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I think the thing that sticks out is Horn vs. previous iterations of Horn. This is REALLY fuging high for him. He is not the most sure tackler historically but he has never been this bad. I didn't go into that look at missed tackles expecting to see his name. My initial look was going to focus in on how we need to make a complete overhaul of the LB Corps this offseason. Then I saw Horn's total and his missed tackle percentage. That was shocking.

Tua is being benched...

We all know its rigged by sports betting. 12 consecutive games favored and lost. Seems like vegas is making money off the Panthers alone.

Only the Saints (LOL), Browns, Titans and Raiders average less points per game than us. We are behind the JETS in avg PPG and a lot of other teams with HORRIBLE records. I'm saying again we are very lucky not to be a 2-4 win team right now. We have big, big problems to address (the same ones we've had for years!). Do we want to build a possession based team that always tries to keep it low scoring? I just don't know what we WANT to be and what we are kind of forced to be at the moment.

They kinda did, they said if it was ruled a catch on the field it would have stood.

That is what I thought was going to happen but the very suspect referee assignment makes me think otherwise. Tampa was already going to be the heavy moneyline favorite and the NFL assigned a referee crew that is going to slow down the Panthers offense. The only other angle is that the NFL is setting up a situation that is the reverse of what the Panthers dealt with in the New Orleans game last week. The Panthers had the lead for all of the game against the Saints last week and were heavy moneyline favorites before and during the game. The NFL managed the game towards a Saints victory allowing a large swing of money and creating more intruige in the NFC South race.

Bryce has pretty clearly improved this year. He's taking more shots downfield and showing better accuracy on those throws and as a result we have had more of a downfield element to our offense during the second half of the season. It's still not enough of a deep passing threat, but we're trending in the right direction. I'm all for bringing in someone to push Bryce that can also be a capable backup (Dalton looks done and I wouldn't be surprised if he retires after the season) but it's pretty clear that Bryce will be the starter going into next season and I do think there's a good chance he continues to improve. I'd be all for drafting his replacement if we were 1) in position to do so without trading a ton to move up, and 2) there's a QB worth taking in the 1st round, but neither of those things are going to be true for us this upcoming draft.

Wow! You've done your homework. Very good, my old guitar picking friend.

E Rob

Consider it from the lens that the NFL is an entertainment product, whose goal is to keep users engaged for a long as possible. Also take into account sports betting spreads for a reason managing games towards desired outcomes. Blowout results are not good for user engagement or for any of the NFL's partners. The league appears to "nudge" games, not necessarily to decide a winner, but to maximize engagement, revenue, and narrative intrigue. The primary lever the NFL uses to "nudge" games towards a desired outcome is crew assignment. A "rigged" game doesn't require a backroom bribe, it simply requires assigning a referee crew whose known statistical biases align with the league's desired outcome. By analyzing data from the 2023-2025 seasons, we can categorize specific officials into "profiles" that sophisticated bettors, and likely the league itself, use to predict game flow. When the league needs a game to be an exciting shootout, they can assign crews that historically "swallow the whistle," allowing offenses to operate without rhythm-killing flags. Conversely, if the league needs to slow down a runaway offense or keep a game close to the spread, they can assign "flag-happy" crews that disrupt game flow. Certain referees show a statistical deviation that heavily favors the home team, often attributed to being influenced by crowd noise, or perhaps a tendency to support the "house" advantage. Lastly, the league might want to introduce chaos into a matchup that looks like a guaranteed blowout on paper. The league would assign a referee with high-variance penalties. A high volume of highly varied penalties is ideal for "trap games" where referees have an outsized impact on the result.

It's all about the money. But just like the SB in 2016, if you leave it in the ref's hands then you allowed it to happen. What is funny is that they gave this team such a cakewalk early vs this move. It's just business but lol still

IF the league purposely skews games via referees and IF the league wants viewership maximized the logical plan would be to go easy on Panthers this week so we have drama in Week 18 then go easy on TB in the final game to get them in the playoffs.

Svech

Exactly. Tampa will bring higher viewership numbers. The only time the Panthers were considered a worthly primetime team was because of Cam Newton, who had his own individual following.

Is the OP trolling?

Natural tendency to make calls for the specific situation that day? Im listening but that doesn't make much sense

The truth is out there

The NFL assigns the referee whose natural tendencies make the desired outcome statistically probable.

Us " haters" already told you that he was too small. Truth be damned.

If your game is in the refs hands you've already lost.

Lol no poop. They know what the viewership numbers are and they are going to do what's best for them if they can. Always has and always will in the current structure. Small market, boring games even when winning and little interest from other fanbases to tune in would be my guess is enough for them to justify it. Zero reasons to tune in to watch a wildly inconsistent team with little entertainment value beyond their or their opponent's fanbases.

but why?

I would say the Panthers do a good enough job killing themselves The list is long starting with a new DC and OC not named Canales or idzik