d-dave

Man, that was fun to watch. I loved Cam in his prime. He made the game so much fun! The problem is we beat him to pieces. Do I think Cam could come in and be productive? Sure, I think so. Would he be the Cam we remember? No. He's still a good runner, but he's not the magic man he was. His passing has improved, but is he good enough for a timing based system where you need to anticipate? No clue there. Cam is not the MVP he was, and I'm not sure he would want to come back considering how Rhule dumped him so hard and fast. But it would get butts in seats for a while. Heck, it might even be fun, in a terrible way.

That was an interesting segment. The problem is, we have no other choices. No offense to PJ, but his execution of the offense is probably not much better. His accuracy along with WRs who have been dropping the ball like crazy the past few weeks is not a good recipe for success. I don't know that a practice squad QB is going to do anything either. The reality is that the Panthers coaches have to fix things on their end. They have to coach Sam, make a competitive game plan, and figure it out. I'm not holding out much hope for the rest of the season, but that's what needs to happen. No one is coming to rescue you.

Again, fug Alec Baldwin. Don't care as much about him. But he does play a large role in this as a producer of the film. Producers do a lot of "making stuff happen" in the film industry. They know people, they hire people, they negotiate contracts, etc. Baldwin would have been in on these negotiations, and my understanding is they cheaped out and did no go union (IATSE - professionals) for many of their contracts. That lead to the crew walk out as well as unqualified people doing important safety jobs. I also understand that the weapons were used for target practice earlier in the day. I can't imagine that. I will hulk-rage when people mess with show props, even weeks out. If I was the armorer for this show, I would have been keeping those guns under lock and key, and I would have mad a big, flashy, dramatic exit if I found out people had been playing with my gun props. There's noting weird about people telling stories, even with things they don't agree with. Like I don't agree with the Nazi's, but if I had the chance to direct The Dairy of Anne Frank at a youth theatre, I'd jump on that because it's an important story for young people to learn. It's a story, and guns or uniforms are simply props to give context and sell the audience so they can suspend their disbelief for a little while. The more that comes out, the more I think Baldwin needs to be done. He didn't directly kill that woman, but he set up an environment where it could more easily happen. He, as well as the other producers, need to answer for that.

To be honest, our draft position is fugged anyway without 2nd and 3rd round picks. It would require someone willing to trade up if we go high. Me thinks the Panthers got too drunk on themselves after that 3-0 start...

I agree, 1,000%. During TC, the narrative was that the OL was going to be an issue, but most teams have OL issues. I'm just so disappointed in our coaching staff, for not at least being competitive. The team just seems so listless - which goes well beyond all the other issues this team has.

I think BC should have been playing LT from the get go in rookie camp, etc. Flipping him around the entire line has not been great for his development. Sure he's an old rookie, but he's still a rookie. They should have been grooming him since May... Again, the coaches are just as much to blame for the poopy execution. That being said. He did have some good reps. I'd say he needs to play LT from here on out. May as well see if he does improve.

I think from a running perspective, Chuba looks the part. He could be a good, quality NFL back. CMC is a different animal. Now the injuries have sucked, but we're stuck with his massive contract. Hopefully he can get heathy during this time on IR, and come back this season. While the temptation to protect him from himself is high, he's getting paid a poo ton of money, may as well make him earn it. Now if he does come back, and the offense changes for the better, then we need to get rid of all the offensive coaches lol. I get that CMC is really important, but if after a season's worth of games, you haven't figured out how to still score point and convert 3rd downs... You are a piss poor group of coaches. I love CMC, and I love watching him play. Our draft is fugged up like no other right now without 2nd and 3rd round picks. May as well try to have the best and most productive season as possible and play CMC. Then re-evaluate everything in the offseason. There will be coaching departures. Either from college or from firing. I'm not sure who does what, but I'm pretty sure things will look different in 2022.

Wow...just freaking wow. I thought it was pretty gross for this stuff from anyone. Someone died. Someone who had a full life, career and creative vision ahead of her. Fug Alec Baldwin. He's a rich movie star. Sometimes he's funny and worth watching, others not. Taunting him is in pretty bad taste considering that this was completely preventable and still under investigation. What it seems like too many people do is they forget the victims of gun violence while they lord their points over each other.

Oh, and one more thing - Party foggers heat up the liquid, which can set off fire alarms and smoke detectors. Yet another reason I'll never use them personally or professionally. Well, that and the smell makes me want to puke. I had a teacher ask me one time if we could just get the fire marshal to turn off the alarms... I laughed and told them I had zero interest in that amount of paperwork and oversight. I'd rather just use dry ice which looks better for a haunted house anyway.

I saw that this morning. Absolutely tragic. This is why you have people in charge of props and especially weapons. Why was a live round in the gun? As a theatre person, educator, whatever, I'm always triple checking safety when dealing with anything that could cause injury. It's just terrible because the DP he accidently killed was an up and comer. Just crap.

Yeah, I don't think Carolina can put together enough, even at a discount for Watson right now. We need to really work on fixing that OL for whoever throws passes for the Panthers.

Is there such thing as bad attention? Talk about being relevant again... I agree 1,000% with your sentiment there. Would be a total poo storm.

I just don't think the Panthers have the draft ammo to beat out the Dolphins or Colts. Do we want to trade away some of our great defensive players for a guy who has massive amounts of baggage, and who may or may not return to his MVP level form? I'd love to get the player Watson was before his "issues" emerged, but who knows how he will play after going through all of that? Plus, we still need that draft capital to rebuild our OL... Watson would still be running for his life behind our terrible line.

Thanks for the input. @LinvilleGorge, I have two dogs(pit and a boxer mix) who lose their bananas anytime someone comes to the door, a cat walks near the house, and anytime FedEx or UPS deliver. Amazon drivers are ninjas to them. I'm not super worried when we're at home thanks to those two! I think I'm leaning towards SimpliSafe as it seems to have the best options for us regarding price, quality, and service.

For a long time, we've had CPI, despite knowing they were more expensive than some of the newer systems. We liked how it just worked and was pretty consistent. Well, now we're running out of patience. It took them two weeks to find an appointment to come and fix our panel's radio, which require a new one. Then they didn't properly run power and the board is dead. Now we have to wait another week before we can even be worked in. So instead of sitting on my hands, I'm looking around at some of the DIY systems that offer live monitoring. Do y'all have any experience with things like Ring, Safelite, Abode or any of them? I tried to call ADT, but I'm not going to sit on hold for a sales call to get a quote.

Now if we'd won the coin flip and drove down the field and won... But the drive was fun. When he completed that 4/10 to Ian Thomas... Man, that was completely unexpected! Sam had some moments, but then a lot of poo. The whole team missed plays, on offense and defense. Though I'm not going to poo on the D. They kept us in the game, despite our offense mailing it in for most of the game. They just didn't have a chance to rest. We had zero reason to be in the game, but we were. There's something to be said for that!

Dry ice >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> smoke machine. You can make much better ground cover with dry ice, a cooler and a fan.

1. CMC was going to hold out. May as well pay a RB when he's productive. There were zero injury concerns about him. Goes to show you don't pay RBs. That's just the reality. Let someone else do that. As much as you love having that RB, each carry, each hit wears them down. It's just the reality of the position. 2. Anderson was going to hold out. He wanted more money because he just had a career year. Rhule wanted to take care of one of his guys. The thinking was that he and DJ would be great compliments with an upgrade at QB. 3. Cheap QB play. Also, mentally, giving him the assurance that we'd stick through whatever this year. 4. I dunno....Where's the Fit memes? Were they all good choices? No. But it's the cards we were dealt. The better question is how do we fix the interior protection?

I'd only say PJ in case of an injury. At this point, we're here for the Sam Darnold experience. We have to see how well he does. PJ had some flashes, but also some super boneheaded interceptions. How is that different from Sam? Sam didn't get a lot of help yesterday, and he also sucked a lot. Both can be true. I mean, we paid a price for Sam, so let's get our money out of it right now.

I think @Zod made a great point during the game that this is what the defense looks like without a press man corner. Cousins was able to hit his mark and throw the ball without much real pressure. Without that kind of strong CB play, we needed our pass rush to win today. They did not. Then add in the fact that we were unable to convert 3rd downs for most of the day, it was just a LONG day at the office for the defense. Sam, the WRs, the OL - our offense is just not good. What has Rhule been doing? Praying that CMC saves his butt? No. Rhule needs to get it together, figure out what kind of offense we are and do it now. That's a lame ass excuse. You either are able to execute, or you need to figure out how. Is the season lost? I don't think so. Again, I'm going to be hopeful because that's just more fun than being a pessimist in general. Then again when the Panthers screw things up, I've got other good things in my life so I guess that makes it easier for me.

I learned a long time ago not to let the Panthers rule my life. Sure it sucks we lost a very winable game, but it doesn't really affect my life in a meaningful way. I just skipped out on any NFL action for a few days. It's up to the Panthers to get better, to win games, and pull of a surprise or two at a time. If they can't, then fans will complain, and we will lose relevance. That's something that will upset Tepper, and he strikes me as someone you don't want to upset. Rhule will right the boat or he will be looking for a new job sooner rather than later. I love my Panthers, I do. But my heart has been broken too many times, and I've allowed it to really upset me. No more! I will choose optimism in my sports, and save my pessimism for other things, lol.

So who is elite as this task? Is that something that can be taught? Or is it a scheme/coaching thing? I have no issue with that you said, I'm just curious about this "processing" thing as a criticism.

OK, I've got to ask here: what the heck is processing? I've seen it around all over the place this season, and especially in regards to Sam Darnold. Is there a "best" processor in the league? How does one improve it? Is it as much a coaching/scheme issue as a player issue? For me, what I've seen/read/absorbed is we're talking about the ability to play fast. To hit your mark, throw the ball to the open guy. Is that pretty correct? Like when #11 jumped our RB chip and sacked Sam, he didn't "process" fast enough. I realize NFL athletes are rare individuals. But would it be easier to "process" if he had half a second more time? Or as he gets more time in the offense, will he not "process" faster? After all, isn't that one thing said about older QBs, how they've "seen everything?" Sorry, this isn't an only Sam Darnold question, but more of how this processing is evaluated in regards to players and coaches. As far as Sam - I'm pretty happy with him. He's not perfect, but well worth the 2nd round pick at this point.

I think it's fair to say that the officiating was not good. Football is a very emotional game where momentum shifts and guys either outplay or can't play up to the Xs and Os. Not getting that fumble was bad for us because that could have really turned the game around for us. Instead, it allowed Dallas to maintain possession and giving them a shot of momentum. Dallas, with their O line and Dak being an upper echelon NFL QB, we needed every advantage to win. We are young, thin, and still figuring out who we are as an NFL team - we didn't have a large margin of error. While the refs didn't lose us the game, they also did not call a good game.

They've had the media sending them kisses since they signed Dak to an extension. They aren't a bad team right now. Their offense is looking good. Their defense forces turnovers. I get they have a lot to be excited about. I'm not saying the Panthers are going to whip them. I'm not saying the Cowgirls are going to run us out of Texas. But I do think that this is going to be our biggest test, and a major statement. Rhule seems to understand how NFL narratives work, and the team seems focused on each game. So let the media continue to blow platitudes Dallas' way. I prefer the good ole Teddy Roosevelt saying of "Speak softy, but carry a big stick..." I'm excited for the game. Hopefully the Panthers make the best use of their extra time to prep and play well.