Hindsight

In june, most of us, most analysts, the sirius guys, peter king, all thought the panther's offense would be fine and continue as it had last year. This was reasonable considering we had primarily the same personnel as the last 5 games - Same line as now ( we had bernardeau last year ), missing only moose and Hoover.

HOwever, everyone said the defense would blow shit. No depth on the line, etc.

I was on this bandwagon. As I recall, most people on here were right there with me.

Funny how things worked out. Can't blame the team for thinking the same thing I thought on offense - although not having a vet backup qb was downright strange. Still - they thought what most thought.

Except on defense. They really fucking nailed it on defense....

 

Dan Henning:

Better than Jeff Davidson

I've been waiting for the right time to bring it up, that you can remove the tag line now... but since you've added it, the right time has never happened.

I'm thinking OC position is also a personnel decision Fox will not be taking questions in.

Last year the Panthers ranked 27th in passing. Even with two 1,100 yrd rushers on the team and +6 in turn-overs, still 21st in scoring... WR was a glaring need last year even with Moose. I don't recall anyone thinking oh hell yeah, we're the Colts now.

After 8 games... dead last in scoring, passing yards, and total yards, and worst in the league with -11 in turnovers.

 

the defensive worries though were almost exclusively focused on the departure of peppers and the departure of a pass rush. to be honest, with only 10 sacks in 8 games, and no one on the roster anywhere near on track to hit double digits, that concern has proven true. now, sacks aren't everything, and the defense, even with the added burden of having an offense that cannot score, has played about as well as could be expected.

maybe it's more of a persepctive thing, in that there are other areas of the team that are absolutely horrid. i'm sure if things were peachy on the offense, we'd all be bitching about how we generate 0 pressure and why hasn't brown gotten any sacks this year.

 

With hindsight being a bitch and all...methinks we shoulda passed on Clausen in the second and picked up Colt McCoy in the third.

 

McCoy has a pretty decent running game. I'm not totally sour on Clausen's future although I am on his present.

Offseason, yeah we had good reason to have confidence in the offense. I felt like the running game was good enough to allow us to succeed with Moore. Once preseason started and I actually saw us, not so much.

 

the thing is, when you have the lead... offenses takes chances and gives defenses opportunities

our defense has done very well for the amount of time they had to be on the field and the field position turn-overs has put them in

 

This is Fox's team. Or was up until January 2010.

His refusal to adjust and commit to balance and some creativity on offense stifled what could have been some pretty good years (2006 comes to mind).

Notice--other than Moore (and count Vinny too), every backup quarterback for Carolina has looked not only below-average, but just downright lost? That's not normal over the course of a 9-year administration.

Clausen is a rookie--fine. But, shit, simplify things a bit, and get the gameplan working in his favor to make him more effective.

Wait: I forgot.....Clausen sucks dick. His delivery is easy to detect/read (hence, batted balls). He still fucks up on all exchanges possible. He's not that accurate, and he shows me no signs of being a leader. Don't be mad--I know a lot of you have a ton invested in him. I did with Moore, and had to come off that horse after the STL game.

Pike? Ok, then. We'll see.

Bottom line is we'll keep JC, for the investment, and if the next HC is worth a shit and has studied the downslide of this offense since Playoffs 2008, he will make a firm commitment to acquire a solid, savvy veteran (doesn't have to be 40 years old). I don't want to go into another season with 3 QB's that have a combined <10 starts. It's shaky, and as it turns out, Moore is not only mentally weak, but physically incapable of going the distance.

Either Campbell or Gradkowski will be available next year--I'd probably be looking at either at this point.

 

don't disagree with that at all, and i gave that side of the ball credit for the effort that has been put out. in general, that has been the least of our concerns. but...there's not a lot of shine to things like the saints racking up 165 yards rushing. or brees with 250 on 43 attempts and getting sacked once.

we're giving up 124 yards on the ground, and 190 in the air. not stellar, but ok, and again, the least of our worries.

 

quick aside on this before people start hindsighting into how cheap Campbell was to acquire: He's only succeeding on a ridiculous effort by McFadden and in yesterday's case Jacoby Ford, he would've done well on the 08/09 panthers but on a team that runs the ball as poorly as we do now he would be everything that Washington fans say he is.

Otah's injury fucked us good.

 

I think that is the biggest reason we suck so bad. If Otah is healthy we probably run the ball somewhat well. That alone probably wins us a game or two and prevents the laying down that has taken place.