Achilles

Seems to me that the Bucs have less fight in them now than they had in week 16. The real test is going to be if the Panthers can sustain focus and discipline throughout. With the Bucs being at home, maybe that gives them a little boost of confidence and energy. Wouldn’t it be something if for ONCE the Panthers came out and dominated from the opening snap and just took this shook Bucs team to task? If the Panthers see-saw form follows, we are in line for the W. Hard to say we have momentum but we do have a pretty clear pattern of following a loss with a win. I’m going to say 24-16 Panthers!!

Chances are we end up playing a winner take all game in Tampa next weekend. Even if we win this game, that is still the most likely outcome. It very well could go like the Rams game. It could also go like the Bills game. So…all you can do is play your best against every opponent. We’ll see how we measure up against a very good team. On paper, Seattle has a few more advantages in this game. Will home field balance that out?

The refs were bad in this game overall. I don’t think the most logical conclusion is that the game was rigged, but it did seem like the calls the refs did make advantaged the Saints more than the Panthers. The Shough story is compelling from the NFL’s perspective. That’s for sure! But isn’t the Bryce-Canales story equally compelling. Maybe it’s in the NFL’s best interest that the remaining Bucs AND Panthers games will matter…higher viewership. But look…it’s not the refs fault that D Brown, Latham, and Icky lost their brains for a split second on those personal foul plays. They had to call those. It’s not the refs fault that the Panthers coaches had a bum game plan. The players lacked discipline and intensity. Maybe that’s why they committed so many penalties.

The problem isn’t being scared I don’t think. The problem was lack of discipline and intensity which led to poor execution. The real difference in this game were the 3 personal foul penalties against the Panthers. Icky, D Brown, and Latham lost their focus and didn’t execute an understanding of situational football. You can’t lay a hit on a QB who has given himself up. Shough was excellent at baiting our defenders into making those mistakes. Much the opposite of playing scared, this indicates an over aggressiveness.

This loss comes down to a lack of discipline and a lack of intensity. We had how many personal foul penalties? Mental mistakes. Poor execution and not great coaching in a must win scenario. This team is just not quite ready for success. Blown opportunity. Panthers really let this one slip away. So much improvement but ultimately we’re not there yet. Lack of discipline I think got the better of us today.

When he put his helmet by the heater and it got too hot to even put on his head…comedy gold! He might not be a world-beater, but our D has been MUCH more solid with him making the calls. He has leadership qualities. Also, he’s had better games than the Rams game.

Dave “Uncanny” Canales His choices are often inexplicable, but work absurdly well about half the time.

Pick up the option and bring some viable talent in to compete at the position. Bryce has to prove he can put it all together and not be so streaky. At the same time, we can bring in a vet backup with the potential to push him. One more year with Canales and this offense might still make a difference at this point. Ultimately I think his size disadvantage shows. He still takes too many sacks. Let him play out his contract, and consider what it would take to retain him. Bryce will have to know that it’s either time to get paid or time to accept a role as career back-up elsewhere.

It just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Panthers would have to have at least a +2 turnover differential AND score 14+ points off those turnovers. Then, we might find ourselves in this game. Maybe Stafford has a Bryce-like 1st quarter. Even then, they can score so fast we would struggle to keep up. They could spot us 2 tds and still come back to beat us. With all our injuries on D, it’s hard to imagine keeping them within one score headed into the 4th. That said…if we are within a score late in the 4th, maybe we have a shot. That’s not how I see this going though… LAR 10 7 10 6 33 CAR 3 3 7 3 16

Glad he realized what a mistake that Victory Monday was. Team lacked focus all the way from that point to halftime of this game. Not winning in a way that calls for a day off. WAY more work to do but there is growth in this young team. Loved that he called himself out for a few questionable coaching decisions. Great chemistry and relationships in this locker room. Changing the culture of this franchise after years of mediocrity is no small accomplishment.

This Panthers team does not look prepared or focused. It’s like they are already resigned to get their butts handed to them. The failure vs NO is clearly rolling into this week at ATL. At this rate, it’s hard to imagine winning more than 1 or 2 additional games. Or any. If this season goes south and we end up 5-12, I don’t see how you return next year with the combination of Bryce and Canales. This team is not prepared physically or mentally.

Game. Winning. Drive.

It’s hard to imagine a set of scenarios where the Panthers best the Packers at Lambeau. I can’t stretch my imagination that far. It’s fair to both teams to expect a Packers victory. We haven’t gotten a lot of dumb luck this season. At some point or another a team is going to turn the ball over twice in the first half and let us get a 21-3 lead (it may not be this season). Where are the inexplicable fumbles in our favor? That’s the only way I can imagine the Panthers winning this game. By some stroke of dumb luck the Packers implode and we somehow jump out to a big enough early lead that they abandon the run and become one dimensional. Even then we might need a defense or special teams score. We are who we thought we were… Car 3 3 7 3 16 GB 7 10 7 3 27

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