The Honest Truth

[CarolinaLivin]

Our expectations from preseason... to now

Panther's are exceeding expectations

We are expecting "our year" to be next year. A lot of us said that prior to the season beginning. We thought we could beat a lot of teams through this defense and have. And for those top-10 teams we face this year, we said we would at the very least, be competitive and in the game.

We had 2 turnovers and barely got to produce any pressure defensively. We had our 1st round pick out and literally our best player overall out. During the game we had a few injuries. A big one being to reddick. Also the 12th man on the field for the Cowboys.. the ref.

With all that being said... we lost by one score.

We said in the beginning that as long as our defense plays well, OL blocks, and we don't put games on Sam's arm we will be fine. Well... we put this game on Sam's arm and although two turnovers came from it... a competitive game also came from it. Plus... Sam bounced back afterwards and tried to mount a comeback. 

This is a much better team. That is eager to learn and move forward. For a team that was listed as still being a "rebuild" team prior to week 1... we are playing well above expectations. 

Trust there is much to learn. Some missed tackles, missed receivers, and missed assignments. I only expect to see changes at OL if any personnel changes come about. The team just needs to watch tape and learn. 

1-0 next week. Focused on one game at a time. Let's get ready for Philly.

Edited October 4, 2021 by CarolinaLivin

[CarolinaLivin]

Also...

You win some/you lose some. That is the mindset of a team that blitz's the way we have all season. When going against an OL of that talent. It showed how teams can take advantage of our secondary. 

I wouldn't be worried about this, as our secondary will continue to get better each day. CJ Hen is learning the playbook and Horn has already showed what he can be. DJax is also continuing to get better and better. This DB room is building chemistry and learning from their mistakes. They are also learning what it feels like to have to play without our DL generating constant pressure. 

[mbarbour21]

We had two guys at CB that were playing their first game of the year PERIOD or first in our system.

Big momentum shift after bogus, unchallengeable forward progress call. (Clearly a fumble)

Bad o-line.

Best player on offense out and more.

The media rushed to make excuses for Sean Payton and company. Going as far to say that Winston “had a bad day”. I wonder if they take the same approach with Rhule and the defense? My guess is a resounding NO.

[Zod]

I prefer the dishonest truth

[Khyber53]

We're going to be alright. We lost, by a single score, to a team built for the now. We lost to a team that has a group of bona fide stars and one of the best o-lines in the business. We lost to a team that has the hot interception machine of 2021. 

By one score.

And it's one loss. It was going to happen, especially when the referees are having a really bad performance day out there. 

Darnold is a gamer, he took a beating and kept slinging it. He's tough, even though he looks like a kid who still has a paper route. DJ Moore is freaking fantastic. Chuba can run the ball and he'd make a decent RB1  on half the teams in the league right now. 

Our defense got manhandled. But not only were we down Jaycee Horn, but we were fielding Henderson and Bouye on their first games as Panthers. Henderson was so new that they were having to shout instructions to him from the sidelines on each play. And the other team heard those, too. That'll get better. 

It will all get better.

We're 3-1, not 1-3. This is a much better team than it used to be, and one way better than I figured we'd be fielding before the season began. 

We're going to be fine. Dropping one out of every four games is a darned good way to get into the playoffs. 

[BrianS]

Exactly.  I get that we started well, and we look to be trending in the right direction.  But somehow a portion of our fanbase got it in their heads that we were a finished product.  This was just a little reminder that we're still not quite there.

I'd like to remind everyone that we still have FOURTY SEVEN MILLION in dead cap this year.  We were *never* going to compete that way.  Think of it this way . . . what if we had invested 47 million in our OLine for this year.  How much better would be be?

It sucks that we can't just skip this year and go straight to next year, but we can't.  As long as our team keeps playing hard and being competitive, that's ok.  Needle pointing up.

[CarolinaLivin]

Insert CMC and we may have come away with the W. And that is only one of the many problems we had in this game. That's all I should have to say to feel comfortable.

And it's not like its just some regular above talent player. CMC was literally our offense and we still played competitive without the man. 

A great learning experience nd since we won the games we were supposed to win we could afford to take this L (afford to, not want to). We have some more games that may not be "gimme games" but we should win.

[SetfreexX]

We are 3-1, most people didn't anticipate that start...

We have -- PHI / MIN / NYG / ATL / NE -- over the next 5 weeks, if we manage 3-2 over those 5, we're sitting at 6-3 at the midway mark of the season. The last three in that five to me are very winnable, PHI and MIN may be a little tougher. 

If we get through that patch 6-3 or better, we probably have a shot at a Wild Card, ARI / TB 2x / BUF are as good and most would consider them better than DAL so that is likely 4 losses in the back half of the season. 

So as far as a shot at the playoffs the next five games are critical, we need to win at least 3. 

[WarPanthers89]

Darnold was still worth the trade

[Eazy-E]

I don’t mind losing but I hate getting fuged by the refs. You could have negated 50+ of their rushing yard by just calling even 20% of their offensive holds. We also recorded zero sacks because if we got remotely close to Dak one of their lineman would illegally take our defenders out of the play.

The blown fumble call was all you needed to see to know the outcome of the game and that is horseshit.

[Raleigh PF]

Let's see how they respond at home vs. Philly. The mark of a good team is the ability to put a loss behind them and get back to playing good football. 

Next Sunday will be more indicative of the type of team the Panthers are than this last one against the Cowboys.

I had no expectation for them this year and still stick with my 9-8/10-7 prediction (last 4 games are @Bills, Bucs x2 and @Saints). Anything more is gravy.

I want to see what they look like next year. You know, when the OLine is addressed.

[thefuzz]

We lost on the road to a playoff team.

The refs had a terrible day, and we still kept is somewhat respectable.

We were missing 2 of our best 5 players....and this was the first game without them.

Dak is an elite QB.

We are young, have a bad O line, and are learning how to play together...this team has very little continuity.

This was expected.

[ForJimmy]

It’s just where we are currently at as a team. Dominating bad teams at home (Jets), beating bad teams on the road (Texans), beating good teams at home (Saints), but are going to struggle against solid teams on the road. Especially when momentum shifts and we have injuries. Hopefully we will get better as players come back and we get more experience. 

[Panther'sBigD]

I really liked the fact that when McCarthy put his second string guys in, Brady and the offense attacked them, rather than just doing the same ol' same ol.' Rivera and Shula would have continued to beat their heads against the wall and let them run up the score.