d-dave

I saw that, and I just want him to let it out. Let's see how horrific the NFL really is at the highest levels. Then yes, force the owners out, change up the structure of the league. The GB model would be interesting indeed. Then again, who would rake in the billions and get rich off the backs of the workers?

It's going to have to be the PJ show until someone gets healthy. Will they worry about the 5th rounder for Baker when trying to win? I don't know. I know PJ is good for a turnover every 19 pass attempts... I think they will try to get a few games out of PJ, then try Baker again, and then if he still sucks, trot out old Darnold. It's going to be a poo show. I wouldn't invite Cam to this mess, and he won't come for this crap, no matter how much love he has for Wilks or the team.

This is the most basic thing to do. But that may not happen this season. Instead, Wilks is going to have to concentrate on developing that team identity. While Rhule is gone, will Snow follow him? Will we need a new DC as well? We have a LOT of questions to answer as we move forward. I have no idea what will happen, but it's something.

I wish him the best of luck outside of the Panthers. Now that he's gone, let's get on to figuring out how to win some games.

Cookies, Temp files and restarts will fix a majority of quirky issues on computers. (I know because I've been a complete dumb dumb over those kinds of issues before I learned to fix them)

I like what Geoff Schwartz said: he's just programed that way. LOL. You have a coach who wants to run a precision team with a QB who likes to improvise. Go figure. Seems to be a major problem in the NFL. Coaches have to coach to the strengths of their QBs. Something we know really well.

I thought people liked his competitive fire? That privilege! Race matters aside, something is really off with Baker and this offense. No one wants to say it because "we're a team" but the reality is that the game plan sucks. John Ellis (@ellis) did a nice job breaking down the struggles this year compared to Baker's previous years in Cleveland. He's having over 10% of his passes batted down. His worst year in Cleveland it was under 4%. John also makes a great point about height when looking at the batted passes from Josh Allen and Justin Herbert, who are very tall QBs. So the reality is that there is a MASSIVE game planning/coaching issue going on. Teams have picked up on this offenses tendencies which is leading to these batted balls. If you can't get home, just hold up and play volleyball. That's on Ben McAdoo. They need to get smarter. Is Baker completely at fault? No. He's doing what he's coached to do, and having to take the heat for it. I'd be pretty pissed if I had to spew the company line, knowing full well that my career is the one going in the toilet. Baker does need to take responsibility for his play, absolutely. He needs to make adjustments at the line, he needs to hit guys accurately. He needs to find his throwing lanes. It's not as simple as fire a coach, bench a player. It's a lot of everything. That's why they all make millions of dollars. If they fail, then at least they have that nice cushion of cash.

Ben McAdoo.... While a fun thought experiment, even if we fire Ben today, we're still stuck with his system that the team was installing all off season.

I was thinking this morning while picking up my dogs' fecal matter off the neighbor's grass, that our team is a competent HC/Offensive system away from being kind of good. I mean, defensively, if they aren't being asked to continually bail the offense out every game, they are pretty solid. ST has been great this season. We have skill players and an improving OL. So Rhule get's fired in January at the latest (I could see Tepper holding on to him to keep from from getting those lucrative college jobs because he's a Petty Betty). Say we manage to find a good offensive coach and draft a top QB prospect. We could be in much better shape even wit ha rookie QB and rookie coach in 2023. But then again, I had these thoughts while picking up dog poo at 4:50am...

Good point

Darnold won't solve anything. Baker is a better QB than Sam. Sam has more talent, but he can't get out of his own way. Baker's issues fall a fair amount on the coaching staff, and an equal amount on himself. Why did we keep putting passing routes remotely near these guys blocking Baker's passes? JJ Watt is one of the best in the business. I think he stopped rushing the passer and just hung back and waited for Baker to throw so he could play volleyball. That's a coaching issue. Baker should have been smarter about not throwing it in Watt's direction. Right now, the Panthers are screwed. You can fire Rhule today, but the offensive playbook is still the offensive playbook. You can trot out Sam, Baker or PJ - it's not going to change things. Man, I miss the days of Teddy and Joe Brady! At least the offense put up some points and kept it interesting! Now it's just a waiting game. Waiting to see when Rhule gets fired, and how badly the defense get's abused after being out on the field 40 minutes a game.

So this is basically saying it's going to be a really fun movie Good to know that it's happening before the Logan film. Though that's only five years after this one when it actually comes out...

I love it! Color me excited! Though I wonder if Jackman will insist on not taking his shirt off so he doesn't have to add 40 lbs of muscle? I also wonder if this will be old man Logan, or a different Logan. I can't wait to see what becomes of this

Snark aside he's over 90. He knows he doesn't have a lot of time left on this earth. I will say, it's getting freaky what AI can do now a days.

It's because that's not what Ben does. So he had the entire summer to study the old playbooks, see what concepts he liked or didn't, and build an offense that would work for this team with uneven QB play (I think that's fair to say regardless of our QB). He has a head coach who like to run the ball and control the LOS, and a rookie LT who needs some help and time to get his head where his physical abilities are. And this is what he has? Color me disappointed. Sure, Ben didn't have a ton of great job opportunities after the giants, but he was around guys and he should have learned, even if it's what NOT to do. This is apparently who Ben McAdoo is. Or worse, this is Matt Rhule micromanaging things again. Regardless, this Panthers Offense is not going to win us any games. We need more than 1 TD a game from them. We need to be able to score points in this NFL. We need to be able to convert third downs. We need to play to our player's strengths. I'm so happy for the win, but the same issues are still there.

Man.. I'm not sure how I feel to be honest. It's been SO LONG and we did not see any real growth on the offensive side of the team. Defense played very well. ST was great today. As the announcers said, the ball just bounced our way today. But Baker was still really off target. We got a great play from the new guy Shenult. CMC ground his way to his yardage. So we were fortunate our defense clamped down on the Saints aside from the BS magic on those YOLO balls. I'm pretty happy for the win, but I'm still concerned that we can't produce an NFL offense.

I know some people just don't like podcasts. I get it. But sometimes you get some great interviews. This morning I started listening to this episode with Jonathan Stewart, which I found super insightful. It's only about 36 minutes long, and the content with JStew is pretty cool. What I took away from Stewart is that there is a distinct lack of trust on the team. Period. Can they trust the play call? The other guys? With that sense of trust is how much you have your bud's back? It's a very interesting perspective about the relationships between players, coaches, and the families. Stewart said "it's not just us winning, it's our kids and our families winning." That hit really hard. He also said something many of us will not like to hear: it's not all on Matt Rhule. He didn't fumble the ball. He didn't drop a pick. He didn't miss a block. Remember his perspective as a player before you think he's just soft in the head. He does also say that when players do their jobs and the results stink, that's on the coaches. It's something we need to remember - there is a give and take between players and coaches. Overall, really enjoyable listen for me. Maybe you will disagree and that's fine. It's important to try to look at the different perspectives as we try not to sell our team out completely. Not that they haven't earned it thus far...

On Sunday, I saw a team that spent too much time playing around with "competitions" for the sake of competitions. These guys needed more time to get acclimated. That should have been done earlier this offseason and at TC.

I wish there was something that could be done on the fan's side that mattered. The NFL gets tons of TV money, and fans will buy tickets and food for games. But I'm pretty much done with the Matt Rhule coached Panthers. 10 straight losses? Longest losing streak in the NFL. 5-12 when leading after 3 quarters? He's never going to turn a corner. It's pointless for me to spend my Sunday's hoping something happens. I'll follow, but forget watching games again. Heck, I'd rather scrub my toilets than watch Matt Rhule continue to ruin my team.

Man that is very interesting for Saturday morning twitter Is it realistic? That's another matter. While there are a lot of egos and money involved in the NFL. Could some that be true? Sure. But we won't really know because of the fraternity of the NFL. If it's at least partially true, then Rhule won't finish the season. On the flip side, if the Panthers win Sunday, then this gets swept under the rug for another week.

I think most of us would be glad for the win, because when your sports teams win; it feels good. That's fine. But I don't think there would be too much optimism. The reality is we had a full team, Bozeman being the only real injury issue. What a fortunate camp! We had a defense that had weeks to prepare, to have schemes and plans to stop power running teams. We have a new OC and system, but that OC is recognized for being at least decent. While the "glass is always full of piss" crowd will never ever be happy with the Panthers, even if they win a Super Bowl, there wasn't a lot to celebrate other than the fighting back. Fighting back means the team still gives a poo. Rhule has earned a LOT of poo for being a terrible game coach, weak at Xs and Os, but his players play hard for him. That was still showing in the 4th quarter. The problem is that regardless of the score we gave up TONS of rushing yards, bounced off running backs, missed tackles, and allowed a backup QB to play a turnover free game. Our only sack came on a blitz, and pressure was always late. He had it easy to hang back, find his spot and rip it. Thankfully he missed some big throws. Others, he did make some good throws that are hard to defend. He's an NFL QB for a reason. But we should have played better on offense. Several 3 and outs in the first half gave Cleveland the ability to control the clock, even if they didn't light up the scoreboard. Even if we'd have won by the skin of our teeth, games like this are untenable for the rest of the season.

Let's not get lost in the weeds here. We played like crap. There's no way around that. That's a coaching issue. When your team has months to prepare like we did and they can't find their way around a snap, run defense, helping out a rookie with one of the best DEs in the league; it's a coaching issue. Now it's great they fought back. It would have been really helpful to get an ugly win under their belts. But they didn't. That stinks. Teams know we just can't stop a power run game. So the Panthers D to me is built to protect a lead. They SHOULD be able to get a stop in a close game, but ideally they want to rush the passer. When we've had times to do that over the past couple of years, we've had some pretty decent success, especially last year. But again, our coaching is not up to snuff. That's what's really getting me. After three years, this should be a well oiled machine. They should be able to come out and run their system. Instead, we've kept changing things because of poor choices and we've had two first years out of the offense, which puts all the pressure on our light and fast defense. PFF grades are fine. But at the end of the day, the team has to be coached better.

I was very disappointed during the game. They had three weeks to basically game plan how to deal with and attack Cleveland's defense and pressure their QB. That shows how poorly coached this team is, IMO. This is the 2nd time in two years Bill Callahan has dominated our Run D, just abusing us. Why wasn't that addressed? That's just unacceptable. BUT - I did feel better seeing the team keep fighting. Baker and Robbie made a heck of a play which seemed to lift the entire team. That's great to see from the players. The defense had moments where it played really well. I feel like Baker will help us content in the South. Which is something we didn't imagine would happen with Darnold. That's my hope. But the issues with the defensive line, with the offensive game planning, the development of Icky are going to determine our fate.

I still get excited for the games, and my after loss brooding has shortened to less than 30 minutes. The reality is that I have ZERO impact on the team. It's no use to get incredibly upset or overjoyed over the games. I will always try to enjoy it, one way or another. Life is too short to drown in needless sorrows. Be like Elsa and let it go

I'm very curious to see how well "complementary" football is going to work. Will the offense be able to sustain drives to let the defense rest? Will the defense get people off the field on 3rd downs? Can we limit our turnovers? I'm really excited because it's Panthers Football period. I always get excited, I'm all full of hope, and I'm willing to place my faith in the team. Will I be disappointed? I'll let you know this afternoon, ha ha. Let's Go Panthers! Let's see what kind of team this is!