161 yards rushing

You might get 141 rushing yards if you ran every down, but we did not run every down. There were 22 pass plays called.

Remember the MNF opener in 2004. Green Bay averaged less than 4.0 per carry, but they grinded us down, in my opinion. We couldn't get them off the field on third down. Panthers were 8-17 on third down yesterday, due in large part to the persistance of the running game.

Hey, I'm with ya. I would like to see us rush for 200 yards on 40 attempts. But it sure is a helluva lot better than last week, or many of our other contests in 2005.

 

We ran 43 times, and therefore the amount of yardage we did get means we weren't very effective. The problem is that fans and even the media tend to be simple-minded when they look at things. They look at a number like 161 and think our running game was awesome against the Saints when it was very far from that. We still need a lot of improvement.

I do, and if you had been around then you would have noticed that I was on this board telling people to shut up and quit panicking about our run defense because we actually did a good job against Ahman Green. Of course, one difference between that game and this game is that Green Bay was successfull when running it in the red zone.

Actually that's not true. Only three of our third down conversions were on the ground (two by Hoover, one by Foster) and all were for three yards or less (meanwhile we had 4 failures on the ground). The real difference is that we did a better job converting through the air this week.

 

Like I said, it's not where we wanna be with it. But I will take 40 for 140 over 13 for 35.

 

Two things that drove me nuts-

1. Removing Foster from the game (and yes, I am assuming that he did not re-aggrivate anything). It was still a ballgame, and he is our best back.

2. Fox opting for the 50-yard FG up by 14, rather than taking a delay and pinning them deep. On that surface, from 50, I don't trust Kasay. It was an irresponsible decision. Fortunately, Lucas bailed us out.

 

fixed

 

Up 17....my bad. But I still think it was a poor decision.

 

Honestly I think it was as much an attempt to give Kasay confidence as anything else. I doubt Fox was really concerned about the Saints coming back at that point. I wasn't.

 

It wasn't so much about my fear of them coming back, as much as it was about Kasay kicking a 50-yarder on that field. But shit, they drove to the goalline, and pissed it away. I just would have opted to try a punt, pin them inside their 10, and try to force a turnover deep, or at least a three-and-out. The missed field goal appeared to give their offense a good deal of momentum.

A successful FGA would have put the lead at 20. A punt would have sustained a 17 point lead. They still needed three scores. The reward did not match the risk, IMO. But, hey, it all worked out.

 

At the end of the day, the running game was productive. But I don't think it was effective enough in the second half, as we struggled to keep possession of the ball. This, to me, is the major difference between the '03 Panthers and the '05 Panthers. Back then, we could melt the clock if we needed to, or at least avoid 3 and outs. We have not been able to do that this year, and it bothers me.

I will say that we were commited to it and we were able to set up some easier 3rd down situations. But I still think we're underachieving.

 

For those who say the Saints gave up late in the game which is why we got good yardage I think it is also safe to say that late in the game they were stacking for the run. When you are burning clock you aren't trying to break long ones every down. What is more important to me is how many of our 3rd down rushing attempts resulted in a first down. That is whats important to establish a credible running game.