had a lot of things go wrong personnel-wise. it's been a clusterf*ck and rivera isn't to blame. he hasn't been perfect, but he isn't to blame. it's the first half in his first season as a head coach and he didn't have a full offseason to prepare with his players and he lost key ones early.

go ahead and start throwing blame at rivera, no offense, but i think you are being incredibly small minded in this regard.

he's an easy scapegoat for a season in which things really went badly. fox had quite a few years to move this team forward and he didn't. at least give rivera a full offseason with his team before you start throwing him under the bus.