Khyber53

Honestly, I hate this. It's two teams that have turned their seasons around and are heading in opposite directions. I think the Falcons are going to hang a 40 burger on us in the most embarrassing defeat of the season. Falcons 44 Panthers 10 And it's not even going to be that close. I think the team has quit on the coach. I hope I'm wrong.

Can't really argue with you there. See, while a team tries to slowly and steadily build a culture, an identity and a strong presence on the playing field over a number of years, the stars that they start with age, their contracts go up, they move on or succumb to injuries. If it takes us three more years to become something great, we also have to look at the potential loss of players like CMC, Thompson, Moore, Chinn and Burns to all the vagaries of life in the NFL. Can you do both? Build for tomorrow and compete today? Yeah, it can be done but it requires a good coaching staff and a GM working together with a solid plan. Do we have that here? I'm beginning to think we don't. I'm not just seeing us developing and coaching players well. Our offensive line should have a decent mix of vets and youngsters. It should have people who know what they are doing. But watch and you'll see that, injuries aside, these guys aren't working together, they aren't holding their own. Heck, they're even being outmuscled on play after play. That kind of failure shows that it's the OC, the line coach, the assistants, the QC coach and the strength and conditioning guys aren't on the same page or may not be competent at their jobs. We (and other teams) have had decent (and that's all we're asking for here) lines with much worse pedigrees. At QB, there's an obvious problem with the OC and QB coach not developing Darnold. It's not just about the passes and the limited selection of plays they are choosing, but this is a kid that cannot spot where the pressure is coming from. Part of that isn't that there's one weak spot on the line, but that any or the entire line can and will collapse on each play. The kid's mobile but he only moves out of the pocket when chased rather than sometimes by design. And play calling... sheesh they must be radioing in complicated plays based on the time on the clock when the ball is snapped and the confusion of routes and receivers. And how about a running play once in a while??? On defense, I hate to say it, but the formula has been found on us. Folks want to put it on the offense and not getting rest, but it's not like we're picking up the sacks and INTs in the first and second quarters like we used to. We're not getting our D off the field in the first quarter much less the first half like we used to. Opposing teams have learned to pinch down to the center of the D-line to break open running lanes and wear down Burns and Reddick by hitting them with running backs. Our zone defense has been terrible, too. It might be the loss of Horn there, but there's a ton of big name guys back there that aren't getting the INTs or even pass break ups. All of those things point to coaching issues and later in the game, to conditioning issues as well. Special teams, with the exception of one great play by Luvu, have been a joke. Period. Hard stop. We fielded a high school punter last week. We're going to give an Aussie rules guy a shot this week. We can't tackle on kick coverage for crap and a relatively talented Erickson isn't getting anywhere on punt returns and we just pulled a former Viking off his couch to handle kick offs. Sheeesh. And let's get to the drops issue. Coaches better have every WR, TE, RB and FB on the roster out there in a line just catching passes from the jugs machine for two hours a day. And set that motherfuger on the highest setting. This is the big leagues, if that ball comes in hot catch it and run. After the game you can, in the words of Smitty, "Ice up, son." Back to where I started. This team isn't looking like it's on the path to greatness. It looks like a summer camp team the week before they all head home.

Right now, I'm not sure we're even ready to compete against Atlanta this weekend, much less make predictions for the future. We looked horrible in 2002, we looked bad in 2014. We went to the Super Bowl both following years. Getting to the Super Bowl is often a game of luck, injury avoidance and catching lightning in a bottle for one of the teams if not both. That can happen in any given year for just about any franchise, and those teams win almost half of the Super Bowls. What everyone here seems to be talking about is building a solid, long term team that regularly competes for conference championships and the big game. That takes time and commitment from coaching and players alike. That is what Rhule is wanting to do here, it's what everyone wants, but it just doesn't look like he had the experience to build it the right way.

Wins the day with this take. The defense has been figured out, too.

As long as they build an offensive line for the next guy... heck, with an offensive line Darnold might have been able to rehab here. Without one, he sure wasn't able. He's David Carr all over again.

Let's face it, Tepper might have solved a potential public relations fiasco by buying out JR, but he didn't do the actual team any favors. Nouveau riche tyro team owners. Sheeesh.

The offensive line. It's like the Field of Dreams. If we build it, they will come. Build a great line. Draft a great QB. It will work out. Quit chasing someone else's franchise QB. We need our own identity.

Bullet dodged.

Good job Ellis!

I'd rather have the Minshew trade by far than what we'd be trading away to have Watson sit on our bench and our cap space. See if Minshew can come in and Jake Delhomme this team back into shape.

Robby sucked starting week 5 of last year. Dude fell off a cliff back then, never came back except to sign the contract for the big checks. This is a badly coached, managed and built team. Rhule should be shown the door during the bye week. Get an early head start on coaches just like we did when we let Rivera go. Rivera was bad, but ... nah, it got bad there too, but it took longer to get there.

He's spot on. I spent a few years doing ski reports for southern radio stations and I can tell you that while we have four seasons, snow is sporadic at best and rare in December throughout the NC mountains. If that is a big want for you, increase your chances by going with Ashe, Watauga and Avery Counties. Your towns to search for are West Jefferson, Boone and Banner Elk. Those are the most northern counties and the snowiest. All three counties, I believe, are served by Skybest Communications (a co-op telecom locally owned and operated) and have internet, fiber optic in most areas. All three of those counties have ample amenities, with the most ski slopes in Avery, the best major highway access in Watauga and the best land in Ashe.

Some folks just find a stick and gotta use it to stir the poo.

It's a great move for you and you're going to see a major economic boost from the difference between what you sell your house for there and what you can get here. I'd suggest searching in Ashe, Watauga, Transylvania and Henderson Counties. My favorite of the bunch and the one that should give you the best for what you want is Transylvania County. Brevard is a great, great little town and close to Asheville and Hendersonville, it's also right at the entrance to the Pisgah National Forest and within a couple of hours drive of Charlotte. Go on Zillow and do some home shopping for Brevard, NC.

Felt the weight of two decades of being a Falcons fan lifted off of my shoulders and saw the light of a brand new day break through the clouds.

Well, the guy has been playing since before some of our team's players were even born.

Well, I don't want to make it sound like that, although it does, but it was more of a "easier to import the culture than to change everyone's hearts." We sent Cam packing not just because he really wasn't Cam on the field anymore, but because Cam still owned the locker room. Can't change the whole culture if Cam says, "No man, that's not how it works around here." Still, I don't think the culture has changed in a perceptible way. We've gotten younger, but I don't see us with the mentality of "we will outwork anyone else to win" or any sign of a chip on our shoulder. We don't seem to be making this a pride thing, or even a professionalism thing. Hell, I'm not even sure what our identity is supposed to be and I sure don't want it to be what it is looking like. We had something those first three games, but Dallas broke us. It wasn't the CMC hammy going, but it may have been the first time someone really hit us in the nose and we just didn't have a bit of grit.

What he wants is guys who bought into what he was selling before so that he has a cadre of guys he can lean on to get his point across. Please note the large number of Temple players as well as those from Baylor? It's six Temple, three Baylor. Was anyone else scratching their head when they saw #57 Clay Johnston out there on defense last week? He's a Baylor guy and I have no idea how he earned a jersey much less a chance to be on the field. And what have we found out? That out of those nine players only Haason Riddick is starter quality. But all but Tecklenburg saw the field on Sunday. That worked out well.

I tried, I really did. I've been on the bus for him in hopes that he lives up to the talk, the potential. I was very critical of Snow last season, slightly critical of Brady, but stuck with Rhule. I've not been on the Fitterer bandwagon and there's been little to recommend it. Now, after that loss to the Giants, he embasrassed us. That was a case of an unprepared, poorly built team having no plan going in to play someone they clearly should have beaten. Put as much of it on Darnold's shoulders as you can, but there is sooooo much blame to go around. We've lost four games in a row to progressively worse teams. We've got Atlanta next week and probably another loss with even more embarrassing results. Excuse me while I think we've found the newest version of Chip Kelley.

I've railed about this before, but Robby Anderson did next to nothing after week 5 last season, missed the OTAs, most of the offseason, good portion of training camp (if I recall correctly) and has done nothing outside of one long TD catch this entire season. How in the hell do you sit down and write the guy a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract during a rebuild? And he's playing even worse since the contract was signed. We thought he was here to play football, but he had a whole other game planned.

I get where you're going, I'm just not headed down that path. QB aside, and that Jimmy Clausen reference is pretty close to the mark except that Darnold has shown a few episodes of competence, there's the whole look of the offense that is worrying. I'm not talking about halftime adjustments (which have not been good at all), but also just the ability to adjust a game plan for the resources available. Someone earlier said Brady was just calling plays from a stolen Sean Payton playbook, but that Brady didn't actually understand how they work. Sometimes it seems that way. At LSU, Brady was heralded as creating the most effective passing game college football had seen in a long time. It was fresh off his two year stint with the Saints and Burrows, Chase, Marshall, et al racked up wins and a national championship. Crowns all around, great stuff everybody. The next season, Brady moved on to the NFL to join Rhule's staff for the Carolina Panthers. He had just one year with LSU and two years prior to that with the Saints. Now, he's an offensive coordinator and had been bandied about as the next hot HC prospect a la Sean McVey. Sadly, he's really just proving himself to have had a really great year and not a lot of experience. The cupboard was loaded at LSU that season, and it was nearly bare when he came to Carolina. Genius? Maybe. Deep understanding of building an offense from the ground up and getting full grown men earning millions of dollars to buy into what you are selling? Not looking like it. Understanding how to build an offensive line and use it to dictate the game at the pro level? No, he does not have that skill set. At all. He's a former wide receiver from William and Mary (a school that HAS produced two of the top coaches in the NFL right now) who still looks at the game from a pass-rich environment perspective. While this is a pass happy league right now, the winning teams understand the importance of more than just winging it and slinging it. We have no play-action passing game, no RPO, no moving pockets, and no screen game without CMC. We have a QB that is underdeveloped and regressing. We have a decent RB playing but getting very limited carries and have lost four games in a row, three that we should have won based purely on defense. Sorry, TL;DR version: The young wunderkind got the flyer from a one year championship run, but does not have the history to build. He was Mozart for a year at LSU but has been unable to build the piano he is expected to play.

Sometimes you don't have to wait until the house is built to tell that the carpenters didn't know what they were doing, if you know what to look for. Rhule and Co. just weren't ready for the big leagues. It happens.

Chuba would be starting on a number of teams in this league because he can play the position and he can get yardage. He does need to develop some parts of his game, and while he is learning on the fly, we've got to remember that he's still a rookie. He's got a lot to learn, he's got to get more familiar and comfortable in the passing game and he needs more time in strength and conditioning. If you base his evaluation against the starting RBs across the league, he's going to fall into place somewhere around 26th-27th in capability. He beats out some team's resources because they just don't have a decent running back on their roster. And Hubbard is decent right now. He isn't, however, ready to be a RB1 that anyone outside of his home team knows his name. His game just isn't complete right now and he isn't delivering the big hits and big runs. Not saying he won't, he just isn't there yet. So, in my opinion, Hubbard is in just the right spot for him. He's a RB2 behind an excellent (great) RB1 and he's seeing starting RB work because of an injury to the guy in front of him. He's getting on the job training and he's pulling his load when asked most of the time. Another year or two and he's going to be noticed.

Brady proves each week that he can't call a game. He also can't oversee development of an offensive line. But he's not the whole problem. There's something systemic here that makes you just about wish for the days of Jerry Richardson and Marty Hurney again. Our team owner knows nothing about the game of football and makes decisions based apparently on his gut and not on wise advice given. He talks about analytics but apparently he never checks the numbers. Our head coach appears in over his head and there's a chance that he has lost this team. Our new GM is "in on every deal" and he appears to be the rube at the poker table. He's hit on one player this year after being incredibly busy in the wheeling and dealing. He's apparently the guy you hope and pray will walk onto your used car lot. We can't change the owner, none of us have that kind of money. The rest, though, need to be changed.

Some people buy things just because they are expensive. Houses, cars, girlfriends. You know the type. They never look behind the scenes and see what wise people do -- that there's no need for four more bedrooms than you have people, that the Bentley doesn't get you there any more reliably than a Toyota, or that the gold-digger is just there because you shower her with gifts. Sadly, though, those folks, when they're proven wrong can just put on their Tom Brady jersey and get tickets for another team's games. Those of us who are more interested in the long term, and doing the right thing, are all about hoping DeShaun gets to travel to a state income tax haven state like Florida. There, he can sit on the commissioner's exempt list for a year or two while his peccadillos are investigated. We can rebuild like a smart team and avoid doubling down on our mistakes by taking Houston's mistakes into our own house. The cost is too high, the potential is iffy (the guy has been sitting for a year now and may have to for another, and honestly character counts -- there's no kind of guarantee he won't go out seeking masseuse/prostitutes again.