Bright spots

preseason is practice, collin. once the season started, the panthers went 2-1. and in that loss to houston, jake put the panthers up 14-0 in a flash before the defense fell apart. quit freaking out.

the team doesn't have major problems on offense. it just needs to have it's starting qb back, find a reliable #2 WR and get some consistency.

i'm far more concerned about the defense.

 

LarryD, I don't know if you're just trying to piss me off or if your brain actually rotted from the sun in Florida, but your bullshit is nonsensical. Again, it does not matter whether or not you win in preseason, so no one was concerned about the team because of that. If you go back and read the threads, though, people were very much concerned about how bad the first team offense and defense looked. You can say all you want now about how that didn't matter, but you weren't saying it then, were you?

Once the season started we trailed in the third quarter and looked like we going to go down by double digits until Steven Jackson fumbled and Steve Smith took the very next play 68 yards. Then we had the Houston debacle where we did have the good first drive, but the second touchdown was only a result of the Texans turning the ball over on their own 13 yard line. We did absolutely nothing else on offense the rest of the game until Steve Smith took a short pass and broke seven tackles to reach the endzone about 65 yards later. And finally, we were tied 17-17 at Atlanta when Jake went down.

That's two close games against teams that started a combined 1-14, and a blowout home loss to a mediocre opponent.

Go back to taking pictures of sunsets because you don't have the slightest clue about football.

I'm plenty concerned about that too.

 

I believe.

 

all big IF's...ifs we havent been able to address for a number of years...

 

Yeah. I don't think the team as a whole having a letdown in the Houston game is necessarily schematic. I think it's a team having a disappointing (and certainly unneeded) letdown. This team has letdowns. There was some progress, and it was better than what came after it on the whole. If you see the first three games as an overall non-loss, you can expect we would've gotten better, not worse, overall.

The offense looked better in those three games than they did in the bulk of games after he went out, save a few situations. It's pretty safe to say that the line needs run blocking work, and a 2nd WR, and a very healthy QB. It probably won't cure all ails to have the three above, either.



I'm not actually that concerned about the defense. I'm worried about what's going on with Peppers, I'm worried about getting play around him on the DL good enough to make it matter less if he's not dominant, and I'm hoping the youth keeps growing. I think the back 7 has been, with normal bouts of consistency issues, good enough but not great.

 

The defense has some holes, but also some of our most talented youth. LB and CB are both strong, so if Peppers returns to form, I think we just need better production from the other end and a free safety. A situational pass rushing DT wouldn't hurt either. In fact, I'm just about ready to move Jenkins for a 2nd rounder and put Kemoeatu there so he can start earning some money. He's wasted where he is now.

 

collin, you are consistently disappointing.

i think it's unfortunate that you aren't smart enough to respond to people's posts without resorting to condescending language and profanity.

 

Please explain how moving from LT to RT would help Kemo. I assume this is some NT/UT thing. If so, I wouldnt think Kemo would be athletic enough to play UT.

 

Kemoeatu's issue isn't athleticism, it looks to be leverage, and then strength. If he were able to get in under someone's pads, we wouldn't be having this discussion, but he still might not be strong enough to hold the point of attack at times if the guard gets on him. He can get down the line when he reads the play away from him, so he can run for a big man. He's not a bad fit for the one gap, but the ideal that we're using him as a two gap type guy, I don't know if that's true.

Don't know if Collin's suggesting that we use him to shoot a gap like Jenkins, but I haven't seen Jenkins do that as much this year.


also, I don't think a change in our situational rush DTs would be a bad thing, but Lewis and Moorehead are supposed to be pass guys. Neither are great run penetrators, and I don't know where the early 2006 Damione Lewis went off to, but it'd be nice to have someone who can be more productive overall, and for that matter it'd be nice to have one guy who can come on the field and stop the run.

 

That has nothing to do with intelligence and you certainly know that. Smart people are probably angry and brusque at a far higher rate than the general population. In any case, how you respond to people has more to do with the value you place on them and their potential utility. For instance, if there was something I wanted from you then I would undoubtedly make a point to be "nicer."

The idea was that we acquired Kemoeatu in part to cover us if Jenkins was unable to make it back after missing two seasons due to injuries. They're not necessarily similar, but I do think it would be helpful to have someone quicker at LDT like we used to have with Buckner.