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Two games in…. Is this a playoff team?

TheBigKat

By TheBigKat,
in Carolina Panthers

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BlitzMonster Mentor

BlitzMonster

Posted
Posted

it's way too early to tell about the playoffs

 

a number of things would all have to happen for the playoffs to be a reality :

  • CMC stays healthy all season
  • Sam Darnold continues to improve at QB (if even just a little bit per game)
  • OL needs to get some continuity and improved push in the run game (especially short yardage / goal line)
  • Offense has better red zone performance (we're leaving too many points that could easily be ours)

 

Note that everything mentioned is about the Offense.   The D is currently playing great and I expect them to get even better as the season rolls along.  The Defense is a playoff-caliber unit right now.  

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KB_fan Proficient

KB_fan

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

Really? Seriously, you are going there after 2 games?

I bet you are one of those "minute men" I've heard the ladies talk about. 

It's not that unrealistic to go there, honestly given that something like 2/3rds of teams that start 2-0 make the playoffs and 6/7 of Carolina teams that have started 2-0 have made the playoffs (all but 2002).

It does seem early.  But if the playoffs started today we'd be in.  And heck, we have the #1 Defense in the league, passing AND rushing!!  That doesn't feel like a fluke given the depth on our defense right now and the creativity of Phil Snow.

441517956_PassingRushDefensechartweeks12.webp.027d1e897cb9eeee485fdb1355936f06.webp

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Jon Snow Grand Master

Jon Snow

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1 minute ago, KB_fan said:

It's not that unrealistic to go there, honestly given that something like 2/3rds of teams that start 2-0 make the playoffs and 6/7 of Carolina teams that have started 2-0 have made the playoffs (all but 2002).

It does seem early.  But if the playoffs started today we'd be in.  And heck, we have the #1 Defense in the league, passing AND rushing!!  That doesn't feel like a fluke given the depth on our defense right now and the creativity of Phil Snow.

441517956_PassingRushDefensechartweeks12.webp.027d1e897cb9eeee485fdb1355936f06.webp

But sadly the playoffs did not start today. I know the odds just as well as anyone when I'm sober and a good portion when not.  You see there's this little thing called luck, which no human can predict, that will have the most impact on the outcome of our season.  It would be that "skunk lose in the church service" moment you can't account for.  We are going to have a few of those moments this season. 

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KB_fan Proficient

KB_fan

Posted
Posted (edited)
22 minutes ago, Kuhndog94 said:

We beat the worst team in the NFL and a bad and depleted Saints team that was missing quite a few very important starters.

Let's get through the first half of the season before speculating on playoffs. Because the Saints were thinking Superbowl just last week. 

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. 

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.

Edited by KB_fan
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onmyown Grand Master

onmyown

Posted
Posted (edited)

It really depends on what you’re going by…emotions…being a fan…wishful thinking? Those are kind of inconsistent.

The great thing about statistical facts are they’re surprisingly pretty damn consistent on a few common factors that are needed to make the playoffs, but more important actually win some games. There are are significant differences.

Saying this was a playoff team last year with a better QB makes literally 0 factual sense. There are several statistical categories where this wasn’t possible according to (I am talking like 4 categories, not 1) never being done before in multiple decades of NFL football…I am not sure what people are thinking when they say this other than a emotional response (thinking we are so special nothing applies to us, or they really hated TB) or if by a better QB what they meant was P Manning or Mahomes, but it simply doesn’t make any sense. Hard enough to break 1 trend/record but 4? That in itself is a record.

For it to happen this year, though it is only game 2, as of now all that’s needed,(from significant common statistical elements based on history) is the oline to do better.

Other things will help but if you look at statistics, that’s what is needed as in, nothing in history says the team will make it being the oline ranked so horrible in quite a few categories.

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KB_fan Proficient

KB_fan

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

But sadly the playoffs did not start today. I know the odds just as well as anyone when I'm sober and a good portion when not.  You see there's this little thing called luck, which no human can predict, that will have the most impact on the outcome of our season.  It would be that "skunk lose in the church service" moment you can't account for.  We are going to have a few of those moments this season. 

Yes, I know.  Seasons can turn on one injury (think 2016 injury to Oher) or one terrible game  (those absolute crushing losses to Pittsburgh & 49ers seemed to steal the souls from ou 2918 & 2019 teams).

But also seasons can turn on a few positive plays or unexpected wins.  Think the Seattle win in 2015, or the J-No interception that sealed our win vs. the Saints in the Superdome also in 2015... those were pretty huge and did a lot to create the magic & confidence of that season.

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.

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Fox007 Grand Master

Fox007

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

But sadly the playoffs did not start today. I know the odds just as well as anyone when I'm sober and a good portion when not.  You see there's this little thing called luck, which no human can predict, that will have the most impact on the outcome of our season.  It would be that "skunk lose in the church service" moment you can't account for.  We are going to have a few of those moments this season. 

It's the Panthers fan syndrome. We have a franchise QB we have a franchise QB we - oh they leave him in the game when we are getting blown out and still rush him up the gut. Oh they don't get him an OL ever.

poo like that. But this does at least feel different. You could tell back then it was incompetence and you can tell now we have competence in the FO and coaching staff.

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Panthers Rhule Mentor

Panthers Rhule

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, Kuhndog94 said:

Sam has played well, but he has played against two bad teams 

I really don't think the Saints are considered a bad team. I know there have been some questions with Brees retiring but they won without Brees the last 2 seasons in several games and I'm pretty sure they were/are considered to be a possible playoff team. Doesn't mean they are or aren't and this thread is just to give people something to speculate about as most are just happy to be where we are at this point. We may be terrible the rest of the season but why can't people enjoy the moment and have fun now without people like you running into every discussion trying to take the jam out of their doughnuts and raining on their parades? Do people being happy about the first 2 games of the season really bother you that much? Let them have their fun. They can be sad later if it all goes downhill. Geez.

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Jon Snow Grand Master

Jon Snow

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Posted
2 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

Yes, I know.  Seasons can turn on one injury (think 2016 injury to Oher) or one terrible game  (those absolute crushing losses to Pittsburgh & 49ers seemed to steal the souls from ou 2918 & 2019 teams).

But also seasons can turn on a few positive plays or unexpected wins.  Think the Seattle win in 2015, or the J-No interception that sealed our win vs. the Saints in the Superdome also in 2015... those were pretty huge and did a lot to create the magic & confidence of that season.

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.

Absolutely it can do nothing but boost the confidence of these young players.

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