Two games in…. Is this a playoff team?

[Fox007]

1 minute ago, Oldmanrivera said:

yeahhh, but you could tell pretty early, he was not very good.

Yea The Golden Calf of Bristol won a playoff game and had a winning season...its poo you can clearly see. MFers talking like record has poo to do with how a player can clearly play.

[hepcat]

I've seen enough Panthers seasons to know it's waaaayyy too early to know. The schedule is pretty favorable though so it's definitely in the conversation though.

[Khyber53]

One game at a time. In this craziest part of the season we still have to get past (and take seriously) Thursday night's game vs. the Texans. 

 

[Khyber53]

19 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

Yesterday felt just a little bit like that... beating the Saints who almost everyone expected to win in spite of all their handicaps.  Huge confidence boost for a young team that could pay big dividends.  Let's see how it goes.

I agree that turning points are a big, big deal. Yesterday's win, though, had too many excuses for the Saints (I think it was still a heck of a win) for anyone outside the fanbase to think it was a turning point game. If we beat Houston, everyone will ho-hum it.

Now Dallas, who I think is severely over-valued, is a turning point game. If we can bring down the big star, then the rest of the league begins to believe we're something. Me, I think Dallas' o-line is crumbling fast and they cannot play defense. A win in that game, in their house, and we get real momentum and a nice slate of games against teams going under. 

This is going to be fun. 

[hepcat]

1 minute ago, Khyber53 said:

I agree that turning points are a big, big deal. Yesterday's win, though, had too many excuses for the Saints (I think it was still a heck of a win) for anyone outside the fanbase to think it was a turning point game. If we beat Houston, everyone will ho-hum it.

Now Dallas, who I think is severely over-valued, is a turning point game. If we can bring down the big star, then the rest of the league begins to believe we're something. Me, I think Dallas' o-line is crumbling fast and they cannot play defense. A win in that game, in their house, and we get real momentum and a nice slate of games against teams going under. 

This is going to be fun. 

Dallas is a different team with Dak. They still make a bunch of mistakes and aren't a complete unit but their defense is more talented than last year and they have weapons on offense. Will be a good barometer game for the Panthers after a hot start.

[Happy Panther]

27 minutes ago, onmyown said:

 

The great thing about statistical facts... there are are significant differences.

 There are several statistically categories where this wasn’t possible according to decades of NFL football…

(from significant common statistical elements based on history) 

if you look at statistics

We have a big time statistician here...

[Happy Panther]

It's hard to miss the playoffs going 2-0. Even harder at 3-0. Just beat the crappy teams and you are in at that point.

[Fox007]

4 minutes ago, Happy Panther said:

It's hard to miss the playoffs going 2-0. Even harder at 3-0. Just beat the crappy teams and you are in at that point.

That's why it's so important to get out to a good start that way you can weather some shitty breaks and if things fall your way it goes even bigger after that point.

[cookinbrak]

1 hour ago, Kuhndog94 said:

Sam has played well, but he has played against two bad teams that didn't apply any pressure to him whatsoever. Lets see what he does when he is pressured against a good defense. He made a few bad throws the few times he was pressured against the Saints. 

Using this (lack of) logic, Green Bay should cut Aaron Rodgers right now, because New Orleans has no pass rush and he could only put up 3 points?

[SBBlue]

39 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

I totally get this perspective, and largely share it.

But, the surprise to me is your line "Sam has played well, but he has played against two bad teams that didn't apply any pressure to him whatsoever."

From my perspective, that very fact is one of the reasons to be optimistic, not a reason to downplay the 2-0 start.

For all their faults and weaknesses,  both the Jets & the Saints have a pretty strong D-line and rush. And we all know our O-line is pretty questionable.  The lack of pressure against Sam, or more accurately, Sam's ability to stay calm and not panic in the face of pressure (especially versus the Jets where he was getting hit a lot) is one of the things that most encourages me so far. 

Barring injuries, I *think* our Oline will get better throughout the season as they get more time together and the coaches figure out who fits best where.  Our coaches seem to be able to do a LOT more to address weaknesses than we've been used to.  Look at the huge improvement in our run defense.  The big improvement in our 3rd down conversions yesterday, modest improvement in Red Zone, and also Sam's improvement on intermediate passes.

It feels like under Rivera (as much as I liked him) the known weaknesses never got fully addressed or dealt with.  We heard "We've got to get better against the run" "We've got to do better with gap integrity" almost every game in late 2018 & 2019.  Drove me nuts.

Rhule & co seem much quicker to acknowledge weaknesses and then actually do something about it - especially this season when they're more settled in and not dealing with so much of the Covid craziness.  I really like Rhule's commitment to accountability and improvement.  From where I sit it looks like more than just coach speak.  (Yeah, continued O-line & Special Teams weaknesses may shoot a hole in what I've just said, but it is hard to fix everything at once.  I think the coaches are focusing on things that are fixable.  There are some weaknesses that we may just have to live with for awhile). 

So.... all these things give me a lot more confidence than I'd normally have at this point.  I'm really pretty encouraged.

Amen.  

I know.  The data is telling us that the odds are  moving in the right direction and I would rather be us than the 25 teams that aren't undefeated.

That said, using past years as a dataset ignores this years situation with a hard backloaded schedule. 

Our chances for the playoffs increased substantially yesterday but until we win more, I'd say the odds are still against us at this point.  We can see the path, but it isn't guaranteed.

That said, I believe the bucs are not everything that everybody thinks they are, just as the Saints weren't and we are going to kick their ass.  

My dream, is the  last game of the season, we sack Brady 5 times with 10 QB hits, win the division, knock them out of the playoffs and Brady says "I'm done."  



 

[ThPantherFan]

Two games in…. Is this a playoff team?

Not NO, but Hell No.  Big improvement?  Yes.  Not playoff bound just yet.

[panthers55]

I am enjoying the season and this team. I think we can make some noise if we keep.playing hard and stay focused on the prize. I am interested to see what happens when we face adversity. Is it next man up or do we fade away or come up short? I think we will fight hard and play for a whole 60 minutes. We could be a tough out this year. With some momentum and confidence who knows we might surprise some folks this year. 

[CanePantherHornet]

It's definitely possible. If they wouldn't have expanded the field I'd say no though.

[Move the Panthers to Raleigh]

Can we just fuging relax on the playoff talk this early in the season?