I'm hyped, I'm stoked, and as always I love our team... But, here are my concerns going forward and some observations from yesterday...

[Montsta]

Also, Montsta, you should be proud of me, because instead of posting this mid-late and full of expletives, I waited, celebrated the win, and then revisited it today lol.   I don't know if I can keep it bottled up til Wednesday. 

I was hungover something fierce yesterday and watching the game was a difficult task in and of itself. No way was I joining any gameday threads as I didn't have the energy. I saw a few Funchess drops (like the one over the middle that the announcer immediately gave credit to Sherman even though he beat him by two steps and he was nowhere near the ball), and I immediately thought proudiddy is probably losing his poo right now lol. 

[csx]

I'm not sure how this win, over a sub .500 Seahawks team, can be considered bigger than the 2013 win over the Saints. I hate the Seahawks as much as anyone, but that 2013 game was a huge game for both squads. 

Because the Panthers haven't had too much difficulty beating the Saints in recent years. The Seahawks have been a thorn in our side for years.

[Proudiddy]

I was hungover something fierce yesterday and watching the game was a difficult task in and of itself. No way was I joining any gameday threads as I didn't have the energy. I saw a few Funchess drops (like the one over the middle that the announcer immediately gave credit to Sherman even though he beat him by two steps and he was nowhere near the ball), and I immediately thought proudiddy is probably losing his poo right now lol. 

LOL, you got me buddy.   I already had that poo typed up, exclamation points and all...  But, alas, I thought better of it lol.   Still, that is hilarious. 

[cbarrier90]

You definitely make some reasonable points.  I think the real problem is it's just a day or two early for them.  Right now most everyone just wants to celebrate the win.

No, the problem is he has made this same post all season trying to rehash the same points over and over again despite the team's success.

We get it. The receivers are bad. The safeties aren't good. The left tackle spot should be better. It's been this way for years. It's not changing overnight.

I don't know how or why this team is 5 and 0 right now considering all we don't have but as someone said earlier at this point we should just appreciate what we are.

[philw5289]

The biggest win in our franchise history in the regular season has to be the saints one to clinch a birth. 

[TheMaulClaw]

Now, my concerns and observation...   

To Funchess' credit, he is already playing and getting snaps...   Something that took Jarrett years to do.  But is that because he deserves them, or is it because he was a pricey draft pick and it is out of necessity due to the lack of talent at WR as a whole?  Who knows, but he is struggling,and I don't think it's a confidence issue.  It was why I really disliked the move when it was made because I felt there were better options available, especially if we were going to trade up for one.  He struggled with inconsistency in college, and as I mentioned during the draft and lead up to it, to me, just did not look like a natural football player.   He has amazing size and measureables, and that got a lot of people enamored with him, but I was not one of them.  Again, as one of our players, I hope for nothing more than him to prove me wrong and for me to eat some delicious crow, but he is a huge concern for me.  I'm happy he caught them when we needed them most, but those early drops were crucial in getting us in a hole from the beginning and almost became interceptions.  That can't happen. 

Funchess played horrible most of the game.  Dropped a ton of passes, one of which almost was intercepted.  However he ran his routes well and got open against a good secondary even though he dropped the passes early on.  It was pleasing to watch how he responded late in the game despite how his night had gone up to that point.  I think if he can build on that late game momentum we might have something. 

[VerticalThreat]

THIS. 

As most of you know, I've been keeping a gamebook data spreadsheet, so I can see all the game stats for each game side by side.  

What is quite striking to me is that each game has been quite different in terms of its tone and how we've won.  There isn't a single formula for "Panthers winning football."  For instance yesterday, I thought for SURE we'd have to win the turnover battle and score a TD on defense to beat the Hawks.  But no.  We lost the turnover battle, allowing Seattle to score 6 points on our turnovers, and yet for the first time all season, we scored 4 TDs by our offense.  100% of our points came on offensive TDs.  Wow.  That is not what I normally think of as Panthers football!  And yet it's what it took, and it's what we did.

Truly, the motto of this season so far seems to be "we did what we needed to win" - and it's been quite different each game.

More on these thoughts later in the week as I can dig a bit further into the gamebook data.

Great stuff. Fans, analysts, etc tend to try to get ahead of theirselves, they want to tell you "what this means". Great teams have a way to block that out and take each game/each series/each play as it comes. That kind of focus is tough to achieve, but I believe this team is looking to win at all costs. Shows me that they've bought in to what Ron's selling...they have to have, because it's not pretty, but it works.

[TheMaulClaw]

No, the problem is he has made this same post all season trying to rehash the same points over and over again despite the team's success.

We get it. The receivers are bad. The safeties aren't good. The left tackle spot should be better. It's been this way for years. It's not changing overnight.

I don't know how or why this team is 5 and 0 right now considering all we don't have but as someone said earlier at this point we should just appreciate what we are.

Well said.

There are a lot of good things coagulating in the dark underbelly of this Panthers team.  Things that other owners spend seasons trying to put in place.  Stability at the coaching positions, a relentless gm, an experienced yet young QB who just happens to be the GOAT when it comes to physical talent at his position. Close to Ditto for MLB.  We've got way more good then bad going on and it's all starting to peak.  Right now we're the only ones that can get in our way.  Can this team handle prosperity?  I think they can....if they ignore the prosperity.

[GeorgiaBoyz]

Not trying to high jack your thread OP but I can't make one of my own so I'll say it here. 

Congratulations guys, you guys deserved it and your team definetly showed a lot of heart. Watching them do what they did yesterday was an eye opener aka scary with me being a Falcon fan lol. Congrats again & good luck the rest of the way. 

[emhoward]

I'm not sure but maybe because of Shaq's speed we wanted to use him more to blitz and contain Wilson. I remember at least 3 times he was going after Wilson. I think I recall Lynch commenting that we had decided to try and send 5 rather than 4 because the only way to contain him is to send the extra man or something like that. Idk.