Mid Season thoughts

As much of a sour load as that game was, and as terrible as our defense and special teams ( coverage and return game included ) has been, I keep finding myself being happy with having a QB who has:

Completed just at 60% of his passes midway through the season.
Is on track for 4000 yards.
Has electrified the city, the franchise, and the offense.
Is only 22.
Is a big time threat running the ball.

Look around - QB's make franchises have those back to back wins. We're close. We should be very good for a decade. We've been looking for this guy since 1995.

I'm still not sure Rivera is the answer, though.

 

offense in general. Smith, TEs are bigtime. LaFell is growing.

Defense has had some good points too, the secondary has been solid and we get some pressure. We've had some catastrophic losses there, so I can't throw out the head guy for it. Hell that first year in CHI he didn't have a good D, and the first year in SD wasn't good either. The other years, though, were.

That has to pick up. Even just with what's left, there's a lot to like on defense. It just becomes so hit and miss.

 

Munnerlyn has been blossoming a bit. Why did Gamble tackle so well last week and this week he's back to just hitting the guy with his shoulder? Of course there's shitty tackling league wide - we saw some of the NE/Steeler game and both sides were sucking at times. Not just a Carolina thing.

 

the bills have four sacks. Four fucking sacks. But have one off the league lead in INT. That makes no sense. It doesn't belong here but nowhere else either, so - Dareus. They have Dareus and Kyle Williams and are giving it up at 5/carry and have no sacks.

 

Overall I'm pretty satisfied. Defense missed alot of tackles today. But they were swarming the ball. Minnesota had alot of trick plays. Discipline has been a real issue but we are growing into a good team. Kick-off and punt returns are an extreme weakness. Edwrds still looks lost out there although he's not fumbling. Why do they kick to these guys that are capable of a 100 yard return?

 

I like Lafell.

I wish I knew enough to know how Mcclain and Fua were doing.

I think we're close.

 

shedding bad contracts

From the outside looking in, I think Panthers fans are right that they have a ton to be excited about. The key for them to take that next step into a playoff team is to get a GM that doesn't take the team out at the knees with terrible contracts/trades. Keep the 1st-4th round picks, and only give guys that have zero injury history market or above market contracts. Think about how much better this team would've been without Thomas Davis and/or Deangelo Williams huge contracts with money spent elsewhere. Not much they can do about it now, but in the future they have to get a philosophy and GM that is more prudent with the money they spend.

 

For the first game today I was interested in what we were doing on defense. When we executed it was great. The breakdowns were just too many and too devastating. We really are lacking in talent and experience on that side of the ball. I liked the effort but we suck more than can be fixed without people getting healthy and bringing in some very important pieces for next season.

 

we're a big piece of defense, some offseason lifting, and at least 50% luck on returning our stars from IR from being good enough. Hopefully, the draft brings that big piece, though it might be nice to have two.

 

Offense
Pretty good overall, but why is it at times like today we forget how good are backs are? At the end there was time to run on a few plays. Either guy can break off a big run.

Defense
WTF is it with 3rd down? A fing rookie QB, just embarrassing! Can't stop the run. Can't get ints. Must clean house as much as possible.