Just listened to every player and coach post game and Monday presser...

[TheCasillas]

I spent the last two hours listening to all of the pressers from Monday and Sunday, and I have to say.... there is something that is very evident happenig in that locker room. Here are my takeaways:

1. Joe Brady has lost the team. No one stood up for him or said anything in his defense when asked about the playcalling. Rhule used to be the one who would play gaurdian for Brady... but not yesterday, he basically said that we have to get away from this underneath passing game and also stop giving up on the run so quickly. Sounds like Brady is just not getting it. His third down play calling took most of the brunt of the comments, but his reliance on CMC for those short passes is leading to frustration. I dont expect him to be here next year.
 

2. "If the defense would run the plays called by Phil (Snow), we'd not give up a first on those 3rd and 4th downs." - This comment... that hurts. I was at the game and our defense definitely looked lost at times, and even panicking right before the snap. With all of the preaching coming from the players and coaches during the pressers about our "leaders needing to be leaders".... this is an example of that. Sounds like our defense is missing one more leader, my guess would be a veteran safety. I remember when Kuechly used to bust players chops for being out of position and literally move players where they are supposed to be... that's missing right now.

3. As much as this board wants to rip and blame Rhule, judging by those pressers we are alone. Not a single player said anything agaisnt Rhule, and matter of fact basically repeated everything he has said in his own pressers. That means they are bought into him as a leader of this team. As was said in the presser "Rhule isnt the one out there blowing coverages or holding players" 

4. We have to stop being knuckleheads with our penalties. It sounds like our oline coach is going to be in some hot water moving forward. Our o-line is responsible for most of our penalties, and they are bonehead penalties. I'd expect an offensive trench overhaul this off season.  Which we are all hoping for anyways. These guys practice this stuff 100s of times per week, but seem to get it wrong on Sundays... this falls on the positional coach and the player himself. 

5. Rhule didnt throw anyone under the bus like most keep saying here. He said it all starts with the leaders on this team, including himself.  That's 100% accurate. We have a young team and players who have 10x the amount of reps they have. They need to step up and whip this kids into shape and drive focus on the execution. Rhule said they knew the plays the WFT were calling and Snow was calling the plays to stop it, but our players were out of position or missing gap assignments. Either Snow's defensive is way too complex (I doubt it) or we need to have someone back there putting people in their place.

6. Lastly, sounds like Donte blamed other people during the game instead of taking on ownership of his mistakes. He admitted to this lightly, and stated that there were 2-3 plays that he fuged up. He humbled up and said he will be better. I dont think Donte is with us next year, sounds like the "me first" mentality still exists in his head. (ie 2018)


TL DR:  Rhule isnt the problem. Brady gone. We need one more defensive veteran/leader. Donte wasn't the leader he was supposed to be on Sunday. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by TheCasillas

[Burnout189]

3 minutes ago, TheCasillas said:

1. Joe Brady has lost the team. No one stood up for him or said anything in his defense when asked about the playcalling. Rhule used to be the one who would play gaurdian for Brady... but not yesterday, he basically said that we have to get away from this underneath passing game and also stop giving up on the run so quickly. Sounds like Brady is just not getting it. His third down play calling took most of the brunt of the comments, but his reliance on CMC for those short passes is leading to frustration. I dont expect him to be here next year.
 

 

That was one of the most frustrating things about that game. On that final drive of ours, when it was 3rd and 2. He went with a freaking short, pass underneath. Dude, you have CMC and Cam Newtown in the backfield, at least attempt a run on that third down to at least get a 4th and 1 or even the first down.

Brady's situational play calling is just abysmal. 

[frankw]

Rhule handpicked Brady. These issues with situational playcalling didn't just come up this week. He can't go to his oc and tell him "okay no more of that this is what we are going to do here are some pointers"? I'm not on the fire Rhule train but the first season we heard quite a bit about how they share a philosophy. If there is an issue correct it and if your coordinator can't or won't why is he still here? Some of this reasoning sounds like the days of Ron Rivera throwing his own coordinators under the bus. In the end the buck stops with the head honcho and that isn't Brady.

Edited November 23, 2021 by frankw

[Waldo]

The Oline coach should be fired. Let's see what anyone else can do with that mess. 

Bye Jackson, not the leader we hoped for and in no way do I want to see a big contract go that way. Yesterday was only one game if you discount the 3 years before.

Brady better pick it up or it's sounding like he is going to be the sacrifice to Tepper going into year three. Still, it wasn't the Offense that lost that game and Rhule has spent two year building up a D that crumbled when the O was putting points on the board...

[TheCasillas]

2 minutes ago, Waldo said:

Still, it wasn't the Offense that lost that game and Rhule has spent two year building up a D that crumbled when the O was putting points on the board...

In the presser Rhule brought this up as well... he started with the D and mentioned our offense still needs to convert on third downs and not commit penalties that kill drives. He is right... our 3rd conversion rate was abysmal. If we can convert on 25% more than we did, then takes at least one posession away from WFT. Maybe even before the half ends where they ended with a TD. 

We have to keep the ball away from the opposing team, and put them into a one dimensional situation.

[CashNewton22]

Spot on imo.

[frankw]

Did anyone there ask Rhule about having to burn a timeout because we were about to punt the game away at the end? We can drone on about Joe Brady or the defense or the oline but stuff like that still happening at this stage is not a good look at all.

[TheCasillas]

2 minutes ago, frankw said:

Did anyone there ask Rhule about having to burn a timeout because we were about to punt the game away at the end? We can drone on about Joe Brady or the defense or the oline but stuff like that still happening at this stage is not a good look at all.

RE: Thought process on 4th down late in 4th quarter

Analytically, you should punt that ball. You still have three timeouts. Started to go punt the ball and then just because Cam [Newton] doesn't truly know the two-minute as well as maybe you would like. I said hey, I have Christian McCaffrey.

They haven't stopped him all day. Let's take a shot at it. Still knew I had the two-minute warning and knew kind of like how it played out in the end where you get the ball back with a minute and a half if we needed to go down and score a touchdown. First started going with probably what is traditionally football wise what you should do then just said, hey, lets give these guys a shot to go make a play.

I thought they would make the play. We made it. We just came up half of a yard short.

Edited November 23, 2021 by TheCasillas

[hepcat]

At this point what is the harm in firing Brady and letting Sean Ryan run the offense? Cam has spoken highly of him so far. Cam knows a bunch of plays he's run over the years. Build the offense on the brains of Cam and Sean Ryan.

[TheCasillas]

Just now, hepcat said:

At this point what is the harm in firing Brady and letting Sean Ryan run the offense? Cam has spoken highly of him so far. Cam knows a bunch of plays he's run over the years. Build the offense on the brains of Cam and Sean Ryan.

I am climbing into this boat as well... I honestly would like to see what Sean Ryan could do. At the same time, we have just been through so much turnover this year... It's a tough one to consider.

[glenwo2]

At this point, the waterboy could run the offense better than Brady so yeah...let's throw Sean out there and see what he's got.

 

[hepcat]

19 minutes ago, frankw said:

Rhule handpicked Brady. 

Do we know that for sure? I always assumed Tepper went and got Joe Brady but maybe I'm wrong.

[BrianS]

16 minutes ago, Waldo said:

The Oline coach should be fired. Let's see what anyone else can do with that mess. 

Bye Jackson, not the leader we hoped for and in no way do I want to see a big contract go that way. Yesterday was only one game if you discount the 3 years before.

Brady better pick it up or it's sounding like he is going to be the sacrifice to Tepper going into year three. Still, it wasn't the Offense that lost that game and Rhule has spent two year building up a D that crumbled when the O was putting points on the board...

I agree, we couldn't get off the field, but you can't say our O was putting points up.  21 points is terrible.  It's below average for the league.  24.5 is average, 26.5 gets you into the top 10.

Our offense had MULTIPLE chances to win that game in the final six minutes, and we failed TWICE!  The defense got a poo sandwich because the offense turned it over at our 32, and they held to a FG and gave the offense two minutes to win.

 

[Moose Hoover]

Cam Newton Player Coach. 

I'm being facetious, but what if some owner just fired all his coaches and told his QB to just run playground plays and come up with shiz on the fly.