Pep status?

Anybody hear anything on Peppers, whose injury obviously has him far off his ability to cut inside? Panthers can't afford to let that statue the Cowboys play at QB have as much time to throw as Bouman had.

 

on News2 in Greensboro last night they were already saying he was doubtful for the Cowboys - which I found odd since no one on here was even talking about him being hurt

 

I think he's been playing through ankle/leg trouble all year and that the preseason injury was something major. But it was concerning that he had BOTH legs iced Sunday. I think he plays - Fox will play his usual games right up till game time.

 

I wonder if there's any consideration that we can beat the Cowboys without him (given how awful their tackles are), so we're resting him up for what could be a critical match-up against Atlanta? Probably not, but it makes for a good conspiracy. Personally I wouldn't mind letting him sit and hope that a week off does him some good.

 

And pray Wallace looks better than against Tampa

 

Wallace wasn't that bad against Tampa. People made that out to be more than it was because they were looking for a scapegoat when the truth is that the Buccaneers just out-coached, out-played, and out-worked us.

 

All of the above happened, but there's no doubt that Wallace was man-handled. I don't know that anyone was excusing the rest of the team for Wallace's play. Witherspoon deserves some mention for biting on so many of those counter plays (also a problem first half of 04 for him), but much of the run problem was Wallace and he got little pressure. Personally, I think too many people undervalue how Rucker plays the run, and in general.

 

I would just as soon Peppers not play against the Vicks. They are dirty and will cut block him again if they get a chance. I think we can beat Dallas without him. Play Thomas Davis as a blitzing linebacker to make up for the loss of Peppers pressure on Bledsoe.

 

I'd like to see if he could at least be situational this week. Guess we have an approximate case study to use with Rucker's ankle - see how he's responding to the week off.

I'll say this, though, I don't think I want Peppers out running down passes unless he's 100% healthy. Still, if he can draw that much attention just by Jake looking his way, and he can jog through the motions, it might not be awful.


Dallas' line is awful. We might be able to get pressure without Pep fulltime. Then again, we don't need a ton of outside rush to get Vick, but stopping the run is necessary with Atlanta.



Speaking of Thomas Davis, I gotta say that when we go with the nickel lineup with he and Morgan, where they both lineup faking the blitz and then fan out at 45s on the snap:

why? It's never worked, it's gotten abused, and teams look like they could pick it up anyway. Plus, with either player, you want them to get a run on the QB and blow a gap, rather than try to accelerate through the line from a dead stop at the line.

 

If Peppers is indeed inactive this week, I wonder if Haye will see some decent playing time.