Another way to look at the game

[TN05]

Even with refs openly rigging the game and ignoring a half-dozen illegal hits on Cam, Denver still only won by one point. And they still had to hope Gano missed.

We have a good football team. Denver will be lucky to go 8-8.

[The Lobo]

13 minutes ago, TN05 said:

Even with refs openly rigging the game and ignoring a half-dozen illegal hits on Cam, Denver still only won by one point. And they still had to hope Gano missed.

We have a good football team. Denver will be lucky to go 8-8.

Absolutely. It took me a few a hours to look at it that way. With all the crap that happened we played solid really. There is stuff to work on, we will be fine.

[d-dave]

12 minutes ago, TN05 said:

Even with refs openly rigging the game and ignoring a half-dozen illegal hits on Cam, Denver still only won by one point. And they still had to hope Gano missed.

We have a good football team. Denver will be lucky to go 8-8.

I agree, that's a fair silver lining, but I don't think Denver is an 8-8 team.  Unless someone completely undresses their blitz thing (whatever the name is, I slept 2 hours last night), and their QB looks like a good fit for Kubiak, they could return to the SB considering the state of the AFC (NE........Pitt......???)

My other silver lining to this game is that the Panthers still have a lot of work to do.  I expect them to be very professional, but now lets add a little fuel the the fires that drive them.  Maybe, let's not get beaten by the SAME DAMN BLITZES again.

[TN05]

3 minutes ago, d-dave said:

I agree, that's a fair silver lining, but I don't think Denver is an 8-8 team.  Unless someone completely undresses their blitz thing (whatever the name is, I slept 2 hours last night), and their QB looks like a good fit for Kubiak, they could return to the SB considering the state of the AFC (NE........Pitt......???)

Seimein sucked ass. Didn't have a single throw go longer than 20 yards (even when down 10!) and his one TD was a screen. Once teams have even the slightest amount of film on him he's toast.

Quote

My other silver lining to this game is that the Panthers still have a lot of work to do.  I expect them to be very professional, but now lets add a little fuel the the fires that drive them.  Maybe, let's not get beaten by the SAME DAMN BLITZES again.

Maybe the refs will call penalties next time.

[MurkN]

We probably just played against the toughest defense we'll face all year and before the helmet shots on Cam started to accumulate he was doing a good job of leading us down the field, especially that drive during the 2nd quarter that took nearly the whole quarter with our backs against our endzone.

[d-dave]

4 minutes ago, TN05 said:

Seimein sucked ass. Didn't have a single throw go longer than 20 yards (even when down 10!) and his one TD was a screen. Once teams have even the slightest amount of film on him he's toast.

Maybe the refs will call penalties next time.

Man, I hope you are right!  

[gmonjimbo]

I'm still excited about the team's future. There is a lot of room for growth with both the offense and defense. I think the biggest thing that the coaches have to worry about is complacency. If the team, specifically the Dline does not show up next week, then I will be considered.

[KB_fan]

5 minutes ago, TN05 said:

Seimein sucked ass. Didn't have a single throw go longer than 20 yards

Just to be fair, I'm pretty sure Cam did not either.  Their QB ratings were nearly identical.   I haven't downloaded the gamebook yet, but I saw some comments about this on Twitter last night from sources I think are fairly reliable... I'm pretty sure it said neither had a reception of longer than 20 yards.  

This was a defensive battle.

[Toker Smurf]

I wish we hadn't been in a position to let the refs decide the outcome. We lost to a nobody QB who didn't have a very good game. 

[TN05]

Just now, KB_fan said:

Just to be fair, I'm pretty sure Cam did not either.  Their QB ratings were nearly identical.  

That's true. However, Cam never was down 10. 

Just now, KB_fan said:

I haven't downloaded the gamebook yet, but I saw some comments about this on Twitter last night from sources I think are fairly reliable... I'm pretty sure it said neither had a reception of longer than 20 yards.  

This was a defensive battle.

It was but it was also a battle with the refs. And Denver still only barely won.

[luke262]

Yeah the result is disappointing but we can realistically get to the bye 4-1, this has to be the target now. Would be a solid start to the season

Sent from my HTC One M9 using CarolinaHuddle mobile app

[pstall]

Clean up the tackling and clock mgmt. 10 wins easily this year.

[KB_fan]

21 minutes ago, MurkN said:

We probably just played against the toughest defense we'll face all year and before the helmet shots on Cam started to accumulate he was doing a good job of leading us down the field, especially that drive during the 2nd quarter that took nearly the whole quarter with our backs against our endzone.

Agree with this, and I actually saw quite a lot of reason for hope.  The first half was impressive.  Yes, our defense let Denver move the ball, but that's not unexpected when there is no film on this Denver offense.  And ultimately, while we bent, we didn't break and forced Denver to those 3 turnovers deep in our territory.

The 2nd half I think could have been different if Cam wasn't having the crap beaten out of him.  He was clearly not the same after the first hit, though he kept going.  Also credit to Denver they adjusted well at half-time.   I may hate their guts now with a passion, but they've got great strategic coaches in Kubiak and Wade.

Think about how we looked in this game versus our win against Jax in week 1 last year.   I think we played FAR FAR better last night, especially on offense.  Think about our loss to Seattle in week 1 of 2013...  We only could score 7 points.

Putting up 20 on that Denver D and being in position to win the game on a field goal was not a terrible performance.

We *did* get quite lucky last year to go 15-1.  So many potential game-changing plays all went our way.  The J-No interception against New Orleans;  the TD interception of Rodgers;  the Luke interception of Luck which set up Gano's game-winning field goal,   TD's "hands-team" catch against Seattle in the playoff to preserve the win;   Seattle's secondary botching the play that allowed the game winning TD from Cam to Greg in Seattle,  The final drive against the Giants and the winning FG as the clock expired.... etc etc etc.  Yes, our players made those plays, but sometimes they don't all quite go your way and you're in the right spot, do the right thing, but you miss by 1/8 inch...

This time after making the 1st FG attempt; the snap wasn't quite right and Gano missed.   It happens.

Would people think differently of the team if it was the first kick that had counted and we had won by 23-21 instead of losing by 21-20?  We're the same team, made the same plays, except we have an L rather than a W.

Yes there are areas of concern.  I'm worried about Delaire not setting the edge.... our run stopping seems poor.   I'm concerned about Tre Boston's failure to tackle, and our secondary is vulnerable.   But it was week 1 in an incredibly hostile stadium against a great defense with the added kink of an unknown QB and offense.  We'll get better.  Under Ron we always have.  We usually are a much stronger team late in the season than earlier.  I have no reason to expect anything different this year.

I really do think barring serious injuries the pieces are in place for another excellent season...

[Jangler]

20 minutes ago, Cam El said:

I wish we hadn't been in a position to let the refs decide the outcome. We lost to a nobody QB who didn't have a very good game. 

We have historically play poorly against a QB with no film, no matter the coaching staff. 

Until the refs started manipulating the game we were fine, well, we were winning at least.