DaveThePanther2008

Actually wasn't totally disagreeing with you. I think most good QBs are game managers.

Very tough. I love his mobility in the pocket. I have seen several times he's moved around the pocket to extend a play for an additional second or two. He's been popped a few times but still hung in there and made the play before getting popped. While the game manager fits, I don't necessarily see him game manager. I think he is executing Joe Brady's gameplan to a tee. If that's a game manager than OK with me. If we get behind I truly believe he'll execute Brady's plan and get us a win. Darnold is a good fit for Brady.

I do agree that he came out in the 2nd half and balled out. I am a very happy Panther Fan because I think Fitterer and Rhule stole him from the Jets. That said, lets not forget that Hubbard came out a different RB than he was in the 1st half. Giving him the opportunity to practice as the #1 RB in practice is going to help us. Darnold led us in the 2nd half and Hubbard did a good job filling in. He's not CMC but he has the potential to be an important part of our offense.

You have to be certain the hamstring is healed. You can't take 90% and pray it doesn't strain again. CMC will want to play but we've got to be certain.

The Texan defense was pretty stout and Darnold did a good job converting 3rd down even after being sacked a couple of times. He had those two fumbles but that was more on the offensive line than on Darnold. I also have to say he manueaver well in the pocket. He stepped up, slide to the right and left and delivered strikes to his receivers. This was after CMC was out. His one toss to Hubbard before he pushed into the endzone was a bit off target but it had to have the zip so it wouldn't be intercepted. I think he is a tough competitor and I'm happy with the trade. Well worth the gamble.

@onmyown Read the above post from @NAS You could clearly see a dfferent Hubbard after the 2nd half. I don't see a rookie wall for him at all. Hubbard has the skillset to be a solid contributor in this league. I'll look forward to seeing him with 1st team reps in practice next week.

On the defensive side of the ball. I love the Reddick and Burns challenge. They both have 3 each and are in competition to out do one another. Actually, I think Reddick is up a half a sack. If you remember Burn's sack you can see him mouth. "That's three" I'd bet it was directed at Reddick. LOL. Reddick got his later. It's going to be hillarious if one or the other goes up a sack or two on the other. It will be game on.

The WR clearly inititated the contact. You could see that Rhule was livid about the call. The WR damn near ran him over. The offsides calls were BS. I have seen several games where players were far more "offsides" defensively than last night. It made me feel that the Texans spoke with the officaiting crew before the game and gave them a headsup. Of course they listened. It was probably something like this. "There is no way they are getting to the QB that fast and they have to be in the neutral zone to get a headstart"

This is a team game, not a player stat game. Darnold and Anderson have a connection it is just a matter of time. Right now DJ is the man. Anderson will get his touches. I'm sure he isn't sweating it. We just gave him a nice extension and he'll be here to contribute as needed.

You have to give the punt coverage team props. He has had very little opportunity to break one but at least I'm not worried about him fielding the ball. That play he made in the New Orleans game was critical. The one where the ball hit Taylor's foot and he was headups enough to pounce on the ball before N.O. could get it. That was a game changer. New Orlean's gets that ball it could have change the outcome of the game.

It's good we use him now and then in the passing game but I really like him as a PR. Though he hasn't had a great return his ability to catch every punt is great. I don't worry about him catching the ball. He's very consistent and I don't cringe on whether he will catch it or not.

I hope you're right. Your points make alot of sense though. I've popped mine once and It was painful as hell just to walk, definitely with a limp. CMC seemed to be walking fine afterwards so maybe your right.

All our rookies with the exception of Fletcher and Hoskins have been on the field. Nixon has been on a couple of plays and I expect to see more of Taylor now the Horn is down. Contribution from these rookies are going to pay dividends as the season progresses. I don't remember this many of our rookies contributing in their first season.

Before CMC went down I was starting to think he might not be all we thought he would be. After CMC went down it seemed to click that he was the man and his runs seemed to be executed with more confidence. This gives me hope that he'll step in for CMC. While he's not CMC his skillset is similar.

It's impressive for sure. If our totals are similar after the Dallas game I think we can say this is a dominate defense.

We're currently the #1 defense in the league. Why would he not want to come and contribute. As noted earlier, there is some connection with Fitterer. My only concern is he still quick enough for our defense. As a veteran his presence would be nice but if he can't fly around like he used to it might hurt our defense.

I was thinking the same thing. I thought he was quite poised considering it was a short week. They were saying that had he stayed another year at Stanford he could have been the discussion for a 1st rounder in 2022. Houston did a good job finding him in the 3rd round. If he grows into a starter I think he'll make ending the Watson saga much easier.

cricfree.tv is another I use now and than.

I use a Russian site called livetv.sx and it's free and for the most part based on your wifi is pretty good. I have used this site for many years and though I get the refreshing sometimes and miss a play or two. Sometimes it is like watch regular TV. I work overseas and have used it in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Dubai and Iraq and for the most part it it is pretty reliable. Once you work through all the sites that happen when you click start you'll be OK. Obviously do not enter those sites mainly betting sites.

We have to remember Rhule had him at Temple. He knew what he was capable of and was an absolute steal to sign him. Reddick knows he would excel in this defense because he played in it before. Absolute steal. I think Fitterer will figure out a way to resign him. I think him and Burns could be an amazing duo for many years to come. I am excited to see this game tonight so much. I hope we score quickly so we can see this amazing defense. I wanted to bring up something Burns said a couple of days ago. He mentioned the preseason and how we dominated the first half. We dominated, for the most part, every team we played in the preseason and it was with backups. This doesn't include the 2nd half where we used players that aren't on the team now. We are thin at a couple of areas on defense and the loss of anyone of the starters may make this defense less potent. If we can stay healthy on defense it is going to be a fun season to watch, regardless of our record.

This defense is legit. it is not a simple defense to diagnose. Players coming from everywhere on every down. There is only so much you can scheme for. It's different when you have a player like Aaron Donald. You can scheme to eliminate him (unlikely) but when you have 5 or 6 guys that could come at anytime you're gambling you guess right. Our offense only needs to put up enough points to win. We don't have to score 50 points to win. This defense will keep us in games and if Darnold and company can get us the points our defense will carry help us win.

I know each year is different but we beat them last year with half the crew we have this year.

The key word is peak. IMO this defense is just getting started.

BTW this was an excellent article. Very informative and makes me even more excited about playing one of those high octane offenses to see how tt works against them. Nov 14 against Arizona should be intereting.

Rhule said he wanted fast, athletic and players that could play multiple positions. Last year we had a couple of pieces. Now IMO we players at ever level that can move into another position and perform it well. You got guys that shouldn't have the talent to back out and defend and got players that are coming in on the QB when they probably shouldn't be. I think this is why Shaq is doing so well. He's able to be athletic and this defense is perfect for him. I pray Snow doesn't get a big head and leaves to be a HC. He's a defensive guru and hopefully he knows this.