1-8

Now that I took all my pills, and finshed torturing my nipples with a Panthers BIC lighter, I can look back and reflect on what I liked:

First of all, I was asked, or guilted into, moving furniture for one of my in-laws today. It was the first time since 2001 I didn't really get to sit down and watch the game. I saw pockets of the action, and the final 6 minutes, so it was unique.

1. Clausen looked poised. Finally showed an ability to throw the right passes, at the right time. His zip on the ball was there. He was over 50%, which is baby steps, but more importantly, he led the team on some good drives. Problems with him continue to be managing the clock and a little bit of pocket retardation (one of which I blame the staff for more than JC). But, on a good note (and it's important to remember how fucking inexperienced we were today) he did good work.

2. Goodson, eventhough I didn't see much of it, ran for 100 yards, something that none of the other backs have done for us this year. Perhaps someone can enlighten me--was he promising, or was it Tampa's shitty run defense?

3. Gettis/LaFell: both had some good plays, and did their part. Problem is every week we watch Steve Smith play, he's being absolutely owned by his defender. Today, it was that shitface Talib. Smith is playing with passhun, but my god, he can't fucking get open. Then againk when your RT (by choice) weighs 175 lb, I suppose the timing becomes an issue.

4. Sounds like the special teams did well all day.

It's odd losing this many games in this short of a span. Not that we're not used to it. What I try to take away from this is that Clausen is looking a little more like Freeman did in his better games last year, and I'm having a little more faith in him after seeing his stat-line, error-free. Needs to take some more chances deep, particularly with Smith, but then again--that's what got Delretardo fired.

Meeks is no longer my hero. Today was a horrible effort, and I don't care about Nic Harris. Beason was back in the middle, we had plenty of healthy bodies, and we fucking bent over and gave them 31 points and 420 yards. This is the first game in a long time that the offense was where it needed to be, in terms of production, and the defense (several times) were just beaten the fuck down, and outcoached, by a slapdick offensive coordinator and a clueless (yes, still clueless) head coach.

Guess they're the best team in the NFC again.

 

1. Clausen did OK. He had a couple of passes batted down, and the offense seems to move slowly with him in there, which is probably to be expected. He absolutely missed Smith deep in the end zone in the 4th quarter when we settled for a FG.

2. Goodson did OK too. He ad-libbed a bit more than I would have liked, but he had an opportunity to shine and seemed to do decently. His fumble on the opening drive was unforced, and turned into points for the Bucs.

3. The receivers - besides one play to Gettis and one long pass to Smith...nothing memorable comes to mind. Maybe I was getting a beer and missed something.

4. ST screwed the pooch on a partially blocked punt. It gave the Bucs a short field which they took advantage of.

Oddly enough, the offense ALMOST played well enough this week - the defense let us down. Winslow slapped his cock around Beason's face a couple of times. FFS, I'd love to kick Kellen in the face. I'm wondering if JB is having a hard time adjusting back to the middle?

I'm guessing the Ravens will be much harder to move the ball on.

 

The Ravens will pose a major test, as they do for every team they play. Not to mention, they have a few additional days of rest from playing on Thursday night.

Even prior to Ryan lighting them up, their pass defense has been suspect, as was expected during the preseason. It's a tough group to run against, but DW (assuming he'll play) and Goodson are good enough on their own to offset poor matchups up-front.

I don't see any reason to pick Carolina to win, but I don't think we'll have the kind of slapdick performance we did against the Saints.

Funny. Fox catches a lot of shit, and I'm right there with the parade of malcontents. But when you look at the schedule, there's really not a game left that I feel we hold any edge on the opposition. Maybe Arizona, simply because of their horrible offense.

For his decade of consistency and helping turn around JR's mess from 2000-2001, I would like to see JF go out with some wins under his belt, but damn, it's going to take an almost perfect performance week-to-week to avoid going 1-15.

I would love to sit here and be the guy that says "fuck this, I'm done wasting my precious Sundays on watching us lose," but that's the general reaction with me these days after these kind of losses. By the time SNF kicks off, I'm already thinking about how we can scratch out a win the next time.

Baltimore? It will take Clausen working closely with Davidon/Scherer on clock management and tempo. We lack tempo under JC, and it's cool--he's a rookie, and I remember sitting in the stands about a year ago watching Freeman lacking that same tempo, heaving up INT after INT.

You never know what 12 months will bring, good or bad. I'll take today's performance by Clausen as a very tiny step in the right direction.

 

As much as it sucks, I'll take 1-15 over a lockout any year....

And it does suck.

 

The majority of reporting I read from guys I trust (mostly national) continue to say that it will cause some problems during the offseason, but a deal will probably happen late summer. Actually, Jason LaCanfora has been banging the "late summer" drum for a while.

It would be hard to fathom a deal not getting done. My hope is that it gets done rather quickly, and doesn't interfere with Carolina's ability to put together a few missing components for 2011.

We'll see. But, yes, I will take bad football over no football.

 

This is like a 20 game-long preseason.

 

1 big difference is the ability to make plays when shit breaks down, 2 completely different QBs of course. Freemans size and speed is just nasty where Clausen is just throwing everything outta bounds. You want him to be smart, protect the ball, but damn. I guess having no running game, play action to help out or a decent TE kinda doesnt help too much either.

Jeff Blakes kid at Auburn has that kinda game, but yeah, baby steps from Clausen.

Defense just looks tiny out there against Blount. And again we fail to show any attempt to gameplan for TEs, they both had a field day.

Everyone else in the div has big strong TEs that can run and catch. We have Jeff King. Says it all and its a product of Foxys philosophy ill gladly like to see the end of.