Some Further Perspective on Our Win Streak (good & bad)

[PandaPancake]

Once you start quoting John Fox I immediately want to test your durability to chlorine trifluoride 

[pantherphan96]

even if we aren't beating "good" teams, at least we are winning the games that we are supposed to win. 6-0!

[Khyber53]

We've beaten the teams we were scheduled to play. Every danged one of them so far this year. That's all that can be asked of a team.

We play the schedule the NFL gives us, win or lose. We can't flex in a New England to improve our rep just like Dallas can't flex in two games against the Jags to boost their win ratio. We can't jump Denver in the parking lot at Mile High and go four quarters on them. 

[iamhubby1]

God I hope we make it to 8-0. Beating the Colts won't shut any of this "haven't beaten anyone" bullshit down, but being undefeated after taking down the almighty Packers will. If this team wants to kick the "are they real" thing in the teeth, they can't lose either of the next two games.

Also, we just beat Philly, who you managed to call "nobodies" and a "known winning team"in the same post, so f**k you.

I have to respectfully disagree with you assessment that the only way we can achieve the "We are for real" moniker is to continue to win. Make the Playoffs, win a game or two, or even three. Come back next year and do it all over again. Then folks will have to admit we are a damm fine team.

 

Sure we have made the Playoffs two years running. But we have not really made a splash doing so. We need to make a splash in the Playoffs. Scare people into not wanting to play us. To do so, we need to beat as many teams as possible. Good teams, bad teams, every team. Just continue to win. It does not matter how, no one really cares how. Just Keep Pounding teams.

 

We don't need to win a Superb Owl, although it would be great. But we do need to continue winning. Win games. Challenge for Divisional Titles. Do well in the Playoffs. That will get us the "They are for real" mantle.

[BIGH2001]

The good team/bad team distinction is really a red herring argument when talking about NFL teams. Beating 6 NFL teams in a row means you are good. At any other level the soft schedule argument might work. 

If starting 6-0 was easy why haven't we done it in 20 years as a franchise. 

[caatfan]

Can't argue with the results as far as who we've beaten and haven't beaten during the streak, but you also have to factor in a gimpy QB and RB crew, a terrible OL, and a DL suddenly missing its best rusher. I have to feel like we have a good chance to beat any team in the league now that those positions are no longer iffy.

[bababoey]

I hate to belittle posters or call a topic dumb but this analysis is kind of dumb at this point not only in this season but in last season as well. 

Going into 2014 you had

1.  An entirely new WR group.  Before the season everyone reminded us that of the current WR we had they had caught like 3 pass from Cam for the Panthers, ever.

2. An entirely new secondary.  No player in the secondary that started at the beginning of the 2013 season, at any position in the secondary, started  2014 at all.  Also during the season 2 of the players that started the 2014 season in the secondary were cut from the team and are not playing in the NFL at all right now.

3.  An injured quarterback that could not run for half the season.

And add to that a pro bowl DE that gets suspended after 1 game, for the entire season, 2 more injuries to the quarterback and an O-line that could not stay healthy and had 7 different starting lineups in 7 straight weeks and I was surprise we won as many games as we did.  Against anyone.  Forget that Tolbert missed half the season and Deangelo Williams basically was injured the entire season you can't really compare 2014 to 2015.  The only other season you can compare 2014 to that I can think of is 2004.  And I would say that in 2014 the players we lost were more important because of the changes we had in the offseason before and we could not really afford to lose those guys as much.

Now for 2015, as you have stated,we have beaten 3 teams with 3-4 records.  If we would have lost to any of those teams they would currently be above .500 ( which only 11 or 12 teams in the NFL currently are).  Wait until the end of the season before you claim these teams are quality teams or not.  The Lions last year, when we beat them, looked like poo and were not over .500, they had only played 2 games, but at the end of the year they were a playoff team and should have beaten the Cowboys (BS call by the refs).   The Bears were at .500 when we beat them but at the time had a win over the 49ers and everyone looked at this as a quality win.  By the end of the season no on saw it this way. 

So before you just go and look at the stats or wins and losses, a little perspective helps in all situations.

[d-dave]

While perspective is nice, we can't help who we play.  Look at Atlanta...

So let's also think about this, we were 0-6, what would the record of our opponents be?  How would the national media be looking at them?

Jacksonville would be 3-4 and moving in the right direction...actually close to the top of the AFC South...

Houston would be 3-4 and in the same boat as Jacksonville....nah, let's be honest, that's a dumpster fire right there!

NO would be 4-3 and trending upwards with a winning record as they got their poo together.

TB would be 3-3 and Jamis Winston a favorite for OROY and no one would be thinking about Lovie's job.

Seattle would be 4-3 and headed back to the playoffs as a tougher, grittier team...

Philly would be 4-3 and head of the NFC East, and slightly redeemed...

I mean, I get that people will still view the teams we've played as not being as good as they need to be because they had such low expectations of us.  At the end of the day, you play who you are scheduled to play.  We have beaten everyone.  We have played VERY GOOD defense, and Cam has played very well despite throwing to a Pro Bowl TE and a bunch of cast offs for WRs.  No one expected us to be here at this point, and that's fine.  I'll take that.

We are a mentally and physically tough team that punishes our opponents now.  Show me a team who's excited to play us next?  I doubt anyone is looking at the Panthers as a gimmie.

Even if we went 8-0, many would still say that we just fluked into it.  It's the nature of the news Media.

[Pantherxtreme]

Anyone who thinks this team is the same squad that started the 2014 season clearly hasn't been paying attention.  

First of all the makeup of the secondary is totally different, after those losses things were shook up in the defensive backfield which helped us go on that winning streak in 2014 and this past offseason with the additions of Coleman and Tillman they've improved apon that unit, not to mention that teams don't even wanna test Josh Norman anymore. 

The offensive line was a mashed unit last season with Bell and Chandler our starting tackles, both aren't on the team anymore, Norwell, Turner, and Remmers are seasoned now with experience. With the addition of Oher the Oline is vasly improved.

I know people give us slack about our receivers but most have no ideal how the addition of Ginn adds a dimension to this offense; The Panthers on offense want to pound you with the running game and take deep shots in the passing game, with Ginn's speed defenses have to respect that, and that in turn opens up things underneath for Greg Olsen.
Something that the Eagles and the "other" good teams that beat us last season didn't have to worry about with Cotchery and Avant as the primary receivers. 

The bottom line is we're 6-0, good teams make other teams look bad, there's only about 5 teams left that are undefeated the rest of the league is marauding in 3-4 ville or whatever, that's the nature of the NFL every year just be relish in the fact we're in the position we're in. 

 

[rayzor]

what happened last year, esp at the beginning of the season with a very different looking team and a damaged QB has no bearing on what we are doing this season.

and please look at the schedules for those other undefeated teams this year and tell me most of them aren't doing the same we supposedly are... just beating bad teams. the truth is we are all doing the same thing and that is beating the teams that they are scheduled to play. i mean thats what they are supposed to be doing, right?

the only thing that matters is winning against your opponents. if you are doing that on a consistent basis, why question the legitimacy of the victories? prove they aren't as good as their record shows. i challenge anyone to do that. 

[Cyberjag]

I kind of think that if this team played the 2014 version from the same point in the season, it wouldn't be close.

[iBBB]

 

 

It seems that if any thread someone now makes isn't them sucking the panthers figurative/literal dick then they get shitted on for "not being a true fan" or "being stupid". This was a good thread and even after reading it three times i can't see why anyone got upset over it.

Maybe you should remove the figurative/literal obstruction from your view if you don't see what's going on in this thread, especially the responses from members who allegedly got upset over the original post. Being one of those posters who's comment may have been taken as a "bashing" of the poster, it certainly wasn't intended so. What I call out is this egocentric attitude of the post where the fan, in this case the op, does not want to buy into the success of the team because they haven't beaten any teams with a winning record since early 2014 and it will take a little more time until the Carolina Panthers will win the hearts of these intelectual fans. See the ending of the original post below:

So yes, our team is certainly improved. But are we improved enough to beat the best teams? I believe we are. But I do respect those who prefer to wait and see. 

That is compelte and utter bullsht. In a nutshell, the hidden message of that line is that our team will have to perform better and prove themselves to the number of elite fans who don't want to get into the hype of the media or the "blind" fans. Are you fuging kidding me? So this team has to earn your dedication and respect? Are you not suppose to cheer for better or worse? Are you saying that back in 2010 you didn't even bother to watch the games, or even cheer for this team because this team was a sore loser? 

If you find yourself in need of something more until you can fully buy into the hype of this team then I feel sorry for you because you are living on the fence. The moment you step on one side or the other you find a reason why you've made a bad decision. So make a fugging decision and get on one side or gtfo.

 

/endrant

[Snake]

No one ever talks about the Pats beating up a soft schedule every year, no they talk about there championships. 

 

We have played 2 playoff teams already and it's not our fault we won.  I guess there always has to be a reason why Carolina isn't good enough.