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Take aways from this game

lightsout

By lightsout,
in Carolina Panthers

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lightsout Grand Master

lightsout

Posted
Posted

Well, this was awful. No defense. Sputtering offense that showed glimpses at times, but couldn't sustain a drive if a baby koala bear's life depended on it. What can you say, really? Well, there was SOME good in this game, believe it or not. Sadly, the bad was just way too much to overcome.

Offense:

Cam played average. This isn't a good thing. He was not average by Cam standards. He was average by 2nd year QB standards. He's not a typical 2nd year QB. He's special. We all know this. The team knows this. The coaching staff knows this. HE knows this. Yet, he only played average. Part of that was due to him playing out of a 20+ point whole virtually the entire game. Part of that was the OL making him run for his life for much of the game or rush throws. Part of that was never being able to really run the ball, due to the deficit. And, of course, part was play calling. Not enough underneath stuff to move methodically. The RBs looked OK, but we didn't have the luxury of running as much this week, so they couldn't shine like they are able to. Everybody is going to look at the 3 picks, but let's shut up and think for a second. Pick 1, just off target, Unfortunate, but not terrible. One of those "don't do that again" type of plays. Pick 2, awful decision. 3 men in the area, yet he threw it. No excuse there. Last pick, pressing to score in garbage time, not really thinking. A score there is just morale boosting. Doesn't change the overall outcome. He had tipped balls all night and not enough easy throws like Manning had. Just a bad, unfortunate night. Need to get it fixed.

Defense:

Nothing good here. Nothing. Some good plays here and there in coverage, but just not enough when we needed it. It's like we don't have our heads on a swivel in coverage. We just sit in our zones and eye the QB. That's it. Guys running wide open. 8 years of separation pre-snap. YOU CAN'T WIN LIKE THAT! No pressure all night, save for a couple hurries and 1 sack. Just piss poor all around. I don't even need to mention run D. This was an absolute embarrassment. Forget it as far as an embarrassment to Charlotte and the team, or to the NFL. This was an embarrassment to football.

Special Teams:

Nothing special. Nothing at all. Stupid mistakes, average play. Good punts. It's sad that the only positive is good punts. All I need to say here.

Effort:

We tried. You can't say the offense didn't fight until the last real drive. Smitty, Olsen, Tolbert, Cam, they all busted their asses. Cam looked like a man on a mission on that TD drive. Smitty was Smitty. Sadly, you don't win games on effort and attitude alone. If the defense played as pumped up as our offense, we might do something. The offense looks proud and confident, the defense just looks like it has no idea what it is doing.

Overall:

We have a week and a half to prepare for Atlanta. McDermott shouldn't sleep for more than 4 days in that time period. He needs to be watching film and preparing every second of every day. NO excuse to get torched like we did tonight. Cam needs to correct his mistakes (yes, he made some) and come back with a "clean slate" mentality. The rest of the guys can't give up hope. The reality is we are just 1-2. A LOT of GOOD teams are 1-2. We played the defending SB champs. Sure, sounds like an excuse, but it's a reality. They're a damn good team. We have to respond positively to this though. Don't sulk in it, learn from it and move forward.

The season is young, friends! Don't lose hope! Don't get too doom and gloom! Every team has it's peaks and valleys. We have to move forward both as a team and a fan base and stay positive. One game at a time. Take the rest of the night and tomorrow to lick our wounds collectively, and then, come Saturday, lets regroup, refocus, and get after Atlanta!

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Snake Grand Master

Snake

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Im sorry but what happened tonight was why they are SB champs and we are a 6-10 team. Too many people had high expectations in this game just like every prime time game. With that said I hope we find a new DC soon because our defense has not gotten any better and it should have.... Rivera might want to think about taking over the defense himself because playcalling was horrible. YOU DONT LET a SB MVP sit in the pocket. No WAY no HOW.

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tiger7_88 Experienced

tiger7_88

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Kuechly and Alexander played well (IMO).

Joe Adams was hot garbage.

The OL was hot garbage.

The DL (sans Alexander) was hot garbage.

The LB (sans Kuechly) were hot garbage.

The secondary... well, I think I'll give them an incomplete since they were being asked to cover for about a minute or two at a time. Were they good? No. But was it all their fault? Signs point to no.

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lightsout Grand Master

lightsout

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@atlanta, vs Seattle, vs dallas, at Chicago, at Washington. Yeah so glad this season is "young." we have no chance.

Don't get ahead of yourself. As a former football player (and I'm sure MANY of us here are), the one thing your told by any coach worth his salt is to not focus on ANYTHING on the schedule besides the next one. Yes, we have a tough schedule. Bitching about it and acting like a goddamn child without a toy on Christmas will do NOTHING productive.

The rest of the responses were valid, if a bit pessimistic. I'm just as pissed (and half drunk) as anybody, but poo people. Go back and watch the film. We did some good things offensively. We didn't finish drives. 2 ST fumbles. 3 interceptions. 2 sacks. Those all contributed to this, and those are things you cannot afford to do against good teams. Take those away, give us those plays back, the outcome is still probably the same (MAYBE we get another scoring drive to hit double digit points). The defense played like poo. Beason arm tackling on a no-name RB? UNACCEPTABLE! Kuechly was the only bright spot besides Alexander and the few good secondary plays (like Norman in the endzone, or Capt on the knockdown of the slant on a big 3rd down). We have to get off the field on 3rd down. No reason for cushion for the receivers like that.

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lightsout Grand Master

lightsout

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This is the Morale victory part of what Zod was saying.

Sure, moral victories don't mean much. However, focusing on the bad and doing this "woe is me" crap is pathetic. This is football. Adjusting to the season and fixing your problems throughout the season is a large part of the game! In a loss, you have to accept your flaws, fix them, and look at whatever positives are there for reassurance that it will be OK if you just fix the problems. It's motivation to correct the issues. It's necessary.

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