The Stakes Have Been Raised For Cam

[fieryprophet]

Kalil's injury means far more than losing a Pro Bowl center, it means that the offensive line calls and audibles will now fall entirely on Cam, whereas Cam and Kalil shared those responsibilities before. The already struggling running game will likely be hampered even more, and teams will bring pressure even more than before. Furthermore, Steve Smith has backslid a bit towards his prima-donna ways, starting with the overblown public shaming of Cam, and continuing with his seeming disinterest in getting open in favor of scrapping with defensive backs.

The silver lining is that this should force Chud to ditch the cutesy plays and get back to offensive basics.

This season has set itself up to magnify everything about our franchise quarterback, and how he responds and how this team responds to him will resonate far beyond this season. Whether he's ready or not, Cam is going to have to lead this team. There's no one else.

I believe Cam's going to get it done.

[TheRed]

If Rivera doesn't pimp slap Chud and tell him to get his head out of his ass, Cam is f*cked no matter what.

[mwright350]

The silver lining is that this should force Chud to ditch the cutesy plays and get back to offensive basics.

I hope this is the case, I really do, but I don't believe it to be true.

I think he will continue to try to run this read option based scheme we've been trying to run all year so far. He may even try to get cuter to "fool" defenses now that the anchor of our OLine is gone.

I am worried.

[Peppers90 NC]

i would say the stakes are raised since he is being out-performed by FOUR rookie QB's.

[mwright350]

i would say the stakes are raised since he is being out-performed by FOUR rookie QB's.

Which doesn't really mean much of anything honestly. Cam is being hurt by this stupid system as much as by anything else.

I dislike comparing players in the same position on different teams for a lot of reasons but this is the primary one (the same reason I can't stand having wins / losses blamed on one player). Who's to say if you brought one of those rookie QBs in here they're doing any better with that they're being given? Or that Cam doesn't do better in one of their systems?

That's a poor comparison.

[mwright350]

If Rivera doesn't pimp slap Chud and tell him to get his head out of his ass, Cam is f*cked no matter what.

Rivera doesn't strike me as the pimp slapping type.

Maybe we just don't see what we need to see because he's deliberately trying to hide it from the public but I wouldn't count on it.

[Peppers90 NC]

Which doesn't really mean much of anything honestly. Cam is being hurt by this stupid system as much as by anything else.

I dislike comparing players in the same position on different teams for a lot of reasons but this is the primary one (the same reason I can't stand having wins / losses blamed on one player). Who's to say if you brought one of those rookie QBs in here they're doing any better with that they're being given? Or that Cam doesn't do better in one of their systems?

That's a poor comparison.

what is poor is so many of you posters are giving Cam a pass and blaming on play calling and not even considering execution. That is lazy at best.

Play calling makes Cam fumble.

Play calling makes Cam throw ints.

Play calling makes Cam throw balls into the dirt.

whatever

Dislike it all you want, I wasn't even comparing him. He is being outperformed, period.

[King Taharqa]

Cameron will play better, he has to. This is all part of the learning process and growth as a NFL QB.

[rayzor]

what is poor is so many of you posters are giving Cam a pass and blaming on play calling and not even considering execution. That is lazy at best.

Play calling makes Cam fumble.

Play calling makes Cam throw ints.

Play calling makes Cam throw balls into the dirt.

whatever

Dislike it all you want, I wasn't even comparing him. He is being outperformed, period.

true. he'll get better, but he's got a good bit of room for improvement that isn't on the coaching staff.

they aren't off the hook, but cam shouldn't be either.

[mwright350]

what is poor is so many of you posters are giving Cam a pass and blaming on play calling and not even considering execution. That is lazy at best.

Play calling makes Cam fumble.

Play calling makes Cam throw ints.

Play calling makes Cam throw balls into the dirt.

whatever

I've bolded the part of my statement that addresses your statement which you've completely ignored below:

Cam is being hurt by this stupid system

as much as by anything else.

This does not mean "every problem Cam has is the fault of our playcalling". This does not mean "Our coaches are responsible for everything Cam does wrong". This does not mean "Cam has a pass for everything he does wrong because fug the world brah".

This means that there is more than one thing causing Cam's problems and that comparing him to other QBs in a vacuum is not accurate or fair. Cam owns responsibility for his mistakes but Cam does not own responsibility for the offensive playcalling or for the situational / schematic things that are causing him to have declined numbers / performance either.

Yes he can perform better - that's a perfectly fine statement. He should be and he has room to improve. No comparing him to QBs in other systems with different OLines and different teams around them is not.

Jesus christ.

[Peppers90 NC]

I've bolded the part of my statement that addresses your statement which you've completely ignored below:

Cam is being hurt by this stupid system

as much as by anything else.

This does not mean "every problem Cam has is the fault of our playcalling". This does not mean "Our coaches are responsible for everything Cam does wrong". This does not mean "Cam has a pass for everything he does wrong because fug the world brah".

This means that there is more than one thing causing Cam's problems and that comparing him to other QBs in a vacuum is not accurate or fair. Cam owns responsibility for his mistakes but Cam does not own responsibility for the offensive playcalling or for the situational / schematic things that are causing him to have declined numbers / performance either.

Yes he can perform better - that's a perfectly fine statement. He should be and he has room to improve. No comparing him to QBs in other systems with different OLines and different teams around them is not.

Jesus christ.

ok so your feelings are hurt that he is being out performed by at least three, possibly four rookies. it's okay, we know how good Cam can be and he will get there again. everything starts with the QB in football, it always has and always will. good qb's make their team mates better, and our team, especially the offense, sucks right now. i'm not giving anyone a pass, players or coaches, and especially not Cam.

[fieryprophet]

Cam doesn't want or need a pass. He'll play better, because he's fuggin' Ace Boogie.

[rayzor]

ok so your feelings are hurt that he is being out performed by at least three, possibly four rookies. it's okay, we know how good Cam can be and he will get there again. everything starts with the QB in football, it always has and always will. good qb's make their team mates better, and our team, especially the offense, sucks right now. i'm not giving anyone a pass, players or coaches, and especially not Cam.

100% agreed with that bolded part.

one thing with cam that is esp. true, he has one of the most infectious personalities there are. if he's feeling like he can beat anyone, the whole team will feel that way. if he's feeling like crap, he's going to be bringing the team down with him.

as cam goes, so goes the team.

[mwright350]

ok so your feelings are hurt that he is being out performed by at least three, possibly four rookies. it's okay, we know how good Cam can be and he will get there again. everything starts with the QB in football, it always has and always will. good qb's make their team mates better, and our team, especially the offense, sucks right now. i'm not giving anyone a pass, players or coaches, and especially not Cam.

It has nothing to do with who's out performing him because I could give a poo who's outperforming anyone on our team. I care how our team is performing as it relates to our record and how they're capable of performing. Nothing more. I've never bought into "dude look how much better this other guy(s) is doing" because it doesn't matter and it's incredibly difficult to accurately represent either side of that comparison.

He needs to play better. That's not up for debate. My only issue was that it simply doesn't matter how anyone else in the league is playing at ALL and that how they're playing has no bearing on whether the stakes for Cam are raised. Clearly they are...a lot more is about to be on his shoulders because Kalil is out.

I think this team is, from top to bottom, in SUCH a shambles that picking out any one part of it and using anyone on any other team as a metric is silly. Our team, as a whole, is terrible. The parts of our team that are less terrible are made to look even more terrible that they would normally because in the NFL terribleness is contagious and additive. This could be about our DBs (who ARE completely terrible), our DLine, our LBs, it doesn't particularly matter - I'd have the same feeling about it.

My feelings on why our team is terrible from top to bottom right now are another story entirely.