Saca312

3 minutes ago, KSpan said:

I do wonder just how much of a difference Kyler and/or Hopkins might have made.

All fairness Stephon Gilmore likely would've won the battle against Hopkins and this defense would've done enough against Murray like they did last year. 

One thing's for sure, Phil Snow seems to be Arizona's kryptonite.

5 minutes ago, PhillyB said:

our starting qb and first round pick were out 

add in our starting center as well.

though granted, that was definitely more like an upgrade.

2 minutes ago, ickmule said:

Lol at you.  This is one game in a  weekend where a few unexpected wins happened.   Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As soon as you do this team takes a fat turd and let’s you down.  

This team has barely scored as much as a touchdown the past three weeks.

Today this team is dominating, something we haven't seen in a long time.

Shut up for now and enjoy the show. We need some excitement for once.

Welp. Not the most encouraging news. If the Panthers struggled against what should have been gimme games, what will happen if the issues continue when the competition gets tough ?

Or, as PFF puts it, the toughest in the league?

I sure hope the issues plaguing this team get fixed soon. Going 0-3 without McCaffrey is never a good sign. Especially when two of those teams were supposed to be easily winnable.

And the Panthers have a lot of issues that have been further exposed.

Seems this team hasn't learned fron last week and whatever the poo happened today is concerning.

The offensive line sucks, yes, but Sam Darnold looks like he's regressed. Questionable decision making that came up last week after the second half. Joe Brady also with a few boneheaded calls.

We got turnovers and didn't capitalize. The Eagles kept begging us to win but we threw a bigger poo-burger.

Defense gassed all day because of it.

If this team is playoff caliber, a lot of things need to be addressed. Discipline, better playcalling, offensive line, and Sam Darnold needs to be better too. 

Not the game I wanted to see after last week, and worrying if this continues to be a trend.

7 hours ago, Actionman0z said:

What game were you watching where they scored 20 of their points on short fields and big plays? 

The ultimate momentum shifter honestly and the real reason Dallas one.

They got more short fields than us and capitalized. They also created more turnovers.

Panthers were competitive up to that point. Not many teams in the league can overcome a situation like that.

3 minutes ago, mbarbour21 said:

The fumble (that was CLEARLY a fumble) no-call changed the trajectory of that game.

That being said, we were up 14-13 at the half. We got blown out in the 3rd. That’s on us. We need a better o-line. Darnold played better than he should have with this line.

That no call was infuriating. Would've been a huge momentum shift for us and we would've been more comfortable heading into the second half with more confidence.

Pathetic reffing display again, but we gotta overcome it.

3 minutes ago, Zod said:

This is exactly where I predicted we would be. 

 

Although I must admit I got my hopes up that we were better than I expected.

Very fair, I got caught up on that train as well.

Without the homerisn shades, the Cowboys simply are more talented. I said it'd come down to coaching and I thought we'd be the better end on that, but forgot that this coaching staff is relatively new and boneheaded mistakes are to be expected (still will hang that if we didn't go for a FG when we did, we would've been more competitive).

Either way, we still fought and though it ended up a loss, it's not a terrible beatdown. Just one to move on from and learn from. Still a long season ahead and we have great talent and potential, just a few things to fix and we'll be more competitive.

Oline is what it is, and is definitley not an overnight fix, but there have been bad oline who's made deep pushes in the playoffs. The Broncos won a SB in 2015 with a horrid offensive line and offense, although they had a historic defense to aid them.

I think this game came down to being outcoached and stupid mistakes.

7 minutes ago, therealmjl said:

Hard to argue. 
 

Honorable mention: 

Ian Thomas

 

To think I got excited about this pick. His measureables and potential was great. But man, he does not have the drive to get better and it shows.

Waste of potential and ultimately a bad player. We gotta move on.

1 minute ago, PanthersGOATFan336 said:

better to try that fg now and see if he can do make those than wait until the playoff when we NEED it

Very true. 

Ultimately we gave up too many turnovers and short fielda to a team that feasts upon it. There's a reason why Dallas is top of the league at creating and capitalizing on turnovers. Much like the 2015 Panthers the Cowboys feast on that as well.

It's a loss and it sucks, but at the least we get this out of the way early in the season and learn from it. Good thing to re-evaluate on tape and learn from.

This is a talented team, and whether we can compete here on out depends on whether we shore up mistakes like this, which ultimately I believe led to our loss moreso than not.

3 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

In my mind, second half coaching and adjustments are as big a concern as the OL.

Yep. That call for a FG was boneheaded as they come. Awful call and momentum shifter, gifting the Cowboys easy field position.

Gotta learn to not give opponents those fruitcakes and be that risky.

Panthers played to defend the pass. Most notable was the small boxes we had. We figured the Cowboys would eat the secondary alive without Burris and Horn, and it showed Snow was overcompensating for it.

Decent plan, if that didn't mean the Cowboys would eat us up on the ground like crazy.

Live and learn. Gotta shore up our integrity at the line and show more doninance there. That was a surprise that I didn't expect nor liked seeing.

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

They adjusted at halftime and we didn't. Felt like the good old days again.

Very true. Also what didn't help was giving them easy field position. That avalanche began with that missed FG, then the turnovers afterwards. They feast on that.

That should be priority number 1 of fixing: gotta stop making silly mistakes like that. Hope Rhule understands that as well.

3 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

My concern is that we didn't look like we belonged on the field with them until they bafflingly went prevent and rested their best DB late.

First half we certainly looked competitive. Had a pathetic ref call gone our way it may have been a widely different score the first half.

Just a matter of learning and getting better from this. Mistakes and turnovers we made were easy fuel for the high powered Dallas offense. 

They have capitalized on turnovers all season thus far and this game is no different. 

4 minutes ago, BIGH2001 said:

Team showed a lot of fight. Dallas was given a free touchdown in the first half that ended up being the difference. Obviously we are terrible on o-line and d-line got murdered today. However I’ll take 3-1 at this point.

A lot of things didn't go our way. A bad call to try a FG when we should've punted was also an arguably bigger deal as well. Gave easy field position for the Cowboys.

We got 13 games ahead this season to prove we can get past this. I'm optimistic that this is just a small bump in the road for us that we will learn from, and anything to help a young team like this learn and improve is valuable.

We may not be the best of the NFC yet, but we are showing we have the potential for it. Just a matter of time, building up this team bit by bit, and learning from mistakes. 

Panthers entered this game expecting to defend the pass it looks like, light boxes galore.

The DLine is getting massacred though that's not good 

On 10/1/2021 at 7:17 AM, Khyber53 said:

Great write up, I'd only add to not give up on Chuba if he gets stonewalled early. He had that problem against the Texans at first, but then started getting some nice gains. He may well be one of those backs that needs time to get into rhythm. 

I very well see it. Chuba was a beast in college, loved his tape. Royce Freeman I also have a soft spot for, he showed Stewart like qualities that intrigued me.

I think we will surprise the Cowboys a bit with our run game. Now if our o-line continues being inept, that's a different story, but hoping this case we get some decent holes.

1 hour ago, islandhopper81 said:

Dak makes the line adjustments with Zack Martin.

Sure, that won't be enough though. 
 

Phil Snow has brought a whole new style of defense to the NFL, and our players are versatile and dynamic enough to execute it. They have very unpredictable looks that will take many games before the NFL gets a handle of it, and for sure Phil Snow is likely to dial even more newer looks against this Dallas team.

Good luck to your Cowboys, as I think overall it can go either way. I remember that you posted in 2015 on this forum as well, and by and large you were right that your defense was solid at the time and it was mainly our playmaking defense that capitalized. 

Dallas does have slightly superior talent in terms of their players, so I think coaching will be the major tipping point. If Snow gets this defense to execute well and confuse the Cowboys o-line like he has to even the best in the Saints (with their center being a weakness, similar mold as the Cowboys), it will be a long day for him.

You don't suddenly become historically insane on defense just from a cakewalk schedule. Their DVOA ranking continuing as number 1 is unprecedented in all of Carolina's history and their stats are at a historic record run even through the first of these early games. Mind you, the Panthers defense had many more top tier years than they have not. As for this defense, they are no slouches at all.

As far as us offensively, remains to be seen whether we can take advantage of generating explosive plays. Joe Brady is a great schemer, so I expect a good poan, just needs to hone better on playcalling and redzone execution.

Ultimately a hard game to predict. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

1 hour ago, islandhopper81 said:

Good write up but Dallas has a better defense than the Texans

Good point, as the Texans scheme was questionable at best. Simply left guys open in so many voids, Panthers could've definitely capitalized even more than they did that game.

At the same time, it is no secret that the Cowboys do have a weakness in terms of limiting explosive plays. QBs have thrown 300+ yards against them for a reason, and they also lead the league in allowance of such type of plays.

The Panthers have very explosive playmakers in Robby Anderson and DJ Moore that should take advantage. 

1 minute ago, Kuhndog94 said:

Was discussed last week. 

I hope we exploit that cowboys center as bad as this guy was exploited. 

Ah I see now, my bad.

And hoping so too. Cowboys center is definitely their weakest point of their o-line from what I'm seeing, so I expect to see him be as much as a turnstile as the Saints center was. 

Phil Snow seems to dial up new surprises every week, so I'm sure he has a fun package for Dak Prescott this go around.

Also, @rayzor feel free to close this thread as it is a duplicate. Unable to figure out how myself as it won't let me edit the OP.

Also, fun little nugget - a lot of their success against the Saints had to do with their center being bad. McCoy wasn't available for this game, so not having that experience also played a role into why one of the best offensive lines in the NFL looked like poo. The confusion this defense can generate is frustrating for any olinemen, especially ones who are bad.

Of totally unrelated note, the Cowboys have a poo center who isn't the brightest. If he had to face a defense like the Panthers, perhaps he wouldn't do so well trying to unravel a DC like Phil Snow's looks.

That might be amusing to watch this Sunday...

I am unsure if this was posted or not, but I found this to be both hilarious and a telling highlight.

On the final drive before the half against the Saints, Phil Snow decided to have a little fun and, well, spam this one particular blitz as if he were playing Madden. Of course, if this were any other team, most seasoned NFL QBs would recognize the repetition and find a way to beat it.

However, that task is hard when you're facing the most versatile defense in the NFL with a mad scientist at DC.

Phil Snow called for a fun bit of pressure. Not only did he call this blitz once, he called it twice. But that wasn't enough. To rub the salt in the wound, he called it a third time, which was the icing on top of the cake as Jameis ran and threw a free candy bar to the Panthers secondary.

Of course, it comes to question: how the hell did this play work three times in a row? 

Well, given the Panthers love for their confusing looks and blitz', it may simply be that Jameis assumed it had to be different the next time it happened. He was likely so frazzled by the complexity of Carolina's defense that he never was able to fully trust that they'd run the same blitz again and again. Same deal with the offensive line, they too looked lost against this ferocious defense.

Keeping up with the mystery, confusion, and surprises of this Carolina defense is why they are a unit to be feared. It is also why they were able to run the same play three times in a row and scare the wits out of Jameis each and every time. 

Through their scheme and talent, their diversity and multiplicity allow this defense to be #1 in the NFL. That is why they are a defense to be feared.

After all, if you can run the same blitz three times in a row with success each time, there's definitely something good going on with your defense.