Achilles

This was always a game the Panthers would be expected to lose. Up until just the last few weeks, most people had this pegged as a blowout win for Buffalo. So really, the very idea that at this point in the season Carolina may be poised to get the upset is a small miracle. If we approach this game like we did the Cowboys game, and execute when it matters, there’s a chance. A pretty good chance. If we lose…no big deal, we didn’t expect a W here. If the Panthers play well but lose, there may be something to build on. If we somehow manage to surprise the Bills and the national news media…all the better. If we get blown out, it really isn’t that much of a setback. I see this as a win-win situation. The worst we can be is 4-4. If the Bills truly play hot coming off the bye week, it could look like Buffalo 35-20. If we dominate the run game on both sides and keep the ball out of Allen’s hands enough times, we could see 31-24 Carolina.

Rico needs to be the primary RB. He is simply more effective. Chuba could have lost this game for us with that blown pass block. Luckily Dalton held onto the ball. I DID NOT appreciate Schlereth just openly cheering for the Jets. I understand they were the home team and they are a major market team. But there are TWO teams on the field. Keep your poo together and don’t sell out to openly pull for one team. It ruins the experience for the other fans watching. I finally had to MUTE him! The NFL doesn’t give a crap about small market teams.

Chances of us scoring 40+ points? I don’t see it unless we get a couple of TDs from the D.

We’re stuck with Bryce for now. He led TWO drives where we came from behind to take the lead. One of them was the winning drive and he threw the winning TD. Taken as a whole…he played at expectation after the 1st quarter. That’s not so bad under the circumstances. We got the win. Maybe they’ll struggle to build on it but a win is a win. He drove the offense down and took the lead when it was needed. You can’t take that away from him. We’re not changing QBs anytime soon. Or owners. So…when they win, we should take it at face value and give credit where it’s due. Bryce came up big in clutch moments. You can’t take that away from him.

God forbid we get some Panthers leaning announcers from time to time! Seems like our announcers always have way more love for our opponents. Oh wait…I know why. We don’t give them a lot to get hype about. But still…even when we were beating the Falcons by 5 scores, it was like the announcers had their fingers crossed for a comeback.

He should stick with Bryce. Either they play/coach their way out of this or into unemployment. Either way, it’s not like we’re going to make the playoffs. So try to figure out what the eff…

Teams don’t have to win games to make money. Yes they make more money when they win but they make plenty of money when they lose. The league is profitable and owning a team is lucrative because of the TV rights revenue sharing. Because of PSLs it doesn’t matter if the stadium is empty. Tepper can put a mediocre team out there every year and still not feel the pain. He has billions of dollars and this is like a hobby to him. Where is his incentive to do anything differently? He’s going to be fine. I feel like this team is the most likely team to be relocated to an up and coming city. Austin maybe. Or Portland.

Yes! This was a huge mistake. He had this team playing like an NFL team. Last guy to do that since Rivera.

So we had a game where we played out of our heads and held a shutout against a weak opponent at home. Now we get blown out on the road and look like even stinkier poo than we thought. Canales definitely got out coached by Vrabel but it’s the players who are fully sucking on the field. All phases have been terrible. Regression to the mean. The mean being that this is a 4-6 win team. And yes…that means they haven’t improved from last year. Canales isn’t great, but the lack of talent/depth in so many phases is still the main reason.

This beat down can be attributed to one cause… Canales has been completely out coached. Patriots have had an answer to everything we do. They figured out every weakness on this team and exploited it. Clearly, last week was an aberration. Handing the ball off on 3rd and 15 is basically saying we give up. The chances that Bryce throws an interception or there’s a sack strip on that play…they really had no other option. I fully expected a turnover on that play. With the punt return it essentially was. Canales has no answers. Bryce is not the long term solution.

Very likely that he needs another season or two to really find his groove. It very well may not be here where he has his best season. He’s a physical standout, but he can’t seem to get his focus and mentality right. That non-catch where he didn’t get his second foot in bounds was a truly awful display of this. Every professional in this game makes that catch. Last week, it was clear that he wasn’t playing in top gear. Like so many young people these days, he wants success without working hard. He wants maximum reward for minimum effort. He wants to rest on talent. But talent alone won’t cut it. The foolishness of youth and inexperience. He can have it all if he wants it. Seems like he’s content to be a social media star and a forgettable football player.

I’m guessing Canales will want to try and establish the run early. Atlanta knows that if they stop our run game, Bryce and these WRs aren’t going to win the game on their own so they’ll be keying on the run and likely have the personnel and scheme to be successful. The run game won’t work early. Atlanta will get out to a 10-0 or 10-3 lead. Canales will then go back to the pass game with Bryce dropping back 3/4 of all plays. In that scenario we lose the turnover battle. -2 is my guess. Past is prologue with this team. Atlanta will get their run game going and can just as easily beat us through the air if not. Sorry, but Carolina is not competent enough to beat a good Falcons team. We trail throughout the entire game. Atlanta 10 7 7 3 27 Carolina 3 6 7 3 19

The starters did not play enough in the preseason. They just are not prepared mentally and physically for week 1. This is a pattern with Tepper, Morgan, and Canales. Canales doesn’t instill enough discipline and the team has a serious lack of focus. He’s always so positive it gives a false sense of where we are with this rebuild. We are a 4-6 win team…again. T-Mac is a very good receiver, but we should have taken that LB from Georgia. We’ll just end up having to trade T-Mac away in a year or two because we can’t win games with the weaknesses in the middle of our D. Same old story…can’t stop the run, no pass rush, lack of execution when it mattered on offense. It’s not like we expected a playoff team, but the f-ing JAX players were literally laughing at us. Laughing AT us. Let’s see where it goes from here. On offense the problem was lack of preparedness and execution. On defense the problems are systemic. Evero just is NOT a good DC. They should fire him and hire and interim DC.

Lack of focus leads to a lack of execution. This team was not prepared for ANY preseason game. Not surprised they’re not prepared for this game. I’ve counted 3-4 drops receivers should have brought in. Losing the turnover battle. No pass rush. Can’t stop the run. Can’t execute on offense. I see ZERO growth from last season. They’re playing like they have NO plan.

The truth is…it’s not even worth looking at individual performances. The problem is completely systemic from the top down. Tepper has taken a mediocre franchise with some short bursts of success and turned it into a laughing stock. I have never seen a more inept team! The defense got torched early and often. The offense was a joke from the first play to the last. The problem is Tepper. He has run this organization into the ground. So long as he remain that the top, the team will remain at the bottom. Switch in any player in place of some of our worst and this team still loses to the Saints 10 times out of 10. Even Tom Brady couldn’t do crap with this offense. The team is not mentally or physically prepared. The head coach is way out of his depth. The undersized QB can’t see the field. The defense is just poo. Carolina is the worst team in the league by a mile. I’ve been a fan of this team for 30 years and the product they’re putting on the field now is by far the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s literally like the players would be better off to just forfeit the rest of the season and go spend time with their families in good health. This is the worst NFL team I’ve ever laid eyes on. And I watched EVERY game of the 1-15 season. Who even cares what individual players might have shown promise? The first offensive play was as interception! It was over before it even started.