Impressions - Preseason Three

[KB_fan]

Probably should have mentioned that Graham Gano looked good last night too (as someone else pointed out). Ditto Brad Nortman.

And hey, nobody ever mentions J Jonah Jansen.

Well at least Jeremy took a pic of his ass last week.  He can't say he gets NO NOTICE.  LOL!

[CRA]

Last night was the nail on the coffin for Wegher.  Practice squander 100%.   Only injury now would earn him a spot heading into the season 

[wud35]

Uglier than ever: This is quite probably the best offensive line the Panthers have had since Ron Rivera was hired.  Even without Pro Bowl center Ryan Kalil, the line overall had a good night.

The other 'ugly' performance: Corey brown...Ugh!  The guy earned a shot at starting with his performance last season, but his preseason performance is throwing that good will away.

Going out on high notes: Both starting quarterbacks got pulled after their best drives, though Newton had the better night prior to his last drive.

Backups step up: Even with three of the starting four defensive linemen out, the DL still managed to get some pressure and be stiff against the run.  Kony Ealy had some nice plays too.

Stars have iffy moments: The normally reliable Greg Olsen dropped a good pass, Thomas Davis got beaten for a touchdown and Jonathan Stewart had arguably the weakest night of the runningbacks who played.

And scary moments: Greg Olsen and Luke Kuechly looked like they might have injuries.  Happily they didn't turn out to be anything.

Waka Waka: Some good work tonight from Fozzy Whittaker, his best this preseason.  Cameron Artis-Payne looked like he was getting better as well.  Not much from Brandon Wegher tonight though.  He'll likely get plenty of time next week to make his case.

That's why you don't play receiver: Josh Norman and Bene Benwikere both dropped easy interceptions.

Ted 2: Also saw some nice work from Ted Ginn Jr.  Yeah, he should have caught that one high pass, but that's at least somewhat forgivable.

Shaqen Up: Looking more and more like Shaq Thompson is the real deal.  Very much looking forward to seeing him alongside Luke and Davis.

Hi Kurt: Kurt Coleman put an exclamation point on his bid to start with that Brady pick.

Peanut tosses cookies: Ick. That was a tad worrisome, especially after they said it was a possible concussion.  Hope Tillman is okay.  his takeaway was the most fun play of the game.

Special Teams: Decent performance tonight.  Hope that's a sign of better things to come.

Wouldda been nice: Sure would have loved to have seen Devin Funchess play

Familiar Face: Wonder how the Patriots and their fans felt about seeing Clete Blackman here again.  For those who don't remember, Blackman is the guy who picked up the flag against Kuechly the last time these two teams played in Charlotte and thus earned the ire of Tom Brady.  Something tells me Brady probably won't say "Good to see ya again. Hey, remember what we talked about last time?"

My name's not Janeane: Patriot fans irrationally hoping that Jimmy Garoppolo isn't much of a dropoff from Tom Brady should probably dial those ideas back a bit.  If Brady's suspension stands, those first four games might be some rough sledding unless the Pats can find ways to adjust (which yeah, they've been good at)

Newton: One of the reasons gunslinger QBs tend to be closely associated with 4th quarter comebacks is that they tend to start slow and get better as the game goes on.  That's Newton now too, which is a complete reverse from his early career when he tended to start out hot and fade late. Mind you, he's not starting out bad, but he definitely gets better later.  His stats may not be as 'record setting' as they once were, but I much prefer this version of Cam.

Overall: Said it elsewhere, but this game left me feeling better than the prior two that we won.  The team played well against the world champs and did plenty to boost the confidence of anyone not named Corey Brown.  As to Brown, he's gonna need to do a lot to redeem himself.  It's hard to say what's wrong with him, but for his sake, I hope he and Coach Proehl can find it and fix it...fast.

But we lost!!!!!!!        

Extreme sarcasm.

Great analysis as always.

[DamnItJake!]

I do not like slow starts cant keep playing from behind every 4th quarter.. the offense needs to get their crap together I am not impressed yet.. but Brown was a killer last night seamed like they were testing him trying to find KB's replacement besides Olsen...have to wait and see the first three games for a reciever to show up...hopefully they get in sync.. the Defense looked good though even with star out and hopefully Kuechly stays healthy

[wud35]

They definitely wanted to give him as many chances as possible.

Again, that's something you can do in preseason.  In a regular season game, he'd likely have been benched.

Guessing they'll put in a lot of work with him this week, and he may play more against Pittsburgh than he otherwise would have.

it might be wishful thinking and I could be completely wrong but it looked to me that Corey Brown was trying to hard and maybe "thinking" to much. Which is what makes it hard to get out of slumps most the time. 

[Mr. Scot]

it might be wishful thinking and I could be completely wrong but it looked to me that Corey Brown was trying to hard and maybe "thinking" to much. Which is what makes it hard to get out of slumps most the time. 

I don't think you're wrong.

[coralreefer_1]

I cannot fathom how anyone can walk away from that performance thinking that we (specifically the offense) played well.

 

We have several drives and two turnovers, and leave the first half with only 6 points. We can find light and say the o-line is much improved (and by god, it is) but that doesn't matter much when that improvement doesn't actually get us points. Noone needs a low post count member like me to say that points win games~

 

It doesnt matter whether they were the Superbowl champs or not. That comes off more as an excuse to not say what is real...that our offense sucked last night. Their defense wasn't all that strong that we should have easily had AT LEAST a touchdown (2 turnovers people!!!) going into halftime.

[VerticalThreat]

As always, great thoughts and observations. Like you, I feel better about the way the team played overall without some key pieces. That's what you want to see from role players - step in and do the job. 

Thinking back, I don't think I've seen Cam throw the ball with the timing and accuracy he had last night. He played like a quarterback who can make the players around him better. 

The he trainwreck that was Corey Brown's hands are fixable, but it's up to Corey. Last week carried over into this week. He's thinking too much and is like a pitcher who can't find the strike zone. It's mental and with the leadership on the team, I don't see any reason that he can't overcome this. For me, it's actually a good thing that this is happening.  I think Corey might have felt that this whole NFL thing was easy (UDFA with some success last year, now trusted to be a big piece of the offense this year after KBs injury) and now this is his wake up call.  If he's the player that the coaching staff believes him to be, he'll get this worked out. Here's to hoping. 

[caatfan]

The OL is improved- no doubt about it. Cam should have considerably more comfort time in the pocket. Opening holes for the RB's is not a strong point to this point though.

The two new 'mans' in the secondary, Cole and Till, make that group definitely better this year. The loss of Hardy hurt the front but the back end is picking up the slack to keep this D scary for offenses.

On offense the running game needs to improve or they'll struggle for points, and Brown needs to catch the ball when it's catchable.