Mid Season Power Rankings Thread

[Pantha-kun]

Seems like we're being consistently ranked near the lower part of the top half of the league, which sounds about right to me. Offense has been very unreliable but showed sparks of life in big games , defense has been good for the most part, I take it , its kinda difficult to place where we are right now given the state of the offense and the running game. I'd probably rank us #12 or something. A little better than average overall because of the defense. 

#13 NFL .com 

#12 ESPN 

#12 Washington Post

#13 CBS

# 8 Sports Illustrated

#10 Yahoo

A quote from one of the power ranking articles : Cam Newton takes a lot of the blame for the Panthers' struggles, but the most worrisome aspect of Carolina's offense has been its running game. Panthers backs are averaging 2.8 yards per rush this season, the worst in the NFL. 

[L-TownCat]

We may not run the ball effectively but at least we’re a power run team, so, we got that goin for us.

[Pantha-kun]

2 minutes ago, L-TownCat said:

We may not run the ball effectively but at least we’re a power run team, so, we got that goin for us.

We'll probably see alot more success when Shula stops running McCaffrey up the middle and gives the lions share of the carries to Artis Payne and Stew . Give McCaffrey some tosses and sweeps and see what might happen, although our run blocking overall is so bad most of our outside runs get blown up by defenses anyway. 

[pantherj]

We need to run Cam more against the better teams we face. He doesn't need to run against the awful Bucs, but we need designed runs like crazy against Atlanta. Expect a heavy dose of runs for Cam, and get that read option going as well Chud style. It's our best chance to salvage this season and send our rushing stats through the roof.

[Khyber53]

1 minute ago, pantherj said:

We need to run Cam more against the better teams we face. He doesn't need to run against the awful Bucs, but we need designed runs like crazy against Atlanta. Expect a heavy dose of runs for Cam, and get that read option going as well Chud style. It's our best chance to salvage this season and send our rushing stats through the roof.

If we want to win, he needs to run more. It's not about awful teams, it's about us not being one by neutering our offense. We've got to win those supposedly easy ones, too. Thinking about those New Orleans and Chicago games...

[pantherj]

3 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

If we want to win, he needs to run more. It's not about awful teams, it's about us not being one by neutering our offense. We've got to win those supposedly easy ones, too. Thinking about those New Orleans and Chicago games...

Well we were in control with TB, so I wasn't thinking RUN CAM! But with Atlanta, a team that can explode offensively, and we're NOT built to chase a team, you have to rush Cam a lot if you want to win. He gives our offense a unique numerical advantage and we need to use him if we want to go to the playoffs.

[Ace_Aladdin]

5 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

If we want to win, he needs to run more. It's not about awful teams, it's about us not being one by neutering our offense. We've got to win those supposedly easy ones, too. Thinking about those New Orleans and Chicago games...

 

Run game want be 100% until Greg Olsen returns.

[joemac]

9 minutes ago, sanjay_rajput said:

 

Run game want be 100% until Greg Olsen returns.

Because Olsen is such a devestating run blocker, right?

[LinvilleGorge]

That averages out to around #11. Seems relatively fair. 

[therealmjl]

22 minutes ago, sanjay_rajput said:

 

Run game want be 100% until Greg Olsen returns.

Well it’s not even 40% right now.

Greg the amazing run blocking TE gonna make up that 60%? Don’t think so.

[t96]

13 minutes ago, joemac said:

Because Olsen is such a devestating run blocker, right?

The one aspect of his game that isn't elite... However his threat as a receiver does indeed open up the offense and should help.

[jfra78]

i think not having ryan is more problematic for our run game than Olsen.

[UpstatePanther]

49 minutes ago, joemac said:

Because Olsen is such a devestating run blocker, right?

 

36 minutes ago, mjligon said:

Well it’s not even 40% right now.

Greg the amazing run blocking TE gonna make up that 60%? Don’t think so.

At the risk of agreeing with Sanjay  I think his point is more that Greg will take pressure off the run game with his pass catching ability, not that Greg will improve our run game through his blocking.

[hepcat]

33 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

i think not having ryan is more problematic for our run game than Olsen.

Not having a deep threat receiver is the biggest problem for the run game. Defenses are stacking safeties in the box because there's no way in hell Funchess or Benjamin are beating anyone deep. I've seen Curtis Samuel run maybe half a dozen deep routes all season and get thrown to once.