Mr. Scot

Back during the "Greatest Show on Turf" days, Dick Vermeil used to coach his receivers to basically duck and cover if they were about to get hit rather than trying for extra yards.

I could see it, but does he wanna come here or go back to the Patriots? That, plus I think the team believes in Carter.

Without sitting down and looking at the rosters, I'm not certain. As mentioned above, NFL rules over the last several years have favored passing and I think most teams have built accordingly. For what it's worth, that also means Dallas could be set up for a pretty good run because teams have been building their defenses to stop the pass. A good power running team might be able to tear through those defenses like tissue paper.

You're talking about very different running styles though. Darnold isn't gonna run anybody over and he can slide pretty well. Heck, he's hardly been touched the times he has run. Frankly, my bigger concern when it comes to Darnold isn't how much he runs but how much he gets hit behind a porous offensive line.

Truth be told, with the NFL rules being what they are, I don't know that many teams have emphasized power running. It's valid that we'll be vulnerable to teams that can do it, but which teams are those?

Valid.

Which is consistent with the previous games. Our original plan for the inside was Elflein / Paradis / Miller. Between Miller having the virus and Elflein getting injured, I don't know that we've had much of that alignment at all. Not so sure we've started a game with that setup yet, but very sure we haven't finished a game with it. (not that I necessarily think it would have been a huge improvement)

Our offensive personnel in general, line included, are very WCO.

Erving hasn't been bad prior to now, but Gregory owned him this game. Miller was better previously too. Paradis and Daley? Well...

We've spent the last few years arguing (correctly so) that rushing stats and touchdowns should be considered when evaluating quarterback play with Newton. Now suddenly somebody is arguing that they shouldn't be? Yes, passing ability is more essential than running ability, but having both is great.

Yeah, and it wasn't that long ago that he was let go from here, so it's kinda valid.

Definitely. But also, much as I hate to say it, Jermaine Carter probably isn't an ideal middle linebacker. I still agree with dumping Denzel Perryman for other reasons, but when healthy he probably was better suited to that role. Throw in, as has been mentioned in other threads, safety isn't exactly a strength right now. And unfortunately, that likely includes Jeremy Chinn. Adjustments are probably gonna be needed. We'll see what happens.

Quotes from Matt Rhule and Jermaine Carter in Joe Person's latest article (link) “They came out, introduced some big personnel packages they hadn’t done a lot of, got downhill (and) ran through contact,” Rhule said. “We did not tackle or get off blocks to our liking.” And as Carter suggested, in a copycat league, the Panthers better get used to seeing teams load up and attack them with a power running game. “They did come out and play some big sets, and we struggled to match up to those big sets,” Rhule added. “We’ll work on that. We’ll know that people are going to come out and try to do that to us moving forward.” It's a long time cycle in the NFL. Build a power defense, teams attack you with speed. Build a defense with speed, teams attack you with power running. We've built a defense with some power up front but mostly speed in the back seven because we face some prolific passing attacks in our division. But does that potentially leave us vulnerable against teams that have the capability of fielding a power running attack? Well...yeah. Carter's right. Other teams who watched this past Sunday's game are going to pick up on that. And unfortunately, having a middle linebacker who's only 225 lbs can be one of the vulnerabilities. We might need to make some adjustments in both scheme and personnel to account for it. Doesn't necessarily mean we'll go outside the team mind you, but we'll see.

Go look back at pre-draft discussion from this year and see

It'd be too soon to fire him, but that's never stopped stuff from happening before.

Also... Lombardi can be kind of hit or miss, but this could be interesting if it's true.

For Athletic subscribers... Lindsay Jones is one of their better writers.

He gone again?

Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not.

Eeehhh, doesn't sound that bad.

Favorite quote of mine Never been a big PFF fan anyway, but ouch

Oy...

Honestly I just think the "horny old man" story is all the explanation you need.

You're not facing Aaron Donald and Vita Vea week in and week out in college.