Panthers Rhule

Reason 1, I was born in Greensboro, NC, on March 22, 1972 and grew up in a trailer in Reidsville. My parents were the oldest children of large families in rural NC. My family was poor and life was hard. As in most of the South there wasn't much of anything until the 1990s. That's when things finally started to improve and the city of Charlotte started blossoming into a wonderful city and professional sports crept into our lives. Although I played many sports, Football was always my favorite to play and to watch. When the Panthers came, it took me about 1 full season to mentally switch from my old favorite team, (Minnesota Vikings) to my new one. It was wonderful to finally have a team of my own that I could identify with locally. A team that carried a part of me in their name. I have always been and will always continue to be proud to tell everyone who asks that MY team is the Carolina Panthers. Even if I no longer live in Carolina. My heart will always carry a part of Carolina with me wherever I rest. Being a Carolina Fan isn't easy. We've had highs and lows. We have been luckier than many of the newer franchises in that we've at least found some success quite early in our existence. Compare to most teams, we've been very fortunate in this regard. When we look across the NFL, the most successful organizations have had many more years to reach their level of success and I'm grateful for our few incredible moments and especially those players that made it possible. Almost none of our greats were ever suppose to be great and yet they were. That's what it means to me to be a Panther's fan. We've been blessed with so many great players who nobody believed in and yet they still made us great from time to time. My all time personal favorite was Steve Smith. Probably because I'm short too and I always heard that I was too small to play and I just loved him as a player and he's still the only jersey I wear. The little guy full of fight always seemed to represent our team to me. Charlotte, the small market team that shouldn't be good but sometimes is. (but will always be dismissed because, well, you know, it's the South.) Reason 2, Mr. Tepper. No, I don't mean Dr. Pepper. I'm speaking about our glorious owner. Now I will always be grateful to the previous ownership for bringing an NFL team here and for the success we had here but Mr. Tepper is clearly a different type of owner. The fact that we have a "new" team all starts with his acquisition of the team and the philosophy that he brought with him when he took it over. I greatly appreciate the fact that he didn't come in and just clean house. He came in like a business man. He knew what he wanted, he formulated a plan and he has followed through with his plan. He's been slow and methodical but he's made every move with patience which is rare these days and every move has been with the intention of improving everything that needs to be improved and he's put his money where his mouth is which only emphasizes his sincerity in this project. He let the team he bought continue as it was on the field, giving everyone a fair chance to prove why or why not they should be here while he concentrated on the "business side" of the organization. To me, this not only showed respect to the organization but also intelligence. He gave himself time to see who we were and what we were and to better understand the operations at the time while creating a better financial situation which was the part he was most comfortable with. I believe it was this attitude that allowed him the opportunity to learn more about the organization, the community and the base as well as time to decide what he wanted and how best to find "his" people to put his vision into progress. This likely lead to Hurney staying one year more than most of us would like but I can understand the reasoning. One stable piece with relationships to the old to help bridge the gap with the new. Especially considering the new were all from the NCAA and mostly lacking NFL experience plus the outbreak of Covid. It was also an opportunity to see where his new coach's ideas fit with the old system. The first draft I believe was huge for solidifying our direction. I have no idea f this is true or not but I've always felt that Rhule wanted to draft in a way very similarly to what we did this year and Hurney wanted to do it the old way and that during the course of the year, Mr. Tepper was able to see that Coach Rhule was right. Exit Hurney, enter Fitt, who thinks like Rhule on how to draft. Reason 3, Coach Rhule. I know it's too early to speak definitively but I think we won the lottery when we stole him away from NY. Going back through his whole career, from results to people's comments, I cannot find 1 negative thing about this man. From the moment he first spoke to us as fans, I wanted to believe. He's inspiring. He has a vison and a philosophy that he not only preaches but lives by and it seems obvious to me that his players not only understand it, but accept it and those who don't are shown the door. I'm okay with this because in my opinion it's obvious that the players who do have shown tremendous improvement. I do understand that it's only been 2 games but we all can see how much certain players have improved. Not just the rookies but veterans who are playing better than ever right now. I have to put this on their hard work and dedication and their belief in the system and culture that Rhule has/is creating. One last mention is the dedication he seems to have. Coach Snow, who has been phenomenal and appears to be a defensive Guru has followed him everywhere. The ex-players that have turned down other offers to come here speaks louder to me than any word I could give. Actions speak louder than words and men follow Coach Rhule. I think I can understand why based off what I've seen. He always speaks about a philosophy. He has a plan and a belief system and everything he does is based off that system. Nothing is random. He believes in the system and he has surrounded himself with people whom believe in that system from GM to water boy and anyone that doesn't believe in the system and doesn't follow the system can go somewhere else. He's building a culture exactly like he said he wanted to and we can already see the results. We are not an elite team yet. We have many missing pieces and the process has only just truly begun but the base is already clearly there after a very short time and I only expect things to get better. To see the changes that we all can see, even the most apprehensive see them too, so soon is what has us all so damn excited so quickly. We all know it's too early to expect too much and that we've definitely still have some wholes to fill but the enthusiasm is there because we know that if we were so close last season the this team has to be very close to that last WC spot and especially with out schedule. He's an admirer of Bill Parcells. I found a copy of his writings online and once you've read it you will realize how much of what Coach Rhule is doing is totally from his teachings. Bill Parcells was an incredible coach. I honestly believe that we have someone who will be remembered as one of the greats for his time. The Panthers are going to finally put Carolina on the map and teach the rest of the US to respect the South. Family, Unity, Strength. Keep Pounding, Ice up son the TRUTH HURTS!!!

I personally love it when they say that. Yeah, that college D just destroyed your outdated ass. Ice up son. TRUTH HURTS

Yeah, you like the safe road. We've understood ya. Let's not have too much fun because life generally sucks. Ok, he's gone. Party anyone?

I really don't think the Saints are considered a bad team. I know there have been some questions with Brees retiring but they won without Brees the last 2 seasons in several games and I'm pretty sure they were/are considered to be a possible playoff team. Doesn't mean they are or aren't and this thread is just to give people something to speculate about as most are just happy to be where we are at this point. We may be terrible the rest of the season but why can't people enjoy the moment and have fun now without people like you running into every discussion trying to take the jam out of their doughnuts and raining on their parades? Do people being happy about the first 2 games of the season really bother you that much? Let them have their fun. They can be sad later if it all goes downhill. Geez.

While I agree with the basis of your assessments about different angles and overloads not being new, I would say that the personal they are using and the versatility they are displaying is new. They are hiding the play extremely well and can morph from their fronts into almost anything. They are able to read the offense and and call their exact plays from the field. They are making it very hard for the QBs to make pre snap adjustments. The OLs don't know who there assignments should be and the QB doesn't know if it's a run D or a pass D because it's both. When we see multiple defenders running past the OL untouched it means that the OL doesn't know what's coming. That's because they haven't see it before. The Saints OL is very experienced and considered to be top notch and they often looked lost out there. I think it's also giving the RBs problems as they can't read which hole to hit and they are not hitting lanes very hard so far and are therefore getting stuffed even by DBs. Even strong RBs can get flattened if they are attacking flat footed which is what I've seen these last 2 games.

It does have a nice sound to it. Kind of like Keep Pounding. The Truth Hurts.

But tbf, if Marshall didn't fall down we would have been in a good spot to score in the 3rd.

Yeah, that wasn't an issue when they picked the Saints to win. Only 1 half of the Bleacher report picked us. Everyone else picked the Saints and everyone knew about the coaches being out.

Only 13% of Americans declare themselves as superstitious. So if you are then yes, you're probably in the minority.

Riddick,Burns, Shaq and Horn all had nice games

It's still too early but I did find this interesting statistic if you like that sort of thing. Week 2 NFL regular season is super important to the future success of your team. You wouldn’t think so, with 14 games left to decide their fate, but the historical numbers show otherwise. Since 1990, teams that start the season 2-0 make the playoffs 61.3 percent of the time, according to Pro Football Reference. Now this season there are 17 games so we'll have to see how that effects things too I guess. But obviously 2-0 is better than the other options. Those chances rise significantly if we can win the next game and the one after that as well. Since 1990, NFL teams that start 3-0 have made playoffs 73.6 percent of time (109/148); 2-1 teams have qualified 53.8 percent of time (169/314). Teams that open 4-0 have reached playoffs 82.4 percent of time That's a 20% difference depending on winning or losing the Texas game. Statistically speaking, that game could greatly effect our chances of a playoff game this season. We need to go down to Texas and take care of business this week. If we do that, I'll start thinking about the possibility of an extra game.

Yeah, I read the game summary @nfl and while they mention the QB play from other games and even gushed a little and made excuses for Fields 6/13 + fumble + Int, they didn't say one word about Darnold's great game. I guess that crow doesn't taste to good. I don't know because at my table they served Saints.

Ah yes. Thanks for reminding me to put you on ignore. I could have sworn I did that already.

The kindest thing I can say to the Saints is that I don't hate you more than I hate the Falcons. I hate you both equally the same.

I think he did exactly what he was supposed to do today. He did the same thing he's done for about 60-70% of his career. He sucked and he lost. I hope he has a very long career as their starting QB personally. The Saints deserve it. They also were able to field 11 players on every possession with other players watching from the sideline so they had more than enough healthy players to take their spanking with.

I really don't see how you can reach that conclusion about him at this point. Maybe you'll be correct but considering he's only 24, played his first 3 seasons on one of the leagues worst franchises and has only bee with his new team for a few months. He has in no way reached his full potential with us yet so none of us can sincerely say we know what he is at this point as it has in no way been determined. I would say he is definitely showing the potential to become way more than that. His ability to go through his progressions and get the ball out quickly and to the right guy is already exceeding that comment and he's only just getting started. His overall play these first 2 games exceeds anything we've seen from our QBs since 2015.

They said it was actually the defensive staff watching tape that brought him to Rhules attention. As defensive coaches they told him something like "Hey, this dude makes plays. You should check him out." It seems it was totally a team effort finding him and seeing something that most of the NFL and it's media was missing. Which makes it even better imo. We're still in the early stages of a rebuild too. Give this staff a couple of more years to address more of the roster and I can't wait to see what this roster will look like. These dudes appear to be playing chess at a very high level.

Totally agree. But we still have to keep in mind that he's only 24 yrs old and started his career under the worst situation possible and has only been in Carolina for a few months. He still has improvements to make and has room to grow but I'm sure we'd all agree that the change his shown in just a short time with us is phenomenal and a real testimony to not only Sam as a person and QB but to our coaching staff and the organization that is being built here. I'm a homer and I'll admit it but I will also admit that this team is surpassing even my homerish expectations with the way they have performed so far. I honestly thought we'd win today but I honestly didn't think we'd completely dominate them the way we did. Our defense completely shut down one of the best backs in the NFL running behind a top 10 OL and that was a weakness of ours just last season and our offensive efficiency and Darnold's overall growth has exceeded my expectations for being this early in the process. This team still has a lot to improve upon and yet it already looks incredibly promising. It's also hard to remember that we're really in our first season of the rebuild. Last season doesn't really count because of Covid and Hurney still having control. Now with Fitt here and watching their first off season together and a mostly normal pre season, I feel like we have truly seen what we can expect from this organization moving forward. Injuries or not, we dominated one of the NFL's top organizations for the last 15-20 years. When I looked at our schedule I thought we could do better than our talent level and the hot start might help us later on but this game coupled with Dallas and Minn I would use to justify predicting at least 2 of those games should be losses and the way we played this one has me reevaluating what we could possibly do this season.

Yes. Because we haven't hear his name a lot so far besides that pick, people don't understand his importance but he's played lights out so far in his brief career. He's shutting down his man and it's HIS ability that's allowing us to blitz like we are. His addition plus Reddick and Fox has allowed Snow to run the defense the way he wants. This defense is great and will make us a potential playoff team with the play of the offense. The offense needs more time to reach their potential and we will have to improve our OL in the future but we have the foundation of something special here. Horn was a great pick and has made our team much better both this season and definitely for the future. Anyone who can't see that is blind. Darnold for a 2nd and getting Horn at 8 was gold for us. Our staff knows what's up. Eventually those fans that haven't got it yet will. I wish Fields all the best but he doesn't play here so I don't care about him. I'm more than happy with Darnold and Horn instead.

TBF Ervin has been ok

Fuggin great!!!!!!

I think you missed the most important part and that is that you are focusing on the negatives. Why do that? Today has been fantastic!!! Why concentrate on the negatives? Just enjoy the fact that we kicked the poo out of the Saints.

I never said you, I was speaking about all the professionals. I saw almost no one picking us to win. I honestly wasn't thinking about you. I agree with rubbin their faces in it. Fug the Saints. Go Panthers!!!!

Everybody?