Khyber53

He seems like a really good young man. And he has won before. Just he's not showing any fire here and we seem to want him to play like Drew Brees when we should be looking at a young Russell Wilson for a model of how he works best. For some weird reason, short Drew could see through his linemen and work from within the pocket. Wilson, on the other hand, did his best work when he was flushed out and had to improvise. You've seen the same games I have out of Bryce this year... having him stand back in the shotgun and then just hold his ground scanning the field hasn't worked and will probably get him killed eventually. When he has moved and been able to change the field of play and the parameters of what the defense has to do, his processing speed comes into play and he can outmatch the individuals on the defense. A good coach could both encourage that and gameplan for it. Maybe they could make something happen. Or a fiery QB could just push to will it into existence. We've got an uninventive coaching cadre and a far to even keeled QB who is just about passive out there on the field. And something I noticed last night... If this QB was able to break down the offensive line assignments and theory for training camp, he sure as hell should be over at the O-line bench after each failed series getting those guys together and on the right page, either by explaining where things went wrong or lighting a fire under their doughy asses. Lead, PeeWee, Lead! And lastly, give Miles Sanders an apple and a bus ticket home.

How about we say no to hiring another old Panthers QB who wasn't very good to be our head coach. So that leaves Jake and Cam in the positive side, but neither one is coaching material. Look, I want to be able to say, have patience with the current coaching regime. I really, really want to. I just can't. It doesn't matter what's happening in the locker room. It doesn't matter how many all-pros you have. It doesn't even matter how you do on draft day. All that matters is what is happening on the field. And what we are seeing there just is wrong. It's so wrong, there are so many deficiencies, that is near impossible to point to individual problems that can be solved. Every problem leads to another and was, in turn, caused by yet something else. It's not "We need better receivers." It's "Our receivers suck because of they don't run routes properly" and they don't run the routes properly because they are still young and have little coaching and that's because we traded away our best receiver to the team that beat us last night. And that's just the tip of that particular ice berg. And it's the frikkin' Arctic Sea of icebergs out there when it comes to reviewing this team's problems. We are literally awash in disastrous problems. Outside of special teams, there's really nothing good to say about any position group or play calling. Nada, zilch. I keep looking for something, anything that could provide some shred of hope for this team, but I just can't find it. This is just a bad team, through and through. I'm not sure it can be fixed, and certainly not by the current GM and Head Coach or their respective staffs. This team needs an enema to flush all this crap out.

He was greatly assisted by the guy having been a recent addition to the active roster and not in on weeks and weeks of "coaching" here. So, there's a bright side... Yay.

This may be the worst Panthers team I've ever seen. Even the lame duck year for Fox and the Weinke season had something besides despair and futility. Chicago had a game plan that tried to give their rookie QB some options. Ours just marched him out there to stand in place and show how unfazed he was by it all I guess. This team has no life, no drive and no reason to take the field but to grab a paycheck. They play with the enthusiasm of a KFC late Friday night crew. It has been poorly put together, poorly coached and from all examples I'm seeing, it has been poorly evaluated for what it could do. We run a WCO that moves with no purpose, no protection and no tempo. We run a hybrid 3-4 but don't have the personnnel to run it (and we've been trying to builld that since Tepper arrived for some stupid reason). Our receiving corps is so bad that it makes me miss the days of Kelvin Benjamin. We keep trotting out the worst starting running back in the league and the only guy smaller than Bryce Young who isn't a kicker. We have what, like 5 tight ends and we have no frikkin idea how to use them because they neither block nor catch. And our offensive line. They're just offensive. They don't work as a group, the scheme doesn't match their abilities and Bryce gets run over by a jailbreak every fifth play... if we even get a fifth play. The most electric play of the entire frikkin year was a punt return last night. And the only reliable offensive weapon we have is Eddie Piniero. I've been saying we need to blow this up and start over. At this rate it is going to collapse on itself and do the trick for us.

Neither team lets their defense off the bus. Chicago 34 Carolina 31

Their pre-game isn't too bad. The talking heads they field are trying their best to stir stuff up before every game so it could be quite funny. They literally fall all over each other trying to pop the best hot take. In this game it should come off like Don Rickles vs. Rodney Dangerfield vs. Gilbert Gottfried. There will be little to no respect. Or Larry, Moe and Curly. Perhaps even Shemp.

It's a column, not a journalistic piece.

If we'd just move to play action from traditional QB at the center placement, we could go into every play run blocking which would play to our strengths and reduce our weaknesses. But we're going to start from the shotgun position for 85% of the snaps so that PeeWee has a better chance of surviving, even if it kills the run game AND doesn't actually provide him with any better protection or field view.

This is very hard to argue against. Still, we've got to wait. And yet, it's going to suck until one day it miraculously doesn't. I do think the coach needs to challenge him to make things happen, to take control of a game rather than play within what is presented to him. Not many football games are won by playing within the other team's imposed boundaries.

Step one: Realize that the fastest and best WR on your team can't be a 32 year old white guy. Step two: Grab Smitty, Moose and Ricky Proehl and hire them on as draft advisors. Pick the guys they want. Step three: Pray.

Before we jump all over the Dan Morgan bandwagon... he's been part of this "rebuild", too. Back in his playing days I called him Mushy-head Morgan, partly because of his concussion history and greatly because he just made bone headed decisions. He's a dinosaur throwback Jock who terrorized some teammates and even ended the career of one of our draft picks by knocking the hell out of him in training camp -- just because he thought he needed to do that. His Panther connection and connection to Scott Fitterer got him this job, but he needs to be cleaned out with the same broom that takes Fitt. I hate to say it, but this thing needs to be blown up from the top down, from GM and HC to the training staff and scouting groups. if not we're looking at continuing for 20 more years of wandering around pointlessly in the desert.

He's not having a problem reading the field, I think he is really struggling to get to the spot where he can read the field. That not being able to see over the line thing is real. I hope he proves me wrong, but whew, he just plays so passively.

Panthers 24 Bears 21 It'll give us just another tantalizing look that makes us think maybe we can make it with Bryce. And win or lose, the Bears have still got great draft picking numbers. Maybe, just maybe, we will be like San Francisco after they traded away everything for Trey Lance.

Yeah, but that defense can't stop the run, can't stop the pass, can't pressure the quarterback. Our best work is in the red zone because we have so much less field to defend. Seriously. The defense sucks as bad as the offense, we just don't happen to have a player out there we spent two number one draft picks on who looks like he came from the wee tiny people of Gulliver's Travels. We need to call for a new plan.

Yeah, you're right everyone outside of Chuba, Luvu and Tremble seems to have regressed. And yes, it points management and coaching. And yes, we were told ad nauseum what an all-star staff we were putting together here. My one thought is.. if Reich could put together a decent staff to make things work out, how come he didn't do that in Indianapolis and get that worked out? I think we're watching a man get sped by on the speedway... he's gone from the days when he weaved through traffic and made good time to the point where he just shakes his head and proclaims everyone is out to get killed out there! He got him some young blood to run the offense and defense and then, well, didn't really let them. And he's been saddled with doing some kind of lame hybrid 3-4/4-3 that we've been stuck in since the last year of the Rivera regime as we try and fit our square peg into the round hole of Tepper's dream team of New Pittsburgh South. Sheesh. This is just a season where you've got to look at what's on the field and say, "Don't you see this isn't working? Any of it? Not even a little?"

In on every deal, tried to get smart and draw to an inside straight flush. Ended up with Queen high. We are the morons at the poker table.

Well, we're in such desperate straights to hire yet another guy trying to get one last paycheck that we've even tossed away any thought to character. Mr. Tepper, I'm willing to come out of retirement and play linebacker, too. Vet minimum. No outstanding warrants.

Think about this... the team has been on a long, downhill slide since the days when it was Jerry Richardson, Marty Hurney and Ron Rivera. To get a long downhill slide from there requires excavation... deep digging and creating a new definition for the bottom. These are my Panthers and it's getting to the point where it really, deeply hurts watching what they've become. We have gone from playing in the Super Bowl to being a mid to low energy division III NCAA football team. I'm not sure we could beat fuging Lenoir-Rhyne or Campbell with this team.

I can't argue against that at all.

This ^ 100 percent. This is a bad team, across the board. Poorly put together, poorly built, poorly trained, poorly motivated, poorly played. Of the 53 people on this team right now, maybe three would start on another team, and 10 more might find roster spots. I haven't seen a Panthers team this bad since the Weinke season. And we're beginning to look worse. Offense and defense. I'd blow it up and trade everyone in the offseason including the Liliputian quarterback for whatever I could get. This place needs a fire sale.

Johnson is just another one of the examples that we have a really, really bad talent evaluation group here. When was the last time they really hit on a veteran pick up besides Adam Thielen? Crickets man, crickets.

For once, I'm pulling for the villain, errr, Vilain... Good luck to him!

I hope Reich can turn it around here, I really do. I just don't like what we're seeing on the field. I think the team is very passive and seems poorly conditioned (beyond the massive number of injuries we've had). Maybe it will all work out. I just wish it would start really moving that way. Soon.

I hope he can return to his old form. He really, really had so much potential before injuries did him in. Good, good guy, he deserves this chance he's getting and I hope he just makes the most of it.

I want to say, here we go, look at us, we've got it fixed and got a win. But I still can't shake it when I watch the games... this isn't a team that has it together. We just look hapless, on-coordinated, unsure and somewhat passive. They keep telling us that Bryce is doing a good job out there taking what the defense gives. And I can't help but think that's not how football is supposed to be played. The objective is to impose your will on the opponent. We show no signs whatsoever that we even feel like we can do that. I wish I was saying something different, but this isn't a very well coached team, from the top on down. They aren't playing like a group of professionals. There's just too many mistakes, no rhythm, no push and a decided lack of energy. I feel like the cats got neutered.