BrianS

This is EXACTLY how we should look at it. We get him for a year, and our young CB's get to soak that in. If we work out a team friendly deal, great. We got a guy who in his prime was one of the best. I suspect we'll see a decline now, given age. Doesn't mean he can't contribute. But worst case, he wants more than we are willing to pay, he walks. We just flipped a 6th for a late 3rd. Who doesn't love that?

Yea, it was 33 - 14, and we brought it back to a one score game with a young team still finding their way. We never gave up. What would you like us to do? Put in PJ? Come on man. Get behind our team. For the Cowboys, why would they throw it? That's dumb. They owned us in the run game. There was no need to throw it when they could run, grind clock and see the game out. They did exactly what we hated Rivera for doing, albeit with more lead than Rivera usually built up. They nearly came to regret their choice. If we get that stop after kicking off, we get the ball back and tie the game . . . how big of an IDIOT does McCarthy look? Colossal. Rivera sized. Maybe Fox sized. I take comfort in seeing our team continue to grow. You seem to take joy in seeing us fail. Have fun with that.

It would be foolish in the extreme for fans to believe that what we can see isn't just as glaringly obvious to our front office. So yes, of course we've called around. But other teams are also not blind, and have scouting departments. They know how badly we need some help there, so it will come at a premium. It's obvious, isn't it? The worse you need it, the more you're willing to pay to get it, right? I applaud the front office for not overpaying to get a guy. That's the kind of restraint that builds a consistent contender as opposed to a "window" team. I want to see the Panthers as part of the playoff conversation EVERY YEAR. This front office looks like it may actually get us there.

When talking about Jaycee coming back this year, Fit just said in his press conference "We plan on going to the playoffs". That's a big statement.

When healthy, it's very possible - maybe even likely - we have the best cornerback room in the NFL. If the opponents want to put two WR's on the field? Fine. Our CB's won't get winded. You want to go four wide? Fine. Jaycee, Stephon, CJ, Donte. Good luck. Oh, and Chinn over the top.

Not sure he had another second tho, that pocket was looking pretty grim by the time he threw it.

Gilmore doesn't fit the profile of players we sign under Rhule. He's 31 now, he'd be 33 by the end of a 3 year contract. He wants 15 mil per year . . . pass. With Henderson and Horn on the roster as big, physical, man corners. Donte to bring speed. I just don't know where you fit him. That said, at 7 mil per year for two years? I'd do that. We could still pay Donte, we'd have Horn and Henderson. Our CB group would be STACKED.

Or as an extra lineman in short yardage / goal line packages . . . all places where we've struggled to just get some PUSH.

Garbage time? How do you figure that? With 5 minutes left in the game we were down one score. Sam brought us back but the defense couldn't get a stop. That's a QB doing his (*@#ing job and getting us back in the game. How different would the narrative be today if the defense had gotten a stop, and Sam drove us down to tie the game? "Garbage time" only applies when a team loses by 2+ scores. We did not. We showed that we don't give up, ever. That's exactly the sort of attitude you want in your young team.

Something went wrong with the line, that's why he was stuck blocking two. Our RG blocked down creating a double team with Paradis while two DB's shot the gap between RG / RT. RG should have played it straight up. Meanwhile the LG blocked no one. It was a nice blitz pickup, yes.

BC has played as a LT since he came into the BYU lineup. Moving him to the RT, as a rookie in the NFL makes absolutely no sense. If you're going to try BC, you try him on the left, at tackle. Moving him to guard won't gain us anything. BC isn't a power guy, and that's our problem on the interior. In the extremely limited sample size we have of him, he didn't look quite ready. Maybe he grows into it if you throw him in the fire. I dunno. I would like to see Deonte on the bench more often. I don't see how we get the answers we need with him inactive every week. Maybe he looks really bad in practice, maybe there is something with his weight. We can't make those calls from our seats here. Still, I'd hoped we'd see at least a series or two from him by this point. Yes, our OLine is a problem. Everyone, everywhere knows it. Yes, it's a problem for continuing Sam's development. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's possible to fix it this year without sacrificing the future.

I think it's fair to criticize TMJ for not making the EFFORT. That's what bothers me. If he hustles, gets down there and tries to make a block that's enough. I don't like the lazy feet that appeared to be part of the equation here. I will say that I believe TMJ might have felt DJ was going out of bounds. Apparently he hasn't met DJ.

Our OLine has been "ok"? On which planet? Our OLine has been all kinds of awful in the run and pass game. It's little short of a miracle that Sam is playing as well as he is. Those third quarter stats are frankly eye popping. Especially because in the other three quarters Sam Darnolds stats look like a bona fide franchise QB. 73.5% completion, 1000 yards, 5 TD, 0 INT. Yes please. If we can get him playing four quarters at that clip, we have a SB in our future. Real talk.

That first INT, a couple things. They ran that play a series or two earlier, but with DJ running the router instead of Robby. DJ was open on the play, but Sam had a ton of pressure and overthrew it a bit. I'll bet that when they talked about it they told Sam "This was open and we're going to go to it again". I say that because Sam largely just locked on to the receiver. He glanced once at the flat, but there was definitely no progression read there. It's a shame too, because if he had followed the progression instead, DJ was WIDE (*@ OPEN deep.

I can answer that. In addition to Dallas: Arizona, LA Chargers, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Buffalo, LA Rams, Detroit, Baltimore, Denver, Tampa and Miami all average 3.0 YBC (yards before contact) or more when rushing. This is a direct reflection of an offensive line just killing it at the point of attack. Here's the chart: Any team that gets it's back three yards before he is touched is a team that can blow you off the ball and likely can do what Dallas did.

There is a lot more to interior OLine play that just staying between your man and the QB. This is why Paradis is being graded highly. His technique is fine, he keeps himself in relatively good position. The problem our entire interior has is that they get pushed backwards. Interior push is arguably the most important part of pressuring the QB. Defensively, when you prevent a QB from climbing the pocket, or even stepping into his throw, you've done good work. Sure, you'd like sacks and hits, but just obscuring his vision and lanes and making him move are all things that create challenges to the timing and execution of the passing game.

With the exception of the interior OL.

Picking Slater isn't going to change the fact that the majority of our pass protection issues stem from the interior push. Our tackles need to be able to usher their man upfield PAST the QB, but due to the lack of anchor in the middle, Sam is not able to give that to them by climbing. We demonstrate our lack of interior strength over and over and over in both the run and pass game.

YGM isn't the answer. You're putting the onus for stopping Zeke on a guy with 12 career tackles in 14 games. Frankly, I'm not sure he belongs on our roster yet. Of course he still has a chance to come good, but he hasn't shown anything more than promise at this point. I agree, Dallas has a great run game, as evidenced by their YBC being around 4. But we've seen it over and over, we've heard the phrase "It's a copycat league". Watch. Teams are going to run power at us. Often. It will be far less effective in games where we have a good lead. Far more effective in games where we are chasing it.

Not even remotely the same thing. It doesn't mitigate the fact that Meyer is a scumbag, but this isn't close to the level of what JR did.

Inclining? Like, sliding down a hill inclining? Sorta how this conversation is going? I think you mean imply, or perhaps insinuate. In either case, you're wrong. Couldn't be more wrong really. Moore is never mentioned, this is fact. Further, there is never even a mention of Diggs "following the Carolina #1" or . . . anything resembling it. In point of fact, Sam was 8/12 for 113 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT throwing to DJ yesterday. I think you'd struggle to find anyone who would back the idea that a receiver who had that stat line got "shut down". Let alone a media member. In point of fact, if Diggs was supposed to be shadowing Moore yesterday, he did a very poor job of it. I'd love to see something even remotely resembling an implication such as the one you spectacularly put in the title of the thread here. Because that guy would look like a fool quite quickly. DJ got his yesterday. Only someone in total denial could claim otherwise.

It wasn't Pollard or Elliot who killed us, it was the Dallas OLine. Here, let me illustrate. It's pretty darn easy to run the football when you are FOUR YARDS downfield before you get touched. I do agree, I think Pollard is the better back, as evidenced by his greater YAC/Att, but the bottom line is that even if you fall down immediately on contact, you still got four yards. Pretty sure you take that every week of the year if you can get it.

Yep, said something similar in another thread. Our defense is built to play with a lead, very much the way the Manning Colts built their defense. Not as big, but very very fast and able to get after the QB. That was definitely how you beat Freeney, you ran at him, all game long. This was the first time our defense was asked to stop a team from running when the other team had the lead and could afford to just run and grind clock. I'm unsurprised that we got gashed. Derek Brown is a man, but when he's the only anchor you've got, it's not enough. It's kinda like the secret is out now. You can run at this defense, but you cannot run away from them.

I think the fact that these grades are available SO QUICKLY after gameday should be an inkling of how much thought goes into them. There is no way someone watches every play, focused on one and only one player to accurately grade them, for every team in the league, by the next day. That's a MINIMUM of 11 winds of one play, and honestly, it should probably take at least two to three times that to understand what a given players assignment on any given play may have been. What's more, you may need to understand what the other players were supposed to do. Was the back supposed to chip there? Maybe the tight end? Little stuff like that could make a mountain of difference to how a tackle might set up to play a snap. I'd be a lot more interested in seeing Panthers staff grades for our players, but obviously that will never happen.

Nope, not at all, saw both. Which is why I pointed it out. DJ Moore is not mentioned in either one of them.