The U-Turn

Call it piling-on, or self-destructive, or just plain insane.

I caught the 2004 Panthers Yearbook on HULU last night. It's always one I look back on from time to time, particularly when our team is not doing so well.

You notice, when watching that film, the amount of veterans that were on the field, despite the 15+ key players on IR. Some of those veterans were below-average (Tylski, Willig, etc), but that team had some presence.

At the same time, there was a revolving door, much like 2010, of foreign faces. Jamal Broussard, Eddie Jackson, Micah Ross, Jamal Robertson, Brandon Bennett. Some of these guys were vets too, but not vets in terms of the things they were asked to do.

The schedule softened up after the 7th loss. Ironically, it was a 34-point second-half explosion vs. San Francisco that broke the losing streak and ignited the winning streak. From there, we beat Arizona (handily), Tampa (hilariously), New Orleans (embarrassingly), and St. Louis (solidly).

The NFC's makeup in 2010 reminds me a lot of that of 2004. Only one really strong team (Atlanta), and a rotation of decent teams, all jockeying for 8-9 wins.

Right now, there's no hope, because there's no offense. There's been no sign of offense since last December.

The question here, is, does this team have enough character and talent (collectively) in the tank to put together a winning streak? For me, the talent side is not a major concern--it's the continuity and timing.

Timing is essential in the passing game, more so than any other phase of the game. Moore has shown good connectivity with Smith, and others, on short notice in the past. Clausen has only shown that he is entirely too young and green to be the starter on an offense with three very good HB's, a bona fide #1 receiver, TE's who have ability, and a typically productive offensive line.

The quarterback is always the foundation of a team. I don't care what anyone says. When your quarterback is failing, and not showing any type of leadership in the process, it crumbles the entire unit. I don't believe our once solid running game and once solid offensive line decided to suck overnight, and we did quite well without Otah for a small stretch in 2008.

I feel bad, because I was one of the fools in the stands at the Tampa game that got excited about Moore's benching. And there wasn't really a fan-chant going on in that game. It was kind of a stunner to the crowd when it happened. JC moved them on that drive, and we failed to score from inside the 3. Is that JC's fault? No.

This is more of a reflection on the first 5 weeks of what has been a painful season as a fan, but it's also a reality check of what causes these issues to permeate. Your quarterback, offensively, is like a pro golfer's short game. If you play poorly in that area, you press in other areas, because you know you have to be almost perfect off the tee and on the approach to have any chance.

Same is true with Clausen. Our offense's margin for error becomes razor thin with every miscue he is responsible for. From there, the offensive line loses their focus, receivers do not run proper routes and the running backs ultimately suffer as a result of this set of chain-reaction failures.

San Francisco is a damn good 0-5 team, and has shown a much higher level of big-play ability on offense than has Carolina. But their QB, for all his faults, is not a 20-year old child. He's been in the NFL since 2005, and had played good games, bad games, and indifferent games. Clausen has played 3 full games, all losses, all littered with miscues of his own doing that cost the entire team opportunities to win games.

For the sake of keeping this 2010 team together, supporting the defense and giving Fox (who has served this city admirably over the past decade) a spark, Moore must return to the lineup.

Moore must also spend more time than he has ever spent in his life working with every receiver that has a chance of suiting up in 2 weeks. I would say those would include: 12, 87, 80, 11, 10, and the TE group. Moore's problem has never been fumbling from under center, or botching hand-offs to capable backs.

In fact, Moore had one purely terrible game: the season opener in 2010. But, as we've seen with Joe Flacco and Carson Palmer, it happens. Neither QB was pulled, as both have more experience under their belts, but it’s reflective of how bad games happen, and not just under center for your hometown team.

It's all about timing, continuity and rhythm. Those elements impact the two most important factors for a successful offense: (1) Scoring points and (2) Limiting giveaways.

Otah sounds better, from what is reported. Davis, I have no question he is going to fight anyone in his way to come back into the lineup. That alone could propel our defense to another level. Smith, who remains a violently-competitive asset to the offense, should be back in a month.

The likely scenario, seeing what lies ahead, is a very slow improvement curve offensively, and limited wins. The likely scenario, down 17-3 at halftime vs. SFO in 2004 with a 1-7 record was 1-15. That team looked so bad, so hopeless, that there was no reason to believe another win was remotely possible.

There are 11 more games--important games, to play. There are goals that can still be reached. It will be hard. It will require the offense to sustain drives, not turn the ball over, and score touchdowns.

I'll be interested, unlike many who have begun the boycott, to see what Fox is really made of--and what this team, many of whom were on a 12-4 playoff team 24 months ago, are made of.

Fox always said he likes roller coasters. Almost every season has been one. Here's to a little hope that this season ascends--even for a week or two.

 

It's wednesday in a bye week. time to put down the shotgun and reconsider.

 

Dan Morgan is the world's first "male lesbian"

 

I emailed this shit to my good friend and colleague Darin Gantt. Hope he marks it up and makes some corrections, but with a pen filled with blood from his wife's cunt--blood that was induced from Moose ripping it wide open like a telephone pole shoved into a hole at Putt-Putt.

You know, just two journalistic professionals of similar ilk, discussing the business.

 

He was about to ask if the press conference was over.

 

LOFL.

Sigh. I still love Morgan. I never got into the calling him a pussy thing. He got hurt too much, which is a shame, because if he stays healthy, he's a HOF Panther God. I believe this. He'da been the best thing we had, man.

I loved Sam Mills talking to him..."that's what getting us, if we can just get there"-

Morgan interrupts-

"I'll get there!"

And motherfuckin' Morgan brought it when it counted. The Superbowl, he did his part to bring us a championship.

I'll always be a Dan Morgan fan, whatevz.

 

The thing I don't get at all is the snap problems Clausen had, but if it had been my choice he'd not have been thrown in there anyway.

From the jump, in preseason, we saw a bunch of pre snap snafus, from the vets. Was it preseason or regular where we had a red zone 1st and had three flags in a row, or three of four plays? Anyway....

That isn't something I'd normally put on the QB. The "we're gonna suck" signs were there.

People talk about the youth all the time but it's our vets that really have let us down. Freaking Joe Montana couldn't win with guys doing the shit our vets did.

That's not to say the QB's haven't sucked, they have at times, horribly, but as Abusive said, plenty of established guys have horrible games every now and then. I don't believe anyone of any football intelligence believed Moore was gonna carry us.

 

The QB is the guiding light, or in this case, a deep, dark rectum.

So goes your QB's confidence, goes your team's. The defense, for what they're being handed, are playing their goddamned balls off. Special Teams have been better than last year, and average overall.

But our QB play, particularly from Clausen, has been (as B&B says) historically bad. I mean, the interceptions will happen. But this many fumbles, clock management issues, burned timeouts, miscommunications. It fucking sucks, and it's because stupid ass Fox got a hunch and put a kid in who wasn't ready.