I am not worried about our offense, and you can too!

[teeray]

On August 25th 2011 at around 11:00pm I got a phone call from a friend.  He said, "I told you bro.  You wanted us to draft this guy, but I told you he was going to suck."

 

He was referring to Cam Newton who had just played against a stingy Bengals team in the third preseason game and went 6/19 (31%), our offense scored 1 TD that day, and that was only because the defense forced a turnover that gave us great field position.  As a matter of fact, the only reason we scored any points at all that day is because of two turnovers that our defense forced that gave us field position in Cincy territory, and a 48 yard kick return by Trent Guy.

 

By half time we were down 24-7 and the beginning of the second half Cincy pulled all their starters

 

I said to my friend, "It's preseason.  We are not really using Cam the way I envision they will use him in the regular season.  No read option, no screen game, no designed QB runs, etc.  He is going to be fine."

 

My friend responded, "It was preseason for Cincy too!  Andy Dalton went 11/17 and had a TD pass.  Preseason has nothing to do with accuracy"

 

At that point in time, with little to go on, I just said "Well, I guess we will see.  I hope you are wrong and I am right"

 

After that preseason Merrill Hoge had this to say:

 

Hoge said, “When you look at Cam Newton on a scale from one to 10 as far as athleticism he may be a 12. When you look at him as a quarterback he probably pushing around a four.”

 

Hoge continued on, saying, “Donovan McNabb would be a Kurt Warner compared to Cam Newton as far as accuracy goes.”

 

 

Then... low and behold, this happens

 

[PhillyB]

i'm not worried about cam newton, but i am for damn sure worried about the right side of our offensive line.

[csx]

The offense lived and died by Cam Newton's ability to make the big pass, big run, and fix broken plays. That't not what I want to see out of this team.

[mwright350]

I am worried about our Offense and Cam Newton has nothing to do with it.

 

I have faith in Cam just as much now as I always have.  He's flawed (not many perfect QBs in the league) but he's a damn good one to have standing back there.

 

I am worried about our Offense because I'm not certain they could block me.  It is honestly beyond me how they can be so big and NOT be able to get in someone's way.

 

To summarize: NOT worried about Cam but VERY worried about the Offense via the OLine.

[carolina-chuck]

Heard it already

[therealmjl]

Good post.

[therealmjl]

Heard it already

Great input!

[Peppers90 NC]

i dont believe most of us are worried about Cam, but more the offense as a whole.  We know Cam can be good but he has to have some help from his linemen and run game.

[Frank Hollywood]

Don't bring logic or optimism on this forum. It's frowned upon.

[teeray]

There are things we can do to slow down a pass rush, or take advantage of a pass rush, there are things we will do in run blocking that we haven't even shown yet.

 

Our offense was poo in the preseason in 2011, the offense that we run is susceptible to issues in the preseason style of defenses we see.  Even more so when you are not showing things that manipulate the defense.

 

Our offense has been among the best in the NFL these past two seasons, a couple of preseason games does not deter me from the belief that this offense will be good again.

 

You can't pass vertically very well when you are not utilizing play action, you won't slow down a pass rush without utilizing your screens, you won't stop defenses from collapsing on the runner unless you force them to have outside containment.

 

The offense you are seeing is not using the most important parts of this offense.  This isn't a dink and dunk offense that is tailor made for the preseason.

 

Gabbert went 13-16 last game, I don't think he is better than Cam or the the Jags will have a better offense.

 

 

 

[Kuech the Sneak]

I'm still not confident in them

[Keith Moons Liver]

The sad thing is, this post shows everything that is wrong about our offense. You are equating Cam Newton = the offense, which is effectively true but the point is it shouldn't be. People aren't worried about Cam, they are worried about the scrubs we have surrounded Cam with holding him back. 

 

 

[Rubi]

Does anyone miss chud right about now?

Even though he fell in love with the read option...our offense was damn explosive...

Not so sure Shula has the mind for a creative dynamic offense. But it's #preseason

[teeray]

The sad thing is, this post shows everything that is wrong about our offense. You are equating Cam Newton = the offense, which is effectively true but the point is it shouldn't be. People aren't worried about Cam, they are worried about the scrubs we have surrounded Cam with holding him back. 

 

It is not equating Cam = the offense.  But the QB is always a good barometer for offensive performance.  Doesn't mean it is all about the QB, a QB struggling/excelling is not always because of a QBs deficiencies or abilities, you have to watch the game for context.

 

But if a QB goes 6/19 the offense isn't playing well as a whole, even if the QB is not entirely to blame.

 

I was using Cam for the entire offensive performance in the preseason in 2011, not equating Cam as the whole offense.

 

And the major point is, this offense is fine and will be fine unless we decide to become a power run team and try to convert a bunch of 3 and 5+s.