One step forward, two steps back. The story of the Carolina Panthers.

[TheRed]

tl;dr. y'all act like the hiring of shula and we're done. worst case scenario we tank next year and hire a brand new staff. holy poo i'm tired of y'all complaining.

We've tanked 13 seasons already.

Take that we'll get em' next year poo to Cleveland or Buffalo if that's your idea of a good time.

[rayzor]

I wish we didn't need reassuring threads every year because questionable decisions were made once again.

Well I'm just going to do what every other Panther fan does and hope it works out. Seems that's all we ever have.

if decisions have to be defended and excuses made, it's probably warranted.

the reason for my departure from my normal, natural, and more comfortable homer posting and viewpoint is that i've just grown weary of the same old song and dance. we lose most of our games for 2/3 of the season, enough to eliminate us from playoff contention and then see the team turn around and finally get their poo together making you believe that next year things will be a continuing of the impressive play at the end of the season....only to see them make yet another regression.

i don't know that shula is any better of a play caller than chud. it's hard for me to see that we haven't taken a step backward. chud's just had more success than shula and he's had more experience doing it...even in san diego he was doing it. it's not that i think chud is all that great at play calling either, i just don't see shula as being an upgrade at all.

the most optimistic view point of any but the most blind homers will be that we maintain what was being done at the end of last year. i don't know of any actual critical thinkers who expect us to be better than we were at the end of the season. most are just thinking that we won't go backward.

i'm sorry if that's just not enough for me anymore.

[CardiacCats]

We've tanked 13 seasons already.

Take that we'll get em' next year poo to Cleveland or Buffalo if that's your idea of a good time.

I'm just saying have some confidence. Shula could do an amazing job, we have the pieces to be good next year. Am I sold on the coaching staff yet? No but let's not surrender already

[rayzor]

unfortunately i have felt this way every season since 2008 when we re-signed moose and inflated the offensive line and drafted jonathan stewart.

with the exception of 2010, yeah, i'm in the same boat. even when i started wanting fox fired in '07 i always believed that we could make it into the playoffs. i've just given up. it's not a lack of faith in cam and kuechly...it's a lack of faith in the coaches.

[Ivan The Awesome]

if decisions have to be defended and excuses made, it's probably warranted.

the reason for my departure from my normal, natural, and more comfortable homer posting and viewpoint is that i've just grown weary of the same old song and dance. we lose most of our games for 2/3 of the season, enough to eliminate us from playoff contention and then see the team turn around and finally get their poo together making you believe that next year things will be a continuing of the impressive play at the end of the season....only to see them make yet another regression.

i don't know that shula is any better of a play caller than chud. it's hard for me to see that we haven't taken a step backward. chud's just had more success than shula and he's had more experience doing it...even in san diego he was doing it. it's not that i think chud is all that great at play calling either, i just don't see shula as being an upgrade at all.

the most optimistic view point of any but the most blind homers will be that we maintain what was being done at the end of last year. i don't know of any actual critical thinkers who expect us to be better than we were at the end of the season. most are just thinking that we won't go backward.

i'm sorry if that's just not enough for me anymore.

Chud was the TE's coach in SD, he didn't do any play calling there if I'm not mistaken. Also, Chud's success was directly linked to Cam's skills.

I never said Shula is an upgrade but for what it's worth, it's not a down grade when he's been around Cam and this offense for the past two years. Like I said, I see it as a lateral move. Not backwards but not forwards, sometimes taking a side step works. Trust me I wasn't thrilled about the Shula hiring at first. Still not, but it isn't Jeff Davidson or Shurmur, which would really have put me on edge to be honest.

The other off season moves have been forward progress. Gettleman, getting skipper back. I see that as positives. Gettleman is a football guy, this is going to be his first draft and with his knack of finding diamonds in the late rounds or off practice squads. I feel really good man. It's a process and it will take time.

The notion of making the playoffs this coming year isn't mine. It's not that I don't believe we won't make the playoffs, it's that the competition in the NFC is fierce and we may go 10-6 and miss the playoffs.

In hindsight we're a couple of positions away from the playoffs. We have our Franchise QB. Not a lot of teams can say that. That's the foundation. Now it's time to add the missing pieces.

[teeray]

I understand the point people are trying to make about our offense early in the season. But for some reason it is a weird pet peeve of mine when people say we ran the "read option" as a base offense. It isn't a type of offense it is a type of play.

It shouldn't annoy me, and I understand what you are trying to say, but for some reason it bugs the poo out of me.

Not really directed at you Ivan and I like the OP and agree with just about everything you said. But about 1,000 people have said this and for some reason (that I can't figure out) it makes me pull my hair out and I have so little to spare. :(

[fieryprophet]

I understand the point people are trying to make about our offense early in the season. But for some reason it is a weird pet peeve of mine when people say we ran the "read option" as a base offense. It isn't a type of offense it is a type of play.

It shouldn't annoy me, and I understand what you are trying to say, but for some reason it bugs the poo out of me.

Not really directed at you Ivan and I like the OP and agree with just about everything you said. But about 1,000 people have said this and for some reason (that I can't figure out) it makes me pull my hair out and I have so little to spare. :(

How about. . .we ran the read option a lot more than necessary?

[Ivan The Awesome]

I understand the point people are trying to make about our offense early in the season. But for some reason it is a weird pet peeve of mine when people say we ran the "read option" as a base offense. It isn't a type of offense it is a type of play.

It shouldn't annoy me, and I understand what you are trying to say, but for some reason it bugs the poo out of me.

Not really directed at you Ivan and I like the OP and agree with just about everything you said. But about 1,000 people have said this and for some reason (that I can't figure out) it makes me pull my hair out and I have so little to spare. :(

Could have fooled me. Every game I viewed, I saw a lot of the cute gimmick option plays. Maybe it was more than it should have. Excessive at times. The Giants game in particular. My god...MY GOD! I was pulling my hairs out in that game seeing that JPP was figuring out everything and yet we STILL went back to that read option.

[fieryprophet]

Could have fooled me. Every game I viewed, I saw a lot of the cute gimmick option plays. Maybe it was more than it should have. Excessive at times. The Giants game in particular. My god...MY GOD! I was pulling my hairs out in that game seeing that JPP was figuring out everything and yet we STILL went back to that read option.

The Giants had the perfect read option killer in that game: JPP. Having an uber-athletic lineman that can attack the mesh point directly and still be fast enough to recover to either option completely blew that play up. We actually had decent production when we ran it against Matthias Kiwanuka, but JPP wrecked it for us.

[teeray]

Could have fooled me. Every game I viewed, I saw a lot of the cute gimmick option plays. Maybe it was more than it should have. Excessive at times. The Giants game in particular. My god...MY GOD! I was pulling my hairs out in that game seeing that JPP was figuring out everything and yet we STILL went back to that read option.

The Giants had the perfect read option killer in that game: JPP. Having an uber-athletic lineman that can attack the mesh point directly and still be fast enough to recover to either option completely blew that play up. We actually had decent production when we ran it against Matthias Kiwanuka, but JPP wrecked it for us.

The Giants game is always an interesting game for me to look back on. We struggled offensively, there is no doubt about that, however, it also gets overlooked that we had exactly zero three and outs that game, and moved the ball quite well. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers and untimely penalties.

It was just a weird game.

The actual game that I thought the read option plays were completely blown up was the first Tampa game.

[KillerKat]

Agree with everything except that promoting Shula and Rodgers is a step back.

[fieryprophet]

The Giants game is always an interesting game for me to look back on. We struggled offensively, there is no doubt about that, however, it also gets overlooked that we had exactly zero three and outs that game, and moved the ball quite well. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot with turnovers and untimely penalties.

It was just a weird game.

The actual game that I thought the read option plays were completely blown up was the first Tampa game.

There was also the fact that our defense was getting wrecked as well, turning Ramses Barden and. . .I can't even remember the other guy's name, lol, into one-game megastars. In retrospect I think it's obvious that the whole team was tight and flat for their "moment in the spotlight."

[Ivan The Awesome]

Agree with everything except that promoting Shula and Rodgers is a step back.

Totally forgot about Rodgers staying at ST. You're right, that's a step backwards.

[fieryprophet]

Totally forgot about Rodgers staying at ST. You're right, that's a step backwards.

Our special teams went from abysmal to decent once Rodgers took over. Getting Dave Toub or April would have been stellar, but I'm not unhappy he's the guy.