Panthers v Jets game thread..

If T.O. was out there right now, would anyone want him here? I would.

 

No, why make a bad preseason into a shitty post-year drama?

The defense is certainly suprising, which is good.

 

We're so under the radar this year that everyone (media wise) is talking about how horrible the Jets played! No credit given to our D at all!

 

Looks good on paper, but TO would have a melt-down in this locker room.




















































...and I'll take the under on the Smitty K.O.

 

so I missed the game. Here's what I understand>

Brown had two sacks
we had good defense overall (despite seeing us giving up a 20 yard run to Tomlinson)
we dropped three punts and gave one long one up

our QBs were crap

our WRs were crap

what else?

 

That one TopCat with blond hair has implants.

 

the big thing is special teams looked worse. that, and edwards is godawful.

 

Finally had a chance to watch the game last weekend.

DL
Brown is getting there, but he still needs to get stronger and learn to use torque and leverage better. He'll smoke lesser OTs in the league. Hardy looks like a man among boys against the scrubs. Eric Moore is getting over-hyped. Charles Johnson hasn't improved like I thought he would, and that's worrisome.

Ed Johnson looked pretty good in the middle, as did Tyler. Leonard doesn't look like he's 100% yet. Landri is okay in rotation, as is Hayden, but I'd hate to have to depend on them starting.

LB
Norwood looked tentative to me, and got lost in traffic a bit. Connor was okay between the tackles, but lacks Beason's speed in pursuit. Beason looked to me about how Gantt and others have described him in training camp -- exceptional player, but not as good as TD, and not as good as he is in the middle. The depth looks pretty suspect. Really suspect, actually.

DB
Gamble is the best DB on the roster, hands down. Godfrey and Martin look decent at safety. Marshall looks solid, despite his brief holdout. Munnerlyn just keeps getting better, and may very well make Marshall expendable. C.J. Wilson is the same as he's always been -- shows flashes of being good, but also shows brain farts and disappears. Pugh made some plays, but the rest looked like the scrubs they are. JMO.

OL
Gross is rusty as hell. And I have a feeling that the umpire being on the other side of the field is going to bite him (and us) all season long. Kalil and Wharton look good. Schwartz looked good enough to start at RT if Otah needs more time, just like he did at the end of last season. I thought Bernadeau looked a little hot-and-cold, but okay at RG. Besides Schwartz, we've got serious issues in depth, though. Robinson shows some potential, but the rest are just god-awful.

TE
Same old, same old. Barnidge looks improved.

RB
34 is still awesome. Goodson looked okay, but I still like Sutton better.

FB
Fiametta learned quick. Definitely more athletic than Hoov, and I have a hunch he'll get more balls thrown his way than any FB has since Seifert left.

WR
Nobody really stepped up and looked like a starter, which is disturbing to say the least. Jarrett looked better, but like Parker said, he always looks like he's moving in slow motion. K. Moore showed some flashes but not enough to be encouraged. Gettis isn't ready for prime time yet. Lafell looks to me like he's afraid to get hit. I saw some of the same things in this game I saw watching film of him against Arkansas -- dropping a LOT of very catchable balls in traffic. He's not the all-world blocker he's been billed to be, either. So far, Edwards can run a fairly decent crossing route, but that's it. Really. If I never see him attempt to field another punt again, it'll be too soon. I'd expect someone to be snatched off waivers from somewhere else, because otherwise we're in trouble.

QB
Much to my surprise, Moore looks to have taken 2 steps back. His accuracy was awful. He looked like a magna cum laude graduate of the Jake Delhomme school of overthrowing receivers. Clausen, however looked sharp as a tack. I'm still not 100% convinced he's a fit for our offense in the long term, but somehow he looks more in charge of the offense than Moore does. It was weird to watch. Didn't really watch enough of Cantwell and Pike to say much. The OL was so bad, it was hard to give them a fair evaluation.

ST
I could strangle Hurney for not hiring Bobby April when he was available this offseason. Seriously. I didn't think it was possible, but the kick coverage looks worse than it did with Crossman. The only one I was comfortable with as a returner was Munnerlyn at PR. IIRC Wright looked okay at KR, but that's a moot point now. Goodson did not. He did that Smitty kind of crap, running around like a headless chicken, but he's not as good doing it. He damned near caused a safety on one return attempt.

 

That was a brutal but fair evaluation of our performance vs the Jets. thanks for that

 

I'm a little less optimistic after watching the game again. Watching some of the overhead replay shots, I see a lot of open cutback lanes that RBs just aren't finding yet. There have been instances where the linebackers (and even the backside DE) are all flowing playside and there's really nobody there to guard the backside, but we've sort of gotten away with it because a) it's the preseason and teams don't really gameplan for those sort of weaknesses, and b) because the starting backs haven't gotten enough carries to expose it.

I think this will be a very schizophrenic run defense - we'll get a lot of minus plays, and then we'll give up 50 yard runs out of nowhere.